A Note to Readers
The “7 Ware Street” column does not appear in this issue, which is somewhat shorter than usual, given continuing constraints on our advertising partners. We decided it was important to make space available for more of your letters to the editor, of which there were many quite a few of them longer than we can usually accommodate. The column will reappear in the future.
~The Editors
Climate Change
Jonathan Shaw (“Controlling the Global Thermostat,” November-December 2020, page 42) failed to address one essential weapon in our war against climate change: nuclear power. As with solar, wind, and hydro, nuclear power plants produce no greenhouse-gas emissions. Moreover, new technology and designs continue to improve their economics and safety.
Governors Wind Energy Coalition
Message to Biden: Boost FERC, expand grid Source: By Arianna Skibell, E&E News reporter • Posted: Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Decarbonizing the power sector through construction of long-distance transmission lines can be achieved without congressional action, according to a new report. Chris Hunkeler/Flickr
Policy analysts are urging President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration to use existing authority to expand the nation’s electric grid and to consider boosting the role of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
A study out of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity focused on the need for more long-distance transmission capacity to ship carbon-free solar and wind power across the country.
In Weymouth, a brute lesson in power politics
A Globe investigation finds residents who fought a six-year battle with an energy giant over a controversial gas compressor never had much of a chance, with both the federal and state governments consistently ruling against them
By Mike Stanton Boston Globe Spotlight Fellow,Updated December 12, 2020, 1:58 p.m.
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As the new gas pipeline compressor station (in background) is set to start operating this week, citizen activist Alice Arena places an elf on a tree in Kings Cove Park in Weymouth.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
WEYMOUTH â Alice Arena was sitting at the kitchen table in her Colonial home at the end of September, composing yet another e-mail to government regulators, when her phone erupted with a flurry of calls and texts.
Credit: NorthEndWaterfront.com via Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0
LNG terminal on Boston waterfront
Environmentalists were dismayed by the Delaware River Basin Commission’s approval on Wednesday of a plan to build New Jersey’s first liquefied natural gas export terminal but they say the fight isn’t over yet.
Opponents are now vowing to appeal the vote in federal court while asking state and federal agencies to take another look at some permits that have already been issued and hoping that other still-needed permits won’t be granted.
But absent a court injunction soon, it’s not clear whether environmental groups will be able to stop the start of construction of a dock at Gibbstown in Gloucester County, where LNG from Pennsylvania would be loaded on to ocean-going tankers.