DEEPWATER WIND, one of a handful of companies expected to bid on an upcoming offshore wind power contract, revealed on Monday that it has also submitted three bids on a separate, massive clean energy contract. The bids are a shocker because no one expected an offshore wind company to compete for a contract against hydro-electric, […]
Environment
Posted inEnvironment
Cities and states must take lead on climate change
CLIMATE CHANGE CREATES risks that scientists have been warning about for decades. Fortunately, many actions that reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change and hedge against longer-term risks can also benefit public health right now. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions often go hand in hand with reductions in air pollutants with well-established relationships […]
Posted inEnvironment
Ingredients for climate success
MASSACHUSETTS HAS A STRONG RECORD addressing climate-changing pollution. In the early 2000s, Massachusetts was a founding partner in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state, bipartisan cooperative that has contributed to a 50 percent drop in power plant emissions. Passage of the Green Communities Act in 2008 led to nation-leading energy efficiency policies that […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Back Story
Hydro-Quebec partners up
HYDRO-QUEBEC, a utility giant that fashions itself the electric battery of the Northeast, is partnering with three different transmission companies in competing for a massive clean energy contract with Massachusetts. The multiple partners were a bit of a surprise because Hydro-Quebec has had a long-standing relationship with Eversource Energy on the Northern Pass project, which […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
3 takeaways on the offshore wind RFP
IMAGINE WIND POWER delivering electricity at prices well below today’s rates. It’s not the fantasy of some wildly idealistic environmentalist: In fact, it’s happening today in Texas, and the potential exists in Massachusetts for abundant and cheap wind power if only we are bold enough to imagine a future largely devoid of fossil fuel energy […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Trump calling national monuments into question
BEARS EARS, Canyons of the Ancients, Craters of the Moon, Giant Sequoia – the names alone conjure mystery, majesty, wonder, and timelessness. These are just four of the 27 national monuments that are at grave risk under a review being carried out by the Trump administration. We need our Massachusetts congressional delegation, other elected leaders, […]
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
Access Northeast pipeline put on indefinite hold
THE COMPANIES BEHIND the $3 billion Access Northeast natural gas pipeline said on Thursday that they are putting the project on hold indefinitely. The project faced long odds in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but as recently as November officials from Eversource Energy confidently predicted pipeline construction would begin in 2019 and be completed in 2020. […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Round three on renewable energy
A RECENT OPINION PIECE in Commonwealth (“The Upside of Renewables” by Peter Rothstein and Michael Behrmann) attempts to rebut an earlier piece by me which pointed out the high cost and lack of reliability of renewable energy. However, any objective analysis of their data undercuts their arguments that renewables are economically productive. First, in response […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
The upside of renewables
A Commonwealth opinion piece (“The downside of renewables”) published on May 11 provided a flawed argument against renewable energy and its implications for the New England electricity grid by picking and choosing facts from European countries that are decades ahead of the US in the clean energy transition. We should learn from the successes and […]