cw: Why does National Grid make a portion of your salary contingent on meeting a company carbon-reduction target?king: National Grid is committed to taking a leadership role in addressing climate […]
Energy
Posted inEconomy, Environment, State House News Service
Who’s the real environmentalist?
The elegant, lazy motion of wind turbines once appealed to Eleanor Tillinghast. Generating energy takes a heavy toll on the natural world, so it stood to reason that Tillinghast, a […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Opinion
Wishful thinking
the traditional focus of energy policy was on ensuring inexpensive and reliable supplies, but now, driven by concerns about anthropogenic climate change, there is pressure to rein in emissions of […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
The big bet
The south shore community of Milton is planning to borrow $6 million to build a large wind turbine on town land. Normally, a project of that magnitude in such a […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass.-only provision dropped on subsidies
In the face of a legal challenge, Massachusetts officials withdrew a regulation that tried to steer subsidies for renewable power to Massachusetts-based companies. The emergency order issued by the state […]
Posted inEnvironment
Grid strikes Cape Wind deal
The largest electric utility in Massachusetts today agreed to buy half of the power output of Cape Wind over the next 15 years, paying a significant premium over current prices. […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Berwick to replace Hibbard at DPU
By Bruce Mohl Paul Hibbard is stepping down as chairman of the state Department of Public Utilities and being replaced by a top aide to Ian Bowles, the secretary of […]
Posted inEnvironment
Bowles urges more monitoring
The state’s top environmental official today released a letter he sent to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station urging officials there to enhance air and water monitoring efforts. (See below, or […]
Posted inEnvironment
After tour, Bowles backs Pilgrim
The Patrick administration’s top environmental official says he is comfortable with the level of environmental monitoring at Pilgrim Nuclear Station and believes the plant should be relicensed by the federal […]
Posted inEnvironment
Persistence pays off for Cape Wind
Gov. Deval Patrick and his energy and environment secretary, Ian Bowles, were beaming earlier today as they stood behind US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and they had good reason to […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Bowles sued on renewable policies
The developer of a major wind power project in Maine is suing top officials in the Patrick administration for steering state subsidies to renewable energy projects in Massachusetts. TransCanada Power […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Time saver
in 2008, the state of Utah was facing a number of compelling issues. Utility costs were rising, but there was no funding available to retrofit public buildings. Our government workforce […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Cape Wind counterpart in Greenfield?
This time it's a biomass power plant rather than a wind farm, but once again residents are protesting a renewable energy source because of local environmental concerns. From the Springfield […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service, The Download
To build or not to build: Brockton’s power plant plan
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and other area unions are putting on their rally caps tonight in Brockton. But the show of force isn't for the Red Sox. […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service
The shape of watts to come
Leonard Bicknell confesses that he’s a nut about consuming less energy, even if it costs him more to do so. Over the years, the South Shore heating oil dealer has […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
When green is not “green”
"Green" may be the most elastic word of the new century. Once signifying a color midway between blue and yellow, “green” has morphed to refer to anything that could possibly […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Green opportunities for Gateway Cities
Will vacant land end up saving the economies of Lawrence and New Bedford? Catherine Tumber writes in the Boston Review that smaller cities that were once industrial centers (such as the Gateway […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service, The Download
How bad will the fuel crisis get?
It could be a "frozen Katrina." The upcoming winter has all the hallmarks of a major crisis, according to social service providers who attended a Boston Foundation forum Monday on […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Little Windmill on the Prairie
A new report by the US Department of Energy and the Berkeley Lab puffs up wind power in the US, noting that "35 percent of all new electricity-generating capacity added […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service
Medford embraces wind power
INTRO TEXT As controversy continues to swirl around the Cape Wind proposal in Nantucket Sound, the city of Medford is leaping to the head of the class by shoring up […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Environment
Squeaky wheels
the specter of little toothpicks twirling on the horizon of Nantucket Sound is causing fits among the political elites who make summer a verb on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Performance pacts offer energy upgrades for (almost) nothing
INTRO TEXT it sounded almost too good to be true, the way the young man speaking before Newton’s board of aldermen described how improvements to crumbling firehouses and neglected school […]
Posted inEnvironment
Wind farms stir up trouble in the hills
INTRO TEXT Wind turbines may be a source of renewable energy, but they also generate strong feelings. That’s what William Hubbard learned from his two-year fight to build a 12-megawatt […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Gale force
For there is a health along this golden shore,Climbing the dunes and hearing sea birds cry,Braving the winds and stormy ocean’s roarUnder an endless blue or cloudy sky;Then, freed at […]
