The T today finds itself in a precarious situation. Under Healey and MBTA General Manager Philip Eng, the T is spending far more than it is taking in, and spending is accelerating as more employees are hired under recently negotiated generous union contracts that pay a lot more.
Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl oversees the production of content and edits reports, along with carrying out his own reporting with a particular focus on transportation, energy, and climate issues.
He previously worked at the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper.
Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Posted inTransportation
Wu plans to extend fare free bus pilot
The MBTA confirmed the agency is in discussions with the city on extending the pilot, but Wu’s spokeswoman declined to answer questions about the extension and how it would be funded. The city has been using $8 million in federal funds to pay for the first two years.
Posted inEnergy
Offshore wind procurement delayed 2 months
The delay pushes back the deadline for submission of bids from January 31 until March 27. More importantly, the two-month delay means final approval of the next offshore wind deals may not come until the end of 2024 or early 2025.
Posted inEnergy
Retail electricity suppliers accused of greenwashing
Larry Chretien of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance said many of the companies back up their claims of providing 100 percent clean energy by pointing to renewable energy certificates, or RECs, purchased in places like Texas and Iowa, not Massachusetts.
Posted inState Government
Healey to seek funding replacement for gas tax
At a time when the state is attempting to encourage a dramatic shift to electric vehicles, the governor indicated it was time to chart a new course for transportation financing in what she called the clean energy era.
Posted inTransportation
3 of 4 MBTA subway lines downtown closed for an hour
An electrical fire near Downtown Crossing Station shut down the Red Line and the Orange Line. The Green Line was shut down for previously scheduled track work, which meant the only subway line running normally was the Blue Line.
Posted inPolitics
Short takes: Baker makes his exit from Mass. politics official
According to campaign finance records, his gubernatorial campaign account was dissolved on January 4 and so was the super PAC that he helped launch in 2019 to support largely centrist candidates across Massachusetts.
Posted inTransportation
Chamber CEO confident MBTA starting to turn a corner
He also called for more investment in transportation and housing while urging lawmakers on Beacon Hill to rein in spending and cut more unspecified “outlier” taxes that make the state less competitive.
Posted inEnergy
Eversource taking financial beating on offshore wind
The company, which for months has been trying to reach a sales agreement for its offshore wind assets, said it is writing down the value of those assets by $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion. The adjustment is significant, as some financial analysts had as recently as August 1 estimated the value of the company’s offshore wind assets at $2 billion.
Posted inEnergy
Somerset files criminal complaint against town’s largest land owner
The town of Somerset is pursuing a criminal complaint – and more than $3 million in fines – in connection with a zoning dispute involving the company that owns Brayton […]
Posted inGovernment
New Bedford mayor urges halt to residency requirement
The ordinance was approved by the New Bedford City Council over the mayor’s veto in 2020. It requires several high-level department heads to live in the city and imposes a 10 percent salary reduction on other nonunion management employees who choose to live outside the city unless they have been a city employee for a decade.
Posted inState Government
Healey sets in motion some mild belt-tightening
If the Legislature declines to go along with governor’s emergency shelter funding plan or goes in a different direction, the budget for this year could fall quickly out of balance again.
Posted inGovernment
Short takes: While no one was watching, Boston watchdog departed
Pam Kocher, who took the reins as head of the business-backed nonprofit in 2019, left in November with no public announcement from the group.
Posted inState Government
State tax revenues coming in much lower than forecast
Doug Howgate, the president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the numbers suggest to him that it’s time for the Healey administration to revise downward the tax revenue forecast for this year by about $1 billion and begin to pare back spending using her power to make unilateral cuts.
Posted inEnergy
Vineyard Wind takes one giant step
On Tuesday night at 11:54 p.m., the wind farm team of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid passed a major test – generating 5 megawatts of electricity from one turbine and successfully transmitting the electrons via a transmission line into the regional power grid on Cape Cod.
Posted inImmigration
Work authorizations for migrants in shelter system soar
Between December 18 and December 28, the number of migrants in the emergency shelter system who are authorized to work under federal law rose from 813 to 2,713, according to a status report provided to the Legislture.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Emergency shelter facilities distributed unevenly across Mass.
A report released earlier this week indicates big disparities among communities in terms of emergency shelter facilities.
Posted inHousing
Cost of emergency shelter system nearly tripling this year
The report said the cost of the program has nearly tripled, growing from roughly $325 million at the start of this fiscal year to $932 million as Massachusetts has tried to find shelter for a growing wave of migrants from other countries.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA, out $7m for tunnel mitigation, still waiting
Nearly four months after the reopening of the Sumner Tunnel, the MBTA is still waiting to be reimbursed by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for its efforts to mitigate the traffic impact caused by the two-month closure.
Posted inHealth Care
Feds say Steward engaged in illegal referral scheme
According to the complaint, Steward violated a federal law barring a hospital from billing Medicare for services requested by a physician who stands to benefit financially from the referral.
Posted inEnergy
Healey administration backtracks on offshore wind security deposits
The quick edit came one day after CommonWealth Beacon reported that Massachusetts was assessing a much higher security deposit on offshore wind developers who had reneged on projects in Massachusetts but not in other states.
Posted inState Government
Two lawmakers made key decisions on closeout spending bill
This concentration of power in the hands of a few people is commonplace in the Legislature, so much so that it is largely taken for granted.
Posted inEnergy
Mass. raises eyebrows with offshore wind security deposit stance
As Massachusetts gets ready to take bids for the state’s next offshore wind procurement, questions are arising over how to deal with developers who won earlier contracts and terminated them because of changed economic circumstances.
Posted inTransportation
Wu’s appointee to T board raises questions about low-income fare proposal
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s appointee to the MBTA board of directors pushed back against a transit authority presentation on Wednesday that steered the agency toward launching a half-price fare for low-income passengers instead of the free fare concept favored by the mayor.