Massachusetts
Nearly three months into Trump, here’s where Massachusetts’ climate work stands – The Boston Globe
What it also means is that the state’s aggressive climate goal to effectively zero out its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, as state law demands, will be harder to achieve without a willing partner in the White House.
So, where are we?
“We now find ourselves in a completely different world when it comes to federal climate policy,” state Senator Cindy Creem said Tuesday at the opening of a hearing of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and Global Warming.
“But we are not powerless,” she said. “In Massachusetts, we may have to change our course, to recalibrate our plans to reflect a lack of financial or regulatory support from the government, but we’re still pressing for reaching our net zero emissions [target].”
Over the course of two hours of testimony on Tuesday, experts from the state and climate advocates presented that new reality — what’s been lost, what’s been regained, and what’s being done to adjust.
Here’s what they said.
Trump’s first-day executive orders attempted to gut much of the progress that Massachusetts has made on climate, largely by trying to claw back the funds awarded via President Joe Biden’s signature piece of legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. That Act, passed by Congress, directed hundreds of billions of dollars toward kick-starting the clean energy transition, while seeking to create jobs and address historic inequities.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and a coalition of her counterparts from other states fought back, successfully restoring much of that funding, but not all of it, according to Kathryn Antos, state undersecretary for decarbonization and resilience.
“This has been a rapidly evolving situation, with the fate of some of our most important climate grants remaining uncertain,” she said.
That includes a $389 million grant from the federal Department of Energy that would upgrade and expand two electric substations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. That work would accommodate enough power to support 2 million households, and would support the development of the region’s first multi-day battery storage system, which is planned for Maine.
Another grant that remains frozen: $378,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help address the riskiest dams in the state. The funds would go to creating a new tool to help prioritize risk — a critical step as the state considers how to repair and remove dams while keeping infrastructure resilient, Antos said.
And while federally funded work to install a fast-charging network for electric vehicles is still moving ahead, a $14.4 million grant for slower chargers at select park and ride and MBTA transit parking lots has been put on hold, according to Andrew Paul, director of strategic initiatives at the state Department of Transportation.
Ever since he was out on the campaign trail, it was clear that offshore wind would be a major target of President Trump. That has borne out.
A day-one executive order to pause all leasing for offshore wind in federal waters and review existing leases has sent shivers up and down the industry, putting projects still in need of permits on hold and delaying progress in the state.
“Without all the federal permits, projects planned for New England waters cannot begin construction, even if projects do have all of their federal permits,” said Kelt Wilska, offshore wind director for Environmental League of Massachusetts. “These actions send an immensely negative market signal to developers.”
As of now, the state is on track to have just three offshore wind projects completed by the end of this decade — Block Island Wind and Revolution Wind, off the coast of Rhode Island, and Vineyard Wind 1 south of Martha’s Vineyard. That adds up to just under 2 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, Wilska said — far short of state’s goal of 6 gigawatts.
It’s not just state-level grants that have been eliminated. Federal grants on climate that had been awarded to local and regional groups have also been subject to freezes (and, in some cases, thaws).
The Association to Preserve Cape Cod was unable to access funds from two federal grants for six wetland restoration projects in January — work that would make the area more resilient to rising seas. By mid-February, that funding had been restored, said Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the association. But, he said, it’s hard to trust it.
“We’re spending money not knowing with any certainty whether or not we’re going to continue to be able to access reimbursement, and whether or not the local contractors who actually did the work on good faith are ultimately going to get getting paid,” Gottlieb said.
A $500,000 grant for the Mystic River Watershed Association, meanwhile, was eliminated last week, according to Patrick Herron, executive director of the association. Those funds were intended to address extreme heat in Chelsea, Malden, and Everett caused by the urban heat island effect, when highly urbanized areas experience worse heat than outlying areas. Those cities can be 10 degrees hotter than their neighbors.
And at the Charles River Watershed Association, executive director Emily Norton said that the organization won’t be receiving a million dollars in federal community project funding it had been expecting, nor will it get the $30,000 from the EPA it had applied for after the entire grant program was eliminated. Other projects — to address water quality or make the area more flood resilient — are also likely to suffer, Norton said.
“These are the sort of areas that the federal government has been providing services that a lot of people probably aren’t aware of, but we are going to notice the cuts,” Norton said.
With all these setbacks, it’s the state’s job to figure out where it can step in and keep progress moving, Creem and others said.
