Massachusetts
Climate solution: Massachusetts town experiments with community heating and cooling
Jennifer and Eric Mauchan live in a Cape Cod-style house in Framingham, Massachusetts that they’ve been cooling with five air conditioners. In the summer, the electric bill for the 2,600-square-foot home can be $200.
In the winter, heating with natural gas is often more than $300 a month, even with the temperature set at 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius).
“My mom, when she was alive, wouldn’t come to our house in the wintertime,” because it was too cold, Eric Mauchan said.
But beginning Tuesday, their neighborhood will be part of a pilot climate solution that connects 37 homes and businesses with a highly-efficient, underground heating and cooling system. Even taking into account that several of the buildings will be switching from natural gas to electricity, people are expected to see their electric bills drop by 20% on average. It’s a model some experts say can be scaled up and replicated elsewhere.
“As soon as they told me about it, I bought in 100%,” said Jennifer Mauchan, who works in finance, remembering her first meeting with representatives from Eversource, the gas and electric utility that installed the system. “From a financial perspective, I thought that it was a very viable option for us.” She cited lower greenhouse gases that cause climate change as an important factor in the decision.
Gina Richard, owner of Corner Cabinet, a kitchen and bath cabinet showroom in Framingham, said she felt “pretty lucky” to be part of the project. She currently uses two air conditioners and two heaters and looks forward to replacing all that with a single system. Richard said she was told she could see her winter heating bill of $900-1,000 go down by as much as a third, which she said would be “amazing.”
The Framingham system consists of a giant underground loop filled with water and antifreeze, similar to the way gas is delivered to several houses in a neighborhood. Water in the loop absorbs heat from underground, which remains at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) all year.
Households have their own heat pump units that provide heating and air conditioning, installed by the utility. These take heat from the loop, spike the temperature further, and release that heat as warm air into the homes. For air conditioning, heat is extracted from the home or business and released into the Earth or transported to the next home.
The energy sharing works best when some buildings are drawing on heat while another needs it, the way a grocery store needs to keep its cases refrigerated even in winter.
Other networked geothermal projects exist in the U.S., including the Texas community of Whisper Valley and Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Eversource says this is the first utility-led installation in the U.S. If it works, that could be important because an individual homeowner could not do the digging and drilling necessary to create a neighborhood system.
Right now, homeowners can buy individual air source heat pumps, which have become common and are efficient. Or they can drill for more expensive, even more efficient ground source heat pumps. Incentives, such as those in the Inflation Reduction Act or local utilities, help lower the price on these, yet the final cost can still be tens of thousands of dollars.
Framingham beat out other communities that applied to Eversource to become pilot sites. The city 20 minutes west of Boston is surrounded by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plus firms like Thermo Fisher Scientific, Pfizer and Novartis. Eric Mauchan said the proximity of so much advanced technology and a state law requiring that greenhouse gas emissions ramp down to zero by 2050 helped make the community receptive.
Nikki Bruno, vice president for clean technologies for Eversource, also cited the state’s emissions law as a reason for the pilot. It was also “an opportunity from a decarbonization standpoint,” she said, because Eversource has its own net zero goal.
“We’re thinking about, okay, we do this pilot now, how can we scale this into a sustainable business model, into a sustainable program to offer in more locations?” she said.
Jack DiEnna, founder of the Geothermal National & International Initiative, an alliance of industry professionals, said utilities are seeing pressure to address climate change plus incentives to do so. Ground source heat pumps are highly efficient, reduce the electricity demand on the grid and can be installed in regions beyond the reach of gas lines. They also cool homes and release very little in the way of climate pollution compared to traditional heaters and air conditioners.
There is also an equity issue that concerns some in the climate and energy sector. If people who have the means disconnect their natural gas, it could have unequal consequences for people.
It “means that the people who can least afford it are stuck paying for this gas system, this very leaky gas system,” said Ania Camargo, thermal energy networks manager at the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a nonprofit working to eliminate fossil fuels from buildings.
“One of the reasons why I advocate for utilities to be a big part of the solution is because it’s a way to make sure we can do this for everybody.”
Back at the Mauchans’ home, the couple laughs about the accommodations they were making to their old heating system. “I was so mindful of the expense that we would incur if we increased the temperature to, God forbid, 70 degrees in the winter,” Jennifer recalled about letting the house get cold in winter.
They expect their new heat pump to change things. “I mean, we’ll keep our house 71 degrees all year long,” Eric said.
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Massachusetts
Who will take care of our older and disabled people? – The Boston Globe
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I’ve been writing for years about immigrants filling jobs that Americans don’t want. Haitians in particular have stepped into the void where the work is hard and the pay is low – cleaning, groundskeeping, preparing food, caring for elderly and developmentally disabled people.
