The Climate Minute

Down the MOPR rabbit hole: The Climate Minute

ISO-NE (whoever they are) extended the life of the obsolete MOPR rule (whatever that stands for.) The decision makes it harder for renewable energy systems to get on the grid for several more years- thru 2025 and 2026. Why and how was this decision made?  Follow our guest down the rabbit hole of the FERC Docket E22-391. Instead of the Mad Hatter, we encounter the Internal Market Monitor and the External Market Monitor who collectively monitor…stuff.  

Rigged auctions may delay MA renewables: The Climate Minute

The people who manage New England’s electrical grid seem to have rigged important auctions to favor fossil fuel interests.  The alphabet soup of committees and commissions make it hard to understand, but ISO-NE should rescind the MOPR, and FERC should make them. Listen to hear an expert de-mystify that jargon. You can email FERC at customer@ferc.gov

Looking at gas leaks through an environmental justice lens: The Climate Minute

A new peer reviewed study shows that methane leaks in environmental justice communities take longer to repair than in other communities. What can be done to lessen this inequity? Listen to the report’s authors discuss some pragmatic recommendations.

A closer look reveals inequities in gas leaks: The Climate Minute

Gas leaks at the distribution level (that is, under your street) are related to overlapping issues.  Activists recognize methane as a greenhouse gas leaking from long-lived infrastructure, but real people live with immediate impacts. By matching leak location data to a community’s population characteristics, a recent paper provides new facts. The observations are not surprising- environmental justice communities live with larger leaks that wait longer for repair. We speak to the authors of the paper to learn more.

Following the roadmap: The Climate Minute

Massachusetts released two revised climate policies recently. They are each meaningful even if somewhat imperfect steps forward. They should be viewed in light of the decade long process of making the 2030 climate roadmap a success. Climate activists need to pay attention to the proposals and provide good feedback to the state as it tries to follow the roadmap to a clean future.

The climate in Kyiv: The Climate Minute

Putin’s saber rattling on the Ukrainian border is tied up with climate issues like the use of methane gas. 

FERC admits error in Weymouth but does nothing about it: The Climate Minute

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently issued a statement saying that they “likely erred in siting the Weymouth Compressor Station” but that there was no  “legal basis to prevent the Weymouth Compressor Station from entering service.” Wut? How did we get here? And what comes next? We talk to a longtime activist for the full story.

Big ideas for hydrogen: The Climate Minute

The use of hydrogen in the energy transition is both an opportunity for corporate greenwashing or for the implementation of positive, democratizing technology.  Using hydrogen to store grid electricity is a concept that is still in the formative stages. Hear an expert lay out one vision that ought to be considered.

Dirty hydrogen is just a way to keep utilities in business: The Climate Minute

If you make hydrogen from natural gas, it is dirty because of all the CO2 emissions from the conversion process. At both the Federal and Massachusetts level, policies push to support use of dirty hydrogen for home heating. We talk to two experts, who say this is just a way to keep utilities in business and that it is is both dangerous and polluting.  They propose a different path to achieve the goal of sustainable home heating for all.

Climate and Democracy: The Climate Minute

Climate activist do not have the luxury of being apathetic about voting rights. In order to preserve a democracy that can take action on global warming, we must act now to abolish the filibuster and deliver voting rights.