That means looking for creative ways to beef up funds for climate work — whether through an expanded green bank to provide financing for clean energy projects, increased incentives for electric vehicles, or other creative solutions, according to other experts at the hearing.
“Mass. law requires us to reach net zero emissions by 2050 and that hasn’t changed,” Creem said. “If we’re going to comply, we can’t have time to be in despair. We have to work immediately.”
Sabrina Shankman can be reached at sabrina.shankman@globe.com.
Massachusetts
A magical holiday village is tucked inside Massachusetts’ most famous candle store
Yankee Candle is a staple in the Bay State, famous for its colorful jars full of fragrance and warm light.
And while its candles can essentially be bought from anywhere, the mothership of the iconic candles lies in South Deerfield at Yankee Candle Village.
The flagship store, known for its ginormous collection of Yankee Candle scents and retail goods, is a winter holiday destination for those in New England.
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Leading up to Christmas, the store turns into a complete holiday stop.
Now on prominent display are the brand’s many different winter scents, including such classics as Red Apple Wreath and Balsam & Cedar, and such holiday scents as Christmas Cookie and North Pole Greetings.
Bavarian Christmas Village, arguably the most festive room in Yankee Candle Village, is Christmas all year. Guests will stroll through an enchanted forest featuring a 25-foot-tall Christmas tree, nutcrackers, winter village displays and even indoor snow that falls every 4 minutes.
- ‘Disneyland’ Leverett estate of Yankee Candle founder Michael J. Kittredge II for sale at $23 million
But scattered throughout the flagship store are hints of Christmas and a winter wonderland — from the home section filled with holiday kitchen decor to the Toy Shop filled with jolly trinkets.
Santa even pays a visit to the Yankee Candle Village, hosting a storytime with kids every Monday through Thursday at 11:30 a.m.
And if the shopping and holiday joy become overwhelming, the store even has cafes that offer a bite to eat. Guests can also indulge in sweet treats in its candy store or try freshly made fudge.
Yankee Candle Village is located at 25 Greenfield Road in South Deerfield. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Yankee Candle will close 20 stores; parent to lay off 900 employees
Massachusetts
Two stranded dolphins rescued from Massachusetts marsh
It swims in the family.
A mother and calf wandered off the beaten path and got stranded in a Massachusetts marsh, forcing an emergency mammal rescue crew to save the wayward dolphin pair.
On Dec. 8, the Wareham Department of Natural Resources responded to a report of two stranded dolphins in the area of Beaverdam Creek off of the Weweantic River, a 17-mile tributary that drains into Buzzards Bay, which directly connects to the Atlantic Ocean.
When crews arrived, two common dolphins were located alive and active, but partially out of the water stranded in the marsh, according to the Wareham Department of Natural Resources.
Responding authorities alerted the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Marine Mammal Stranding Response Team, based in Cape Cod.
IFAW team members put the dolphins on stretchers and brought them to safety, where they conducted preliminary tests on the wayward dolphins.
“Our teams were easily able to extract the animals and transport them via our custom-built rescue vehicle,” Stacey Hedman, senior director of communications for IFAW, said.
The dolphins were weighed; the smaller of the two weighed approximately 90 lbs, and the larger mammal around 150 lbs.
Upon further analysis, it was revealed that the dolphins were an adult female and a socially-dependent juvenile female, a mother and calf pair.
According to Hedman, IFAW had some concerns over the mother’s decreased responsiveness and abnormal blood work, though it was deemed the pair was healthy enough to release back into the ocean at West Dennis Beach in Dennis, Mass.
“By releasing them into an area with many other dolphins around, this would hopefully increase their chances of socialization and survival. Both animals have satellite tags that are still successfully tracking,” Hedman said.
Massachusetts
Man seriously injured after being thrown from moving vehicle during domestic dispute
A 19-year-old Massachusetts man was seriously injured after he was thrown from a moving vehicle he had grabbed onto during a domestic dispute Thursday morning.
Duxbury police said they responded to a report of an injured male who might have been struck by a vehicle on Chandler Street around 5:22 a.m. and found a 19-year-old Pembroke man lying in the roadway with serious injuries.
Through interviews with witnesses, officers learned that the man had gone to his ex-girlfriend’s residence on Chandler Street to confront her current boyfriend. An altercation ensued, during which police said the 19-year-old appears to have jumped on the hood of a vehicle and was then thrown from the moving vehicle.
The incident remains under investigation, police said. At this time, they said no charges have been filed.
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