The MWRA’s request landed the agency in even more hot water among Quabbin communities, which mobilized to kill the proposal.
Maura Healey
Posted inBallot Questions
Voters subject governor and Legislature to public records law, but there’s no guarantee lawmakers will comply
All eyes will now turn to the House and Senate, where negotiators need to decide in the next eight weeks whether to follow through on an earlier proposal to substitute their own idea for public records access for the version that four out of five voters embraced.
Posted inOpinion
Many voters can’t name a single major accomplishment of Gov. Healey’s. Here’s one that has flown under the radar: saving public transit.
Gov. Healey has taken crucial steps to reverse the downward trajectory our transit systems were on. Part of the reason why this has gone unnoticed is that there remains so much to do to bring our transit systems up to the level that users deserve.
Posted inEnergy
‘It’s a stressful life’: How energy debt is straining 800K Massachusetts utility customers
Massachusetts isn’t alone in the rising share of households facing energy insecurity around the country, yet the state, as wealthy as it is, sticks out given its high cost of living and increasing utility bills.
Posted inEnergy
Mass. spent nearly $400K on an energy study. Three years after its completion, the state hasn’t released the results.
Even before Gov. Maura Healey entered the heart of campaign season — one that has been defined by skyrocketing energy costs and affordability issues — her administration has seemed sensitive to the price tag attached to the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars likely needed to support a sweeping green transition.
Posted inEnergy
Eversource CEO tells industry conference he expects Healey to turn down the ‘volume’ on utility criticism post-election
Nolan’s comments that Healey will tone down her rhetoric after the election stand in stark contrast to Healey’s pitch to voters that Massachusetts will take on utility profits and go to bat for ratepayers.
Posted inEnergy
Future of Mass Save in limbo as Legislature stalls on energy bill
A political backlash to Mass Save, amid a rising tide of angst over soaring utility bills, has taken root in the Bay State.
Posted inEnergy
Healey asks Trump administration to speed up review of planned gas expansion in latest sign of shifting energy politics
As Healey hunts for ways to bring down soaring costs and campaigns for reelection in a race defined by the affordability crisis gripping the state, the governor sees an opportunity to appeal to the Trump administration to bring more gas into the state.
Posted inPolitics
Mass. voters hold Trump, utilities most responsible for high energy costs, new poll finds
Healey’s ability to evade the bulk of the blame with voters for high energy costs is notable as she seeks reelection this fall, given how energy issues have proven stubborn, dogging much of her first term.
Posted inPolitics
Healey cruising in reelection bid with Trump high on voters’ mind, survey shows
A new MassINC Polling Group survey finds that Bay Staters are still concerned about Gov. Maura Healey’s response to affordability concerns, even as she appears poised to win reelection with relative ease.
Posted inEnvironment
The next Quabbin fight is already here
The part of the plan that’s arguably generating the most blowback is the process the MWRA is deploying to win approval from state officials.
Posted inGovernment
Mass. unemployment agency ‘mismanaged’ call center performance, ‘failed’ to quickly pay claimants, auditor concludes
The auditor’s report unveils how even before the agency was thrust into turmoil with record-breaking poor performance during a time of a relatively stable job market, out-of-work Massachusetts residents weren’t receiving the help they needed in a timely fashion.
Posted inOpinion
AI data centers are coming for Massachusetts. Gov. Healey’s new guardrails aren’t enough.
GOV. HEALEY took an important step last week to protect Massachusetts communities from the unchecked growth of data centers. Her new executive order will require large data centers to meet […]
Posted inEnergy
Massachusetts utilities, Canadian hydro company file dueling lawsuits over new transmission line
The unfolding legal drama marks a major pivot point for a project intended to provide 20 percent of Massachusetts’s electricity — and exposes just how fragile and volatile the state’s energy mix continues to be.
Posted inEnergy
For Healey, a delicate dance with the utilities emerges during election season
Healey can cast the utility companies as a critical partner when it’s advantageous for her to do so — or turn them into a political punching bag and convenient foil when it benefits her.
Posted inPolitics
Minogue wins GOP primary for governor, setting stage for matchup with Healey
Minogue will need to overcome heavy odds to unseat Healey, who starts the race widely favored to win reelection.
Posted inState Government
Melissa Hoffer, nation’s first state-level climate chief, to step down
Hoffer was chosen for the new position after holding several high-powered roles in climate policy, serving under then-AG Healey before working at the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency and then moving back to the Bay State to link up with Healey again under this newly crafted role.
Posted inEnvironment
A climate shake-up is jolting one of the most progressive cities in Mass.
The question is whether, in the end, it’s more of a mundane municipal reorganization or a sign of retreat in Newton, one of the state’s most climate-forward communities.
Posted inEnergy
Lawmakers appear poised to take some big swings against competitive electric suppliers. How big is the question.
The pushback comes as Democrats on Beacon Hill are on the cusp of a long-sought breakthrough to rein in what critics contend are shady energy companies that rip off unwitting customers.
Posted inState Government
Healey, in new letter, urges MWRA to meet the ‘pressing needs’ of Quabbin Reservoir communities
Healey, through her letter to the head of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, is wading into an escalating battle between small towns along the Quabbin and the quasi-public agency that uses that water to serve 2.7 million residents in 61 communities mostly in and around Boston.
Posted inEnvironment
‘It’s like the Hunger Games’: Quabbin Reservoir towns take funding fight to Beacon Hill amid extended drought
A perfect storm of long-held resentments, the well-known story of the financial crunch squeezing small towns across the state, and an act of blameless chance — weather — is raising the stakes and stoking new tensions between these sparse towns and the powers that be in state government.
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers send Healey bill governing library book access
As they wrapped up a host of priorities on the last day for major new business, legislators gave final approval to a measure aimed at preventing politically charged book bans.
Posted inEnergy
Healey sounds alarm on energy costs — but a legislative solution remains elusive for now
Healey’s decision to speak specifically on energy policy as the Legislature scrambled elsewhere in the State House to tackle other priorities is the latest sign of urgency from the governor to respond to Bay Staters’ angst around soaring utility bills — and of the political salience of the issue as the governor seeks reelection this fall.
Posted inBallot Questions
An effort to boost nature, backed by big-money donors, lands in the middle of Mass. ballot question mania
As the campaign shifts from ballot-qualifying to general election mode, what the end result will be of all the money raised and spent, all the signatures collected and ads likely to come, and all the potential friction introduced with Beacon Hill — even if the question passes this fall — is for now unclear.