When an influx of migrants flooded into the United States a few years ago, a number of savvy Massachusetts employers opened their doors to them. Thrive Support and Advocacy, a developmental disabilities provider in Marlborough, hired 41 newly arrived Haitians, filling all its full-time direct-care jobs for the first time in a decade.
With the Supreme Court last week siding with the Trump administration’s attempts to end Temporary Protected Status for Syrians and Haitians as part of its continued immigration crackdown, Massachusetts stands to lose 10,000 Haitian TPS holders in the workforce. A decision on Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to nearly everyone born on US soil, is expected today.
But it isn’t just a numbers game. Employers continually cite Haitian migrants’ loyalty, hard work, and devotion to the people they’re helping — many of them elderly. Not to mention the ripple effects of losing these valued employees as the aging population skyrockets.
“At some point, many people will be rehab patients,” Adam Scott, CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife told me. “At some point, many people will be long-term care patients. And this impacts all of them.”
When the TPS ruling is implemented, 10,000 Massachusetts residents will be out of a job and expected to leave the country. But many of them have nowhere to go. A pharmacy tech I’ve been talking to over the past few months knew this day was coming, and she has a detailed plan in place that will allow her 14-year-old US-born son, who has autism, to stay. But she has no plan for herself. She can’t go back to Haiti, where she was kidnapped by gangs as a teenager. So she’s hoping to keep working until her employer tells her she has to go.
To where, though, she doesn’t know.
—
Read: Who will care for the elderly and developmentally disabled?
Also: More than 100 Venezuelans deported from the United States just hours before the deadly earthquakes are missing. Seven children were among the group, which was taken to a hotel that was destroyed in the quake. (AP)
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World Cup: Can the US soccer team beat a European national team for the first time in 11 matches and make it into the Group of 16? We’ll know tomorrow night. In a thrilling upset, Paraguay sent four-time champion Germany home at Foxborough.
Five in a row: Don’t get too excited yet, but the Red Sox followed their four-game sweep of the Yankees with a 6-3 victory over the Nationals last night. They were led by Wilton Contreras, who has been struggling with the news of the deadly earthquakes in his native Venezuela.
Cannabis rollback: If Mass. voters repeal marijuana legalization, would that put you in danger of being arrested? We answer your questions here.
Heat wave: An Extreme Heat Watch has been declared for Wednesday through the Fourth of July. Here’s how hot it will get.
Wellesley killing: The 24-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing his father had suffered serious mental health issues and battled “to contain his demons,” family friends say.
Hiya, neighbor! Cambridge wants to build “social housing.” What is it?
What now? More people are surviving cancer than ever before. Now health providers are helping people navigate the next step.
Duck Boat accident: Questions about equipment quality and decision-making are being raised about the accident Saturday that injured 11 people when the craft flipped in East Cambridge.
Beaches, shellfish areas closed: A sewer line break in Haverhill dumped millions of gallons of wasterwater into the Merrimack River.
He’s No. 1: Yes, but what made AJ Dybantsa the NBA’s top pick? He’s the exact type of player NBA teams are looking for.
By David Beard

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🏰 Home of the Week: Hail, Victorian! Brookline’s regal Webber-Bouve Mansion has hit the market for $4.3 million. Take a peek. Plus, see the 1976 home for sale that has a Revolutionary War touch.
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Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by David Beard and produced by Ryan Orlecki.
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Massachusetts
Millions of gallons of wastewater discharged into Merrimack River due to broken pipe
Approximately eight million gallons of wastewater are currently being discharged into the river per day.
HAVERHILL, Mass. (WWLP) – Those traveling for the Fourth of July weekend are being advised of a wastewater pipe break on the Merrimack River.
The Massachusetts Environmental Police stated that over the weekend, a major wastewater pipe in Haverhill broke, releasing millions of gallons of sewage into the river. The broken pipe was carrying wastewater from the main pumping station to the treatment plant.
Police estimate that approximately eight million gallons of wastewater are currently being discharged into the river per day.
At this time, fishing in the river is not prohibited, and the estuaries and beaches remain open. However, the information is being released to the public to help community members be aware of current conditions and use caution.
To access more information on water quality testing results, you can visit the official DPH website. Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Download the 22News Plus app on your TV to watch live-streaming newscasts and video on demand.
Massachusetts
4 shot during World Cup watch party in Massachusetts
BROCKTON, Mass. (WJAR) — Four people were shot on Friday night after hundreds had gathered to watch a World Cup match in Massachusetts.
Police said the shooting happened just before midnight on Main Street in Brockton.
Officers said the victims were taken to the hospital.
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Police have not said if there were any arrests.
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