REP. PATRICIA HADDAD of Somerset woke up a bit late on Tuesday, checked her phone, and saw she had 15 texts and six phone messages – all about President Biden coming to town. The White House announced that Biden would be flying into Providence on Wednesday and then coming over to Brayton Point in Somerset […]
Plugging In
Posted inEnergy, Environment
Oil, gas exec sees energy landscape changing
CLEAN ENERGY ADVOCATES and environmentalists would be quick to point out that Mike Sommers is not exactly a neutral observer when it comes to energy policy. As CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, Sommers is paid to advance the interests of the fossil fuel industry that is held up as a prime driver of climate […]
Posted inOpinion
What will it take for blue Mass. to go green?
MASSACHUSETTS FINDS itself at a moment of choosing when it comes to embracing clean energy. The state boasts the best wind corridor in the nation and has the potential to unleash a nearly sevenfold increase in the amount of solar energy it generates. The Bay State has an enviable bounty of clean energy resources, which […]
Posted inOpinion
Utilities offering us a Trojan horse
When the residents of the ancient city of Troy found the giant horse outside their city gates, they were told it was an offering to the gods that would save their city. When they pulled it through the gates, they never suspected that welcoming such a gift would lead to the destruction of their city […]
Posted inOpinion
Repurpose, don’t scrap, existing pipeline infrastructure
THE RACE to net zero emissions is on, and we have a lot of work to do to get there and not a lot of time to do it. Nowhere is that truer than here in Massachusetts, where the 2030 deadline to slash our emissions in half is bearing down on us. Now is no […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment
Utilities facing pushback on clean energy contract compensation
THE THREE MASSACHUSETTS utilities, accustomed to getting their way on Beacon Hill, are facing pushback on a provision in state law that allows them to collect from electricity ratepayers up to 2.75 percent of the value of any clean energy procurement for simply carrying the contract on their books. House and Senate negotiators trying to […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment
FERC grants delay on N.E. energy market reform
IN A DECISION posted at 10 p.m. Friday night, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the operator of the New England power grid two more years to come up with a system for incorporating subsidized clean energy into the region’s electricity markets. Environmental activists had been urging FERC not to grant the delay, but the […]
Posted inEnergy
Pricing announced for latest offshore wind farms
BAKER ADMINISTRATION officials say the two latest offshore wind procurements are in compliance with the state’s price cap even though their electricity will probably end up costing more. Under the cap, the price of electricity with each successive procurement must come in lower than the previous one. The cap has become somewhat controversial of late, […]
Posted inEnergy
As blades get longer, Charlestown testing center seeks to expand
WHEN THE WIND Technology Testing Center in Charlestown was built in 2011, the longest wind turbine blades in the world were around 65 meters long, or 215 feet. So the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center constructed the blade testing building to be 90 meters long, around 300 feet – about the size of a football field. […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment
Rep. Haddad is star of energy documentary
REP. PATRICIA HADDAD of Somerset, long a powerful figure in the Massachusetts House, is now also the star of a new documentary written, directed, and produced by California-based filmmaker Kiki Goshay about America’s love affair with energy. The documentary’s strength is the long look it takes at the country’s haphazard energy evolution from one president […]