December 6, 2023 By Lily Barrett

State charts a new energy future for Mass., beyond natural gas – Boston Globe

Wednesday’s order may have felt like an especially big win for climate advocates, considering how far things have moved, and how quickly. After the proceeding began three years ago, the DPU asked the gas companies to lead the first phase of the process, giving them the ability to write the first draft of a plan for reaching net-zero emissions in 2050. What’s more, advocates said they were shut out of the deliberations after the DPU under Baker took steps to limit their involvement.

Then in 2022, the playing field shifted. Healey was elected governor, and the DPU was filled with her appointees who could rewrite the rules of the game. A bill signed into law earlier in 2022 included language that ensured the ultimate decision would be wrested from the Baker DPU, and handled instead by Healey’s administration.

“Carrying this over to the new governor’s regime was putting it on uncharted ground,” said state Senator Michael Barrett, a coauthor of the 2022 climate bill. “If you’re a gas utility, I think they had every reason to be concerned and this report would bear that out.”

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Dropped in yesterday to the amazing @ConcordMuseum to check out the permanent exhibits. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, intact. Henry David Thoreau’s writing desk. (Mind if I sit here for a moment to compose this post? Why, yes, we do!) Hour-by-hour dashboard depicting each nearby town’s participation in the events of April 19, 1775. Susan Foster Jones, Director of Education and Visitor Experience; @MatthewBoger, Member, Museum Board of Governors; and Amanda Lahikainen, Executive Director, walked me through one of the best small museums in the entire country.

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Open post by senatormikebarrett with ID 18045705263834514

Dropped in yesterday to the amazing @ConcordMuseum to check out the permanent exhibits. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, intact. Henry David Thoreau’s writing desk. (Mind if I sit here for a moment to compose this post? Why, yes, we do!) Hour-by-hour dashboard depicting each nearby town’s participation in the events of April 19, 1775. Susan Foster Jones, Director of Education and Visitor Experience; @MatthewBoger, Member, Museum Board of Governors; and Amanda Lahikainen, Executive Director, walked me through one of the best small museums in the entire country.

Dropped in yesterday to the amazing @ConcordMuseum to check out the permanent exhibits. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, intact. Henry David Thoreau’s writing desk. (Mind if I sit here for a moment to compose this post? Why, yes, we do!) Hour-by-hour dashboard depicting each nearby town’s participation in the events of April 19, 1775. Susan Foster Jones, Director of Education and Visitor Experience; @MatthewBoger, Member, Museum Board of Governors; and Amanda Lahikainen, Executive Director, walked me through one of the best small museums in the entire country.

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Last night in Lincoln, Kathy Madison of Lincoln Witness presented the hair-raising documentary ICE Air to a crowd impressed by the journalism but horrified about the revelations: ICE deportation flights crisscrossing the U.S. to keep immigrants in constant transit and near-constant hiding, away from their families and the lawyers responsible for helping them. To its indelible discredit, nearby Hanscom Airport is a major node in ICE’s network.

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Last night in Lincoln, Kathy Madison of Lincoln Witness presented the hair-raising documentary ICE Air to a crowd impressed by the journalism but horrified about the revelations: ICE deportation flights crisscrossing the U.S. to keep immigrants in constant transit and near-constant hiding, away from their families and the lawyers responsible for helping them. To its indelible discredit, nearby Hanscom Airport is a major node in ICE’s network.

Last night in Lincoln, Kathy Madison of Lincoln Witness presented the hair-raising documentary ICE Air to a crowd impressed by the journalism but horrified about the revelations: ICE deportation flights crisscrossing the U.S. to keep immigrants in constant transit and near-constant hiding, away from their families and the lawyers responsible for helping them. To its indelible discredit, nearby Hanscom Airport is a major node in ICE’s network.

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The report comes at a critical moment for the future of the Gas System Enhancement Program, or GSEP. Lawmakers created the program in 2014 to improve public safety and reduce planet-warming emissions from leaks. Yet even as spending has ballooned to roughly $800 million in 2024, paid for by customers’ monthly bills, opponents say it has not delivered on its promised benefits.

Now, state lawmakers are negotiating a sweeping energy bill that could determine the fate of the program. The Senate has sought to phase out GSEP, a move that Senator Michael Barrett said could save customers as much as $1.46 billion over the next 10 years.

“We’ve paid too much, but at least we wanted to believe that we were safer,” Barrett said. “Now it turns out that we’ve paid too much, and we did not make our people any safer than they would have been.”

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Open post by senatormikebarrett with ID 17970087696172619

The report comes at a critical moment for the future of the Gas System Enhancement Program, or GSEP. Lawmakers created the program in 2014 to improve public safety and reduce planet-warming emissions from leaks. Yet even as spending has ballooned to roughly $800 million in 2024, paid for by customers’ monthly bills, opponents say it has not delivered on its promised benefits.Now, state lawmakers are negotiating a sweeping energy bill that could determine the fate of the program. The Senate has sought to phase out GSEP, a move that Senator Michael Barrett said could save customers as much as $1.46 billion over the next 10 years. “We’ve paid too much, but at least we wanted to believe that we were safer,” Barrett said. “Now it turns out that we’ve paid too much, and we did not make our people any safer than they would have been.”

The report comes at a critical moment for the future of the Gas System Enhancement Program, or GSEP. Lawmakers created the program in 2014 to improve public safety and reduce planet-warming emissions from leaks. Yet even as spending has ballooned to roughly $800 million in 2024, paid for by customers’ monthly bills, opponents say it has not delivered on its promised benefits.

Now, state lawmakers are negotiating a sweeping energy bill that could determine the fate of the program. The Senate has sought to phase out GSEP, a move that Senator Michael Barrett said could save customers as much as $1.46 billion over the next 10 years.

“We’ve paid too much, but at least we wanted to believe that we were safer,” Barrett said. “Now it turns out that we’ve paid too much, and we did not make our people any safer than they would have been.”

6 1

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