LATE IN THE last session, the Massachusetts Legislature passed a landmark climate bill targeting zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and mandating several mechanisms to achieve the goal. Gov. Baker vetoed […]
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Energy and the Environment
Posted inEnvironment
State environmental official resigns over climate comments
THE STATE’S UNDERSECRETARY of environmental affairs for climate change, who has come under fire for comments made to an environmental panel last month, resigned his post Wednesday night. David Ismay, […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mayflower Wind cutting its price 10%
MAYFLOWER WIND is cutting its price for delivering electricity to Massachusetts customers by roughly 10 percent with the help of a new federal tax credit included in the recent COVID-19 […]
Posted inOpinion
Baker is wrong to subsidize wood burning
GOVS. CHARLIE BAKER of Massachusetts and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan were featured US officials at the fifth anniversary celebration of the Paris Climate Agreement. Their presence demonstrated that state leaders, […]
Posted inUncategorized
Climate bill would clear up solar tax confusion
THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE is set to clarify a confusing and outdated tax law, which had been stymying solar projects around the state. A compromise hammered out between the state’s assessors […]
Posted inEnvironment
Baker emissions roadmap sets ambitious targets
This story was updated at 2:30 p.m. THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Wednesday rolled out a draft plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade that calls for energy […]
Posted inOpinion
Wait, we’re number 2?
LIKE THE FAMOUS Avis commercial says: when you’re number two, you gotta try harder! When it comes to energy efficiency policy, that is the unfamiliar position Massachusetts now finds itself […]
Posted inOpinion
Solar revolution is stalled, needs to shift into gear
AFTER FOUR YEARS of denying climate science and downplaying its consequences, the federal government is on the cusp of a new era. Although deep political divides persist on many issues, there is one […]
Posted inUncategorized
Confusion over tax status stymies solar projects
AN OUTDATED LAW and a series of rulings by an obscure tax board are throwing the state’s landscape for solar projects into disarray. The question revolves around whether commercial solar […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Weymouth settles compressor fight, collects $10m
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE TOWN OF WEYMOUTH will drop its ongoing legal fight against a controversial natural gas project, and energy giant Enbridge will pay the municipality $10 million […]
Posted inEnvironment
DPU orders gas utilities to rethink their future
THE MASSACHUSETTS Department of Public Utilities on Thursday ordered the state’s natural gas utilities to jointly hire consultants and come up with a way to dramatically phase down or eliminate […]
Posted inEnvironment
N.E. governors seek bigger say in power policies
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER and four other New England governors made a push on Friday for a much bigger say in the way the region’s electricity markets are regulated and governed, […]
Posted inEnvironment
5 N.E. governors criticize grid operator
THE GOVERNORS of five of the six New England states, including Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, issued a statement that appeared to criticize the operator of the region’s power grid […]
Posted inUncategorized
Grid operator calls for ‘net carbon pricing’
THE HEAD of the organization that runs the New England power grid on Friday called for “net carbon pricing” of electricity in the region as the best way to develop […]
Posted inOpinion
New England needs to go all in on offshore wind
THIS WEEK, the Environmental League of Massachusetts launched a campaign to significantly increase the amount of offshore wind built off New England’s coast and deepen coordination in the region. We […]
Posted inEnvironment
Challenge to Mass. hydro-electricity connection yanked from ballot
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT of Maine on Thursday yanked a referendum question off the November ballot that could have derailed a Massachusetts proposal to import hydro-electricity from Quebec using a […]
Posted inOpinion
Our next plunge: Going big on wind
IT WAS A PLUNGE I’ll never forget – into the Charles River with Gov. Bill Weld in 1996 to celebrate the passage of the Massachusetts Rivers Act. Let’s just say […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. in middle of Maine power fight
A group of 25 current and former Maine state lawmakers sent a letter to Hydro-Quebec on Wednesday urging the provincial utility to stop meddling in a state election battle spawned […]
Posted inEnvironment
Healey reluctantly rejects Brookline bylaw
ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY’S office on Tuesday reluctantly shot down a bylaw approved by the town of Brookline that would have barred the installation of most fossil fuel infrastructure in […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. becomes dirty word in Maine referendum fight
CORPORATE SURROGATES for Massachusetts have spent close to $17 million so far battling a referendum question in Maine that seeks to block the importation of hydroelectricity from Quebec using a […]
Posted inOpinion
New transmission infrastructure needed for offshore wind
EARLIER THIS MONTH, Attorney General Maura Healey posed a fundamental question to the Department of Public Utilities. Now that Massachusetts has proclaimed a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, […]
Posted inOpinion
Putting land for solar off-limits could hurt farmers
AT A TIME when our country is already in the grips of a global pandemic and social unrest, a disagreement over an obscure solar policy may seem unimportant – trivial […]
Posted inEnvironment
Feds release Vineyard Wind environmental assessment
FEDERAL REGULATORS on Tuesday released a detailed, 420-page environmental assessment of the proposed Vineyard Wind project that includes predictions about the future of wind energy along the East Coast and […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. emission strategies all up in air
THE COMPANY SELECTED by Massachusetts to build a power line delivering large amounts of hydro-electricity from Quebec into the regional power grid at Lewiston, Maine, is asking a judge to […]