The fifth Sobriety Checkpoint for 2024 has been announced for the area by Massachusetts State Police.

Colonel John Mawn Jr., Superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, announced that a “Sobriety Checkpoint” will be implemented by the Massachusetts State Police on a Public Way in Bristol County.

According to John Mawn Jr., the purpose of the checkpoints is to further educate the motoring public and strengthen the public’s awareness to the need of detecting and removing those motorists who operate under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs from our roadways. It will be operated during varied hours, the selection of vehicles will not be arbitrary, safety will be assured, and any inconveniences to motorists will be minimized with advance notice to reduce fear and anxiety.

The checkpoint will take place starting Thursday, June 20th, 2024, into Friday, June 21st, 2024, due to a grant by the Highway Safety Division of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security.

Answer: It can’t. At least not without some serious changes.

A new climate bill in development on Beacon Hill will take aim at that problem by proposing multiple solutions to speed the pace of infrastructure decisions, and ensure that new construction doesn’t overly burden local communities.

That part of the climate bill appears to have the blessing of Governor Maura Healey’s office as well as both chambers of the legislature. But the remainder of the climate bill? That’s still taking shape.

A new Senate bill, released this week, is setting the stage for a sweeping measure that will build upon major reforms brought by climate bills in the past two legislative sessions. Those bills reshaped the way Massachusetts is addressing the climate crisis, from setting an ambitious goal to effectively zero-out greenhouse gas emissions by mid-century to laying the groundwork for an offshore wind bonanza.

In addition to speeding up the process for approving new electric infrastructure, the new bill being proposed by the Senate would rein in the expansion of natural gas; call for the installation of more chargers for electric vehicles; and ban the ability of third parties to sell electricity to residents. An amendment is expected to call for the expansion of the bottle bill, too.

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.”

In other words: There is no silver bullet to address climate change. This is an attempt at a silver buckshot.

The changes related to energy infrastructure would be based on recommendations released earlier this year by a state commission. They include a requirement that all permits be issued within 15 months — a major change, considering there is no deadline currently and the review process can take up to four years. The changes would also ensure that developers “meaningfully engage” with potentially affected residents — people living near proposed power stations, for example — even before applying for a permit.

“We are in a critical moment for climate action, and legislation is necessary to move us forward,” said Maria Hardiman, director of communications for the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. “In particular, siting and permitting reform is needed to meet our climate goals and ensure communities have meaningful input on clean energy projects.”

These changes may sound mundane, but when it comes to the clean-energy transition, they are anything but. Advocates say these changes are needed to see more EV chargers at key places, like airports, rest stops, and residential areas. Quicker permitting would also allow for more housing to be built that is powered electricity and not fossil fuels, and to clear up bottlenecks in the way of building more renewable energy.

“This is a really good starting point,” said Casey Bowers, executive director of the Action Fund at the Environmental League of Massachusetts. But she and her organization wanted to see more, including greater flexibility and innovation to how offshore wind is procured and a plan to stop new investments in gas infrastructure.

The state has been reckoning for years with how to address the expansion of natural gas. But the laws on the books still provide for a financial incentive for utilities to expand their coverage areas and to replace — rather than repair — leaky pipes.

This has led to a contradictory set of laws. On one hand, the state must slash emissions rapidly; on the other, it incentivizes the expansion of fossil fuels. What’s more, the costs of that expansion are passed on to ratepayers, meaning they are paying for infrastructure that may not be used in the coming decades as the state shifts off of fossil fuels.

The Senate bill aims to tweak existing regulations, so that going forward, the state Department of Public Utilities would have to evaluate whether requests for gas expansion are compatible with the state’s emissions reductions targets.

Likewise, when it comes to replacing leaky pipes, the DPU would have to consider other options — like repairing the pipeline or decommissioning — “with an eye toward realizing our climate goals and saving people money,” Barrett said.

It’s not clear where the House stands on this, or on other measures, including the hotly debated issue of essentially banning third-party electric suppliers from selling directly to consumers, often at rates that start low then climb well beyond standard utility bills

There does seem to be consensus from the two chambers on the urgent need for more EV chargers across Massachusetts to support a goal of having 300,000 electric cars registered in the state by next year. Right now there are only around 64,000.

All of the details remain far from settled — the Senate bill will have to be passed in that chamber, then reconciled with the bill released by the House.

Sabrina Shankman can be reached at sabrina.shankman@globe.com. Follow her @shankman.

The average property owner in America owns 10,800 square feet, or a quarter of an acre. In rural areas of Massachusetts, it’s not uncommon to own many acres of land, but in more densely populated areas more of the average quarter of an acre is much more common.

We live in the western part of Massachusetts where land is a little more plentiful than the crowded eastern section of the state. Buying land and building a home is a beautiful thing, but there is a lot to it. Clearing land, zoning, getting electricity, access to sewer or septic, access to water, and more are all part of the process.

For the purpose of this post, we are talking strictly the average price of land per acre in the state of Massachusetts. Land is super expensive in some municipalities and super affordable in others.

Rhode Island comes in at number one, and Massachusetts has the second highest average per acre land cost.

The 5 States Where Land is the Most Valuable

1. Rhode Island – $350,400/acre
2. Massachusetts – $333,200/acre
3. Connecticut – $282,900/acre
4. New Jersey – $242,900/acre
5. Hawai’i – $202,400/acre

The 5 States Where Land is the Least Valuable

1. Arizona – $4,200/acre
2. New Mexico – $6,000/acre
3. Mississippi – $10,800/acre
4. Colorado – $11,600/acre
5. Arkansas – $11,600/acre

So what do you notice about the geographical location of the most expensive land versus the least expensive? The more expensive land is in the eastern part of America and the least in the west, for the most part.