Connect with us

Massachusetts

Nearly three months into Trump, here’s where Massachusetts’ climate work stands – The Boston Globe

Published

on

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].”

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

“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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

“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.





Source link

Advertisement

Massachusetts

Massachusetts gas prices finally hit reverse, falling back toward $4

Published

on

Massachusetts gas prices finally hit reverse, falling back toward


Just as the summer travel season heats up, gas prices are finally dropping, with the national average falling below $4 a gallon.

It marks the first time since March 30 prices are that low, and follows nearly four straight weeks of declines, according to data from AAA.

Massachusetts and the northeast as a whole are still above that average, at $4.09 a gallon, but it’s down sharply just in the past week.

Prices are lower south of Boston, such as in Bristol and Plymouth counties, and some wholesale clubs are selling at $3.60 a gallon.

Advertisement

Mark Schieldrop, spokesperson for AAA Northeast, says the highest price paid at the pump in Massachusetts during the war was $4.50 a gallon.

Schieldrop said the decrease comes on the heels of the U.S. agreement with Iran to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, causing crude oil prices to fall.

“We’ve seen a nice steady decline in prices that really started more than three weeks ago,” he said, “Markets anticipated this happening, and that really led to prices beginning to fall.”

Since prices can vary, he recommends drivers shop around and avoid convenient locations.

“You are going to see those higher gas prices right off that highway exit at that first gas station that you see, because they know that they’re going to catch a lot of stray travelers,” he said.

Advertisement

Decreasing gas prices comes as millions of Americans prepare to travel for July 4 in record numbers starting next weekend.

“When prices are on a downward trajectory, that certainly is conducive to encouraging folks to travel,” Schieldrop said. “We do expect strong travel over the July Fourth holiday. And people are still very interested in travel.”

While gas station owners are sometimes accused of price gouging, Schieldrop said most are trying to navigate a volatile market themselves, and are looking to stay competitive when prices drop and they have a surplus.

“They have to be very careful about sort of using a price buffer to ride that volatility so that way you’re able to make money, but you’re not gouging customers, and you’re being competitive in a market because the retail gasoline market is very competitive, ”he said.

Prices a year ago were $3.05 a gallon, but he said we won’t be getting anywhere near those prices this summer.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Massachusetts

Here’s how to enter for a chance at a low-number Mass. license plate

Published

on

Here’s how to enter for a chance at a low-number Mass. license plate


Local News

The annual lottery is for standard white Massachusetts passenger license plates.

A man walks to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles office in Lawrence, Mass. AP Photo/Charles Krupa

The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles announced on Monday it is now taking applications for the 2026 Annual Low Number Plate Lottery.

The annual lottery is for standard white Massachusetts passenger license plates. Winners and alternate winners will be selected using an electronic random number generator and notified by mail no later than Sept. 15.

Advertisement

To be eligible, an applicant must be a current Massachusetts resident with an active, state registered and insured passenger motor vehicle. They must also have a state-issued driver’s license or ID in good standing.

You can apply through Aug. 14 at the myRMV Online Service Center.

While there’s no cost to enter, “applicants selected in the lottery will be required to pay the special plate fee in addition to the applicable standard vehicle registration fee,” the RMV said.

Commercial vehicles and motorcycles will not be accepted as applicants. MassDOT workers and contract employees and their immediate family members are ineligible to participate, the RMV said.

Sign up for the Today newsletter

Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.

Advertisement





Source link

Continue Reading

Massachusetts

Two men indicted for Hinsdale robbery after ‘cigarette trail’ leads through Vermont, Massachusetts

Published

on

Two men indicted for Hinsdale robbery after ‘cigarette trail’ leads through Vermont, Massachusetts


HINSDALE, N.H. (ABC22/FOX44) – Two men from Massachusetts have been indicted after they allegedly stole more than $200,000 in cigarettes and fled in a stolen U-Haul van before setting it on fire.

According to court documents, the men robbed the T-Bird Mini Mart on Brattleboro Road in Hinsdale, New Hampshire back on March 15. They then allegedly drove the U-Haul north into Brattleboro, Vermont before heading south on Interstate 91 down in Massachusetts.

Cartons of cigarettes reportedly fell from the back of the van as it drove through Brattleboro, which were estimated to be worth more than $50,000. The “trail of cigarettes” was reportedly used by investigators examining surveillance footage to track the path of the van leading up to the arrest of two suspects last week.

Surveillance footage purported to show the stolen van, at right, and cartons of cigarettes that fell in Brattleboro, Vermont. (Courtesy: USAO New Hampshire District)

Richard Conner, 64, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, and James Ferguson, 66, of Worcester, Massachusetts, were arrested on Friday.

Advertisement

According to court documents, Ferguson was also seen on camera earlier in March stealing the U-Haul van in Northampton, Massachusetts.

A man identified by investigators as Richard Ferguson in March 1, 2026 surveillance footage. (Courtesy: USAO New Hampshire District)

The two men now face federal charges under the Hobbs Act and, if convicted, could spend up to 20 years in prison.



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending