Filling up at the gas station for a weekend on Cape Cod has taken on new significance this summer as prices hover around $3 a gallon. High energy prices have long contributed to the cost of living and doing business in Massachusetts. But now, as the crunch seems to be getting worse, energy could represent […]
Environment
Posted inEnvironment
Environmentalists see a bad precedent in the MWRAs plan to absorb wetlands
INTRO TEXT The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority calls its Blue Hills storage tank project crucial to protecting the water supply of thousands of residents in Quincy, Milton, and Brookline, as well as Boston neighborhoods along the city’s southern tier. But environmental advocates say it is anything but a water protection project, charging that the plans […]
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 wind farm – small by industry standards – in Fitchburg. The Applied Wind Technology developer says that in December the city took him to district […]
Posted inEnvironment
Power players in the capital are making waves over wind farms and fishing limits
Whether over wind farms or fishing restrictions, the waters off the Massachusetts coast are roiling with controversy. But the real waves are made in Washington, DC, where these and other ocean-related issues will be decided by a cast of characters with few ties to the Bay State. Among the players to watch: former House majority […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Environment
The fatal Mill River flood was distressingly predictable
In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874By Elizabeth M. SharpeFree Press, New York, 304 pages. Although floods still rank as major killers in many parts of the world, here in New England rampaging rivers aren’t a source of much worry. But it wasn’t always this way. Prior […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Environment
The cleanup of Boston Harbor was surprisingly triumphant
Political Waters: The Long, Dirty, Contentious, Incredibly Expensive but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor—A Unique Environmental Success StoryBy Eric Jay DolinUniversity of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 356 pages. At a recent Rappaport Institute panel at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, former governor Michael Dukakis called the Boston Harbor cleanup a success “that nobody talks about,” […]
Posted inEnvironment
Teacher bonuses that are no windfall
INTRO TEXT Cathie Clement is trained as a lawyer, and she’s worked in industry, state government, and private practice. But the hardest job she’s ever done is the one she’s doing now: teaching math in middle school. “The only people who understand how stressful teaching is are my trial lawyer friends,” says Clement. “You’re always […]
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 last, on soaring, flashing wingsin perfect tune the human spirit soars. This paean to the Cape Cod seascape, from Dennis poet Elizabeth Wysor, affixed atop […]
Posted inEnvironment
Power subsidy settlement OK’d
CORRECTION: Because of incorrect information supplied to CommonWealth by the Patrick administration, the initial version of this story said the premium for Massachusetts-generated solar was roughly 30 cents per kilowatt hour. The actual premium is a floor of 30 cents per kilowatt hour and a ceiling of 60 cents. The Patrick administration today partially settled […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Politics of climate change still unsettled
Massachusetts is one of the greenest states in the nation, but even here the politics of climate change is unsettled. Scott Brown voted for a regional carbon cap-and-trade system as a state senator, but in his successful run for the US Senate he balked at the potential cost of a national cap-and-trade initiative and said […]