THE CITY OF BOSTON is considering whether to approve 10.5 million square feet of new housing and commercial building at the former Suffolk Downs racetrack in East Boston. The project would be among the largest single developments in the city’s history. The financial backer is Texas oil-money billionaire William Bruce Harrison. Led by East Boston […]
Energy
Posted inOpinion
Physicians critique National Grid official’s stance
A clarifiation has been made to this op-ed making clear that National Grid does not have an ownership stake in the Weymouth compressor station. More detail is at the end of the op-ed. MARCY REED’S February 15 commentary, “Hunger and the Clean Energy Transition,” is misleading, disingenuous, and self-serving. Reed, who is the Massachusetts president […]
Posted inEnvironment
Report: Utilities raised concerns on Mayflower
THE UTILITIES THAT SELECTED Mayflower Wind for the state’s second offshore wind procurement raised serious concerns at several stages of the process about the company’s ability to complete the project by 2025, according to a report by an independent firm hired to monitor the contracting process. The report by Peregrine Energy Group is heavily redacted […]
Posted inEnvironment
Grid secures future power commitments at low price
THE OPERATOR of New England’s power grid reported on Tuesday that it secured enough electricity to meet the region’s needs three years from now at the lowest price in 14 years. ISO New England said its auction secured 33,956 megawatts of generating capacity at a clearing price of $2 per kilowatt hour, which was nearly […]
Posted inEnvironment
Vineyard Wind facing lots of hurdles
A FEDERAL REGULATOR speaking at a conference in Boston on Tuesday posted a slide suggesting Vineyard Wind would be operational in 2023, but the company itself is not saying whether its wind farm will be generating electricity by then. Vineyward Wind originally hoped to begin construction in 2019 and have half the 800 megawatt wind […]
Posted inOpinion
Hunger and the clean energy transition
TWO EVENTS that made the news recently caught my attention. Both highlight one of the most important challenges we’re tasked with solving as we commit to a cleaner energy future. The first event was a Boston University professor’s days-long hunger strike protest of a proposed facility in Weymouth that would be part of our region’s […]
Posted inOpinion
My hunger strike yields some progress
LAST WEDNESDAY, I concluded a two-week-long hunger strike to spotlight public safety violations at the construction site of the Weymouth Compressor, a new fossil fuel facility planned for Boston’s South Shore. Friends and journalists have asked: was it worth it? Did we get what we wanted? Yes, and no. Friends of friends, who’d never even […]
Posted inEnvironment
Good news, bad news on offshore wind
THE OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY took one step forward and one step backward on Tuesday. The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said its review of the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project would be completed by June 12 and a final decision on the project issued by December 18 – 15 months later than originally projected. […]
Posted inOpinion
Sargent’s actions 50 years ago resonate today
LEADERSHIP MANIFESTS itself in many ways. In Massachusetts, in my lifetime, one of the most powerful displays of leadership came from a Republican governor. It happened 50 years ago, and it’s worth remembering for the lessons it teaches, and for its historical importance as a rare but critical pattern break. Fifty years ago Frank Sargent […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. lawmakers, Trump administration spar over Vineyard Wind review
NINE MEMBERS of the Massachusetts congressional delegation asked the General Accountability Office to investigate whether the Trump administration’s extended environmental review of the Vineyard Wind project reflects a bias against renewable energy – an allegation a spokeswoman for the Department of Interior dismissed as “unfounded and uninformed.” In a letter to the General Accountability Office, […]