STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THREE LEASE WINNERS have each agreed to pay $135 million to gain access to ocean tracts off the coast of Massachusetts where they may someday build […]
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Posted inThe Back Story
Another shot in the pipeline wars
THOSE WHO BELIEVE the region needs another natural gas pipeline are saying they have found a new convert – the same energy analyst who co-authored a 2015 report for Attorney General Maura Healey that was […]
Posted inEnvironment
FERC OKs help for Mystic plants
THE FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION has given New England’s power grid operator until the end of August to come up with a plan to prop up a pair of uneconomic […]
Posted inOpinion
Sierra Club fires back on Quebec hydro
THE ASSERTIONS IN THE RECENT ARTICLE “Hydro-Québec, Central Maine Power respond to critics” by John Carroll and Lynne St-Laurent are not correct. Of course, one must consider the source of […]
Posted inEnvironment
NH court OKs novel pipeline financing approach
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPREME COURT took a very different stand than its counterpart in Massachusetts on Tuesday, ruling that electric utilities in the Granite State could tap their ratepayers for […]
Posted inOpinion
Lawmakers should embrace clean energy
STARK NEW ESTIMATES of the potential cost of climate change to Massachusetts’ homeowners should make the Legislature act more urgently than it already has to halt the state’s consumption of […]
Posted inEnvironment
Globe pushes for new natural gas pipelines
The BOSTON GLOBE editorial page is going all in for new natural gas pipelines. In an editorial entitled “Why you’ll pay for Beacon Hill’s pipeline folly,” the Globe said it was […]
Posted inOpinion
Boston, too, needs to do more on climate change
CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL and it is here. In Boston, the impacts of climate change are already tangible. In January of this year a massive nor’easter brought a devastating storm […]
Posted inThe Download
Hating on the haters
Boston is no place for hate – and we’ll beat you and isolate you to prove it. Message sent, message received. From elected officials to the 15,000 to 40,000 demonstrators […]
Posted inOpinion
What’s up with the Globe and natural gas?
GIVEN THE LONG HISTORY of the Boston Globe’s editorial board advocacy for consumers and the environment, including its current strong criticism of regulation rollbacks by the Trump administration, it is […]
Posted inOpinion
Natural gas is not a clean fuel
In a CommonWealth op-ed, Craig Altemose of 350 Massachusetts for a Better Future criticized the Boston Globe editorial board’s advocacy for new natural gas pipelines, for reasons with which I […]
Posted inEnvironment
Offshore wind prices look competitive
THE DEVELOPER OF THE NATION’S first major offshore wind farm is promising to deliver wholesale power to Massachusetts at prices that are far below what Cape Wind was offering nearly […]
Posted inEnvironment
3 utilities seek $426m for negotiating hydro contracts
THE THREE UTILITIES that negotiated hydro-electricity contracts on behalf of the state are seeking compensation equal to 2.75 percent of the deal, a total of nearly $426 million over 20 […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Is Mass. shortchanged on clean energy procurement?
IT FELT LIKE CHRISTMAS on Wednesday in New Hampshire. The weather was delightful outside in Manchester, but inside the folks at Eversource Energy were acting like Santa Claus. They weren’t […]
Posted inOpinion
Storage, not new pipelines, is the answer
MASSACHUSETTS POLICYMAKERS face a serious choice in 2018: do they meet impending reliability challenges with 20th Century technologies that require interminable and inevitable battles over infrastructure siting, or do they […]
Posted inOpinion
Winter costs make region cold for business
TO SAY THAT this has been a tough winter is an understatement. Already, we’ve seen record cold snaps, soaring energy bills and story after story about how Massachusetts has burned […]
Posted inThe Download
Drug treatment for drug addiction
It’s an approach that research evidence and many in recovery say makes sense — but one that some advocates say has it all wrong. One of the most effective ways […]
Posted inOpinion
Beware the Coalition for Sustainable Energy
YET ANOTHER PRO-GAS lobbying group forms, this time just as the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change prepares to release its omnibus energy bill. Prompting eye-rolls among clean […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. business groups push natural gas
ON A DAY WHEN the Baker administration touted 2,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity in Massachusetts, the leaders of eight Bay State business groups appealed to Beacon Hill leaders to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Silver lining in Northern Pass collapse
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER HAS another chance to deliver the affordable, reliable and clean energy that Massachusetts families and businesses want. His first decision, a proposal to export our energy dollars […]
Posted inOpinion
Report raises doubts about gas ‘crisis’
EVERSOURCE AND OTHER REGIONAL UTILITIES have long claimed that New England desperately needs new natural gas pipelines to meet electricity demand, with the “polar vortex” of 2013-14 as a prime […]
Posted inThe Download
The great pipeline debate
We heat our homes and light our cities using fuels that come primarily from outside New England, which is part of the reason our prices are among the highest in […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, State House News Service
Eversource puts tab for memberships on ratepayers
EVERSOURCE ENERGY is pushing for state approval of a $284 million rate hike, and tucked inside all the documentation is paperwork seeking reimbursement for annual membership fees and dues the company pays to 74 business organizations and trade groups. In […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Could feds pave way for new Mass. gas project?
Environmental activists who oppose the construction of new natural gas pipeline capacity in New England are watching what’s going on at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington with growing concern. The federal […]