Plugging In

Energy and the Environment

Who’s up next in pilot banning fossil fuels?

West Tisbury drops out, Boston and Somerville want in

By Chris Lisinski Energy 0 Comments Oct 5, 2022

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WEST TISBURY officials have asked to formally withdraw from a new pilot program allowing a group of cities and towns to restrict fossil fuel infrastructure in the building sector, tipping over a domino that could lead to groundbreaking new regulations in Boston or another municipality. The tiny Martha’s Vineyard community was(...)

New fed law offers big clean energy incentives

Businesses should jump on investment tax credits

By Gabriel Phillips Energy 0 Comments Oct 1, 2022

THE INFLATION REDUCTION Act has over $300 billion in incentives for clean energy–solar and wind, geothermal and green hydrogen, batteries, and heat pumps–incentives that mean businesses that invest in clean energy can reap substantial financial benefits. But a tip to businesses thinking about making the move to clean energy–act fast. There is a massive advantage(...)

Here are some ways to lower your electric bill

With prices heading sky-high, it’s time to shop around

By Bruce Mohl electric rates 0 Comments Sep 27, 2022

MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS HAVE some options to avoid – or at least sidestep for awhile — the sky-high electricity rates coming this winter. National Grid provided a glimpse of what’s coming last week, when it announced its basic service rate would jump to a record 33.9 cents a kilowatt hour starting November 1. That’s about three(...)

Healey calls National Grid rate hike ‘devastating’

Several options to ease spike are available to consumers

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy, Maura Healey 0 Comments Sep 21, 2022

A correction has been added to this story. A SPOKESWOMAN for Attorney General Maura Healey, who represents ratepayers in proceedings before utility regulators, warned that National Grid’s electricity rate hike will be “devastating for hundreds of thousands of customers in Massachusetts who simply cannot afford it.” In a statement, Healey spokeswoman Chloe Gotsis urged the(...)

National Grid says electricity prices to skyrocket

On Nov. 1, basic service price will more than double

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy 0 Comments Sep 21, 2022

NATIONAL GRID said the price of electricity it supplies to customers in Massachusetts this winter is going to skyrocket to record levels because the cost of natural gas, the primary fuel used to generate power in New England, is soaring. The utility said on Wednesday that the cost of electricity provided under its basic service(...)

Provincetown hooked up to large electricity battery

Designed for reliability, project is one of largest in nation

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy 0 Comments Sep 12, 2022

ONE OF THE LARGEST electric batteries in the nation is starting to provide backup power for Provincetown and will soon do the same for Truro and part of Wellfleet. The $49 million battery, located on a few acres at the Provincetown transfer station, is designed to seamlessly integrate with the power grid in the area,(...)

Federal funds, used wisely, can tackle climate change

New law puts nation on road to a sustainable society

By Edward Markey and Joseph Curtatone Climate change, National Politics 0 Comments Sep 11, 2022

AMERICANS CAN FINALLY breathe clean air and a sigh of relief as we see the path ahead to our clean energy future. For decades, the prospects for a livable future looked dim as we fought an uphill battle to make sure the United States would fully embrace climate action and clean energy. Congress has been(...)

5 New England states seek info on transmission issues

Joint effort to address cost of interconnecting offshore wind farms

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy, Offshore Wind 0 Comments Sep 5, 2022

FIVE OF THE SIX New England states have launched an effort to better coordinate the process of bringing ashore electricity produced by offshore wind farms and feeding the power into the regional grid. Currently, states contract with offshore wind developers and the developers select where they want to bring their power ashore and are responsible(...)

Maine court revives Mass.-financed hydroelectric power line

Overturns key sections of voter-approved law that usurped project’s ‘vested’ rights

By Bruce Mohl Climate change, Electricity, Energy 0 Comments Aug 30, 2022

THE MAINE SUPREME Judicial Court on Tuesday breathed new life into a Massachusetts-financed power line designed to carry hydroelectricity from Canada to Lewiston and from there into the New England power grid. Fifty-nine percent of Maine voters passed a law in November that retroactively blocked the transmission line from being built through the heavily wooded(...)

Grid operator, utilities call for energy reserve

Also say Everett LNG facility should remain open beyond June 2024

By Bruce Mohl Electricity, Energy 0 Comments Aug 29, 2022

THE OPERATOR of the New England power grid and six of the region’s major utilities are calling on state and federal policymakers to develop an “energy reserve” that can be tapped when energy supply chains are disrupted. In a call to action memo in advance of a September 8 conference sponsored by the Federal Energy(...)