Plugging In

Energy and the Environment

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(...)

Federal aid shows hydrogen is here to stay

Can reduce emissions without appliance switchovers

By Will Hazelip Energy 0 Comments Aug 27, 2022

IN A RESIDENTIAL neighborhood on suburban Long Island, a clean energy technology that is both old and new could be the answer to eliminating carbon emissions from the entire economy across the country. In Hempstead, a project called HyGrid will blend green hydrogen with renewable natural gas to safely and reliably heat homes, while slashing(...)

Mass. needs to be as bold on drought as it is on climate

State must protect its most vital natural resource -- water

By Emily Norton and Daniel Sieger Energy, Environment 0 Comments Aug 23, 2022

WE CAN’T have climate action without drought action. Massachusetts is appropriately regarded as a leader when it comes to climate change and environmental policy. Just this month the Legislature passed, and the governor signed, a historic bill that will keep the Commonwealth at the forefront of reducing carbon emissions, deploying renewable energy, and lowering our dependence(...)