After a Massachusetts climate bill was vetoed by Governor Charlie Baker, BU sustainability expert discusses how policymakers can make the state carbon free by 2050.
Editor of the Reformer:
One of my most persistent trolls, Mr. Carl Bucholt of Manchester, indignantly demands that I tell the world what my solution is to the climate âcrisis.â ( A quick question for John McClaughry, Jan 22).
First, âcrisisâ is a political label, not a scientific conclusion. If the average temperature in North America increases by one degree Centigrade by 2100, is that a âcrisisâ? It has already increased by one degree Centigrade since about 1860, when the Little Ice Age wound down, and so far as I can see, that has been a good thing. But everyone is entitled to push the âcrisisâ button based on his or her own views.
Massachusetts should say ‘no’ to biomass incineration in future energy policy (Guest viewpoint)
Updated Jan 21, 2021;
Posted Jan 21, 2021 Springfield - City councilor Jesse Lederman speaks at a demonstration in September to oppose plans for a biomass energy plant in East Springfield. (Hoang Leon Nguyen / The Republican)
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By Jesse Lederman | Guest viewpoint
Gov. Charlie Baker’s Department of Energy Resources is proposing to weaken state laws to make biomass incinerating power plants eligible for millions of dollars a year in state-guaranteed renewable energy credit incentives funded by us, the rate-payers.
Burning biomass is not renewable. According to the 2012 state-sponsored Manomet Study, wood-burning biomass power plants emit even more pollution than fossil fuel plants. That is why since 2012 the rules known as the Renewable Portfolio Standard have not allowed them to be eligible for the financial benefits brought on by awarding renewable energy cre
To the Editor: Have you ever worked for an hour or so at the beach, perhaps with a child or grandchild, building an elaborate sand castle, only to have some
News by Jennifer Johnson,
After nearly a decade of observing the aftermath of environmental crises in Oregon, Anton Chiono ’06 knew he wanted to be part of a solution.
During the “Timber Wars” of the ‘80s and early ‘90s, when the Pacific Northwest battled to preserve endangered species and federal forests, he was a child living in rural Summer Lake, an Oregon ranching and logging town. When Summer Lake s sawmill closed, many of his parents’ friends lost jobs. Some moved on. Others never recovered.
No matter what reasoning could be given for such a closure that globalization had depressed demand for domestic forest products and cheaper timber could be sourced from abroad, that the culmination of decades of short-term policy decisions and inexorable global economic trends led to this outcome Chiono realized little could salve the loss of the town’s primary economic driver.