A WELL-FINANCED, industry-led effort has been insidiously recasting burning trees for energy as a climate solution. Massachusetts residents and ratepayers have overwhelmingly chosen to support clean energy – but greenwashing by this polluting industry threatens to undermine our clean energy policies and squander both our ratepayer dollars and the public trust. Now the Massachusetts Legislature […]
Kathryn R. Eiseman
Posted inOpinion
Three takes on natural gas
The following three opinion pieces all focus on the great divide in Massachusetts over natural gas and its accompanying infrastructure. Baker’s mixed record on climate change Craig Altemose EARLIER THIS MONTH, Gov. Charlie Baker traveled down to Washington, DC, to testify before a congressional committee about Massachusetts’s climate leadership. For many Americans, it was […]
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 energy advocates, the lobbying group has the audacity to call itself the “Massachusetts Coalition for Sustainable Energy” on its letterhead. It would more aptly be […]
Posted inOpinion
Pipeline charges prompt lots of questions
ACCUSATIONS AND INVESTIGATIONS are underway in response to an academic white paper posted by the Environmental Defense Fund concerning artificially created pipeline capacity constraints and resultant spikes in energy prices. The sides are lining up as usual, with the region’s ratepayer advocates expressing a need for further investigation and better rules to protect consumers, and […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
The invisible hand of Gordon van Welie
OUR GRID OPERATOR, ISO New England, celebrates its 20th anniversary this month. For two decades, the ISO has been in charge of keeping the lights on throughout the region, coordinating the flow of electricity to power plants. As we become more aware of the consequences of different sources of energy production – from climate change […]
Posted inEnvironment
Governors can wield influence over pipelines
WITH NEW FEDERAL ENERGY POLICIES evolving to be starkly at odds with our priorities in Massachusetts, it is vital that we understand what authority our state has to influence controversial new natural gas infrastructure projects. Complicating matters, the Baker administration continues to promote an abstract vision of expanded interstate natural gas pipeline capacity in our […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Baker’s energy policy only part right
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S FLURRY of announcements on climate change and clean energy has elicited cautiously optimistic praise from some sustainable energy advocates. While many details of the administration’s new initiatives are yet to be developed, one fundamental shortcoming of the Governor’s energy policy remains clear: he fails to acknowledge that a serious response to climate change requires […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Prohibit the ‘pipeline tax’
What is the proposed “pipeline tax” on our electric bills, and why is there a bipartisan effort to ban it? The so-called “pipeline tax” is a scheme under which consumers across New England would be charged on their electric bills to finance construction of new gas pipelines – as well as above-ground gas infrastructure, such […]