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 get a PDF of the letter.) The letter from Ian Bowles, the secretary of energy and the environment, was dated April 29, the same day […]
Energy
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 government. Ian Bowles, the secretary of energy and the environment, said he spent a half-day at the Plymouth plant on April 1 to better under […]
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 be happy. Salazar appeared at a jammed State House press conference to announce the federal government’s final approval of Cape Wind, the 130-turbine renewal energy project […]
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 Marketing Ltd., a division of a company based in Calgary, said the governor’s policies discriminate against out-of-state suppliers of renewable energy and violate the Commerce […]
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 was showing a demographic imbalance, with the state finding it difficult to attract employees just beginning their careers. State agencies wanted to provide better service, […]
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 Republican: Overwhelmingly, most who spoke opposed the project on environmental grounds, saying the 47-megawatt wood-burning power plant on 65 acres off Adams Street, abutting the […]
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. They're converging on Brockton City Hall for what they hope will be a "massive" show of support for Brockton Clean Energy's controversial $350 million power […]
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 super-insulated his house, installed magnetic interior storm windows, and switched over to a solar water heater.
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 be construed as having a positive (or less negative) impact on the planet. Enter a language problem: some areas that are literally green (lush grassy […]
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 Cities in Massachusetts) offer some unique advantages in a new green economy. In "Small, Green and Good," Tumber points out that many of these cities have large parcels […]