News Clips

This just in, from Recharge, a national publication dedicated to covering electric power and the electric grid:

senmikeb

“A major US engineering body this week gave the nation’s grid infrastructure a damning D+ score in its quadrennial school report-style assessment, which noted that “a large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration” with “strong risk of failure”.

There are bright spots of course – not least in New England, where a study by the grid operator found that the region could absorb power from over 9GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 with far less investment than previously anticipated.”

Can we have a little optimism, please? Clean energy and the Massachusetts climate movement have legs younger than Donald Trump’s. We’ll be alive and kicking when he is long gone.

Boston is bustling with romance book clubs — where happy endings aren’t just possible, but required

senmikeb
The Boston Globe

And now for something different: Kudos to my amazing daughters, whose entrepreneurial embrace of happy endings makes me smile on my most challenging days.

A picture of an article appearing in the print edition of the Boston Globe.

Proposed private-jet Hanscom expansion is a climate bomb in sheep’s clothing

senmikeb
The Lincoln Squirrel

State Sen. Mike Barrett posited to Davey that “there is a sense in which you’re rolling out SAFs, I think, as a shield and in order to disarm us,” a point that Davey heatedly denied, referencing an SAF startup in Charlestown in his defense. To this, Barrett replied: “We have lots of startups in Massachusetts that hope someday to cure cancer, and we certainly want to encourage them to try. But none of us go out and encourage our kids to smoke cigarettes because the cure is going to come in their lifetimes.”

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Plan to expand airport for private jets runs into new Massachusetts climate law

senmikeb
Energy News Network

“I hope that Massport appreciates that what is done today on climate is inadequate, and I hope it also appreciates that the policies have changed,” Barrett said. “I don’t pretend to be able to predict particular outcomes on particular projects, but I do know that Massport needs to take this seriously.”

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Massachusetts may again lead on climate change. The state (finally, almost) has a sweeping climate bill.

senmikeb
Boston Globe

Months after the close of the formal legislative session, when lawmakers on Beacon Hill came oh-so-close to passing significant reforms only to fall short at the eleventh hour, House and Senate negotiators announced a comprehensive bill on Thursday that addresses the climate crisis and promotes more clean energy adoption. The legislation would again put Massachusetts near the front of the pack of state houses fighting climate change.

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Lexington Honors Quock Walker Ahead Of Massachusetts Emancipation Day

senmikeb
WBZ

The audacity of actually believing in the American Dream and the idea that all men and women are born free, we have Quock Walker to thank for that courage and for that persistence. Terrific job to all the folks in Lexington who helped commemorate the occasion. 

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Mass. Senate advances energy reforms

senmikeb
GBH

The Senate on Tuesday approved another complex set of reforms to accelerate the spread of clean energy in Massachusetts, along the way hearing concerns about potential ratepayer burdens and embracing an expansion of the state’s bottle redemption law. 

“The energy grid needs updating. It needs renewing every 30 years. But it’s pretty boring stuff,” said State Senator Mike Barrett, adding that it’s decarbonization of buildings and vehicles that gets his constituents excited. “It’s a source of emotional reinforcement, to the people who vote for me, that we’re not only doing the esoteric thing — which is the grid; important, but exotic — we’re also getting off fossil fuels with respect to cars and houses.” 

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Less gas, quicker permits, and a lot more EV chargers — Massachusetts’ next climate law is taking shape

senmikeb
Boston Globe

State Senator Michael Barrett, who helped write the last two laws and is taking the lead in the Senate on this one, said the latest bill will be voted on later this week. But the aim is clear: “Here in Massachusetts, we have a number of medium-sized and small-sized discrete problems that we need to address,” Barrett said. “We have an opportunity to address them now.”

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Massachusetts Democrats pitch energy transition to union workers: ‘This is a huge construction project’

senmikeb
Boston Globe

Massachusetts has an ambitious goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050, which will require a massive buildout of electricity infrastructure, retrofits to buildings, new transportation systems, and more. The plan could require what would essentially be a tripling of the electric grid and dozens of new substations.

“Basically, this is a huge construction project,” Massachusetts state Senator Michael Barrett told a crowd on Friday.

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Massachusetts legislation seeks to build on state order to phase out natural gas

senmikeb
Energy News Network

On constraining gas, the ideas are in place, the support, not so much. We need help communicating a simple message: Massachusetts needs to downsize the gas grid as we upsize the electric grid.

A new gas pipe has a useful life of 30-50 years and takes us years to pay off. We need to put our money into clean electric power. We can’t do both, because monthly bill payers will have a fit.

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