The Climate Minute

Growing a backbone for clean energy

The MA DPU is slow to approve electric power ‘community aggregation’ plans. How come? Plus we talk about microgrids, community design and an undersea cable ‘backbone’ to connect the multiple proposed wind turbine farms off the East Coast.

Explainer: What to know about ‘Beyond Catastrophe’

The climate future is coming into focus. It is better than the 5C hell-scape we have feared, but much worse than our hoped for 1.5C. How we build that tumultuous new world is up for grabs and is the heart of a recent article (Beyond Catastrophe: A new climate reality is coming into view, by David Wallace Wells) that gives lots of food for thought.  Listen in are we process some of the ideas in order to give you a head start when you read it yourself. 

Souping Van Gogh

Climate activists threw tomato soup at Van Gogh’s sunflowers.  What did you think? Was the protest effective? There are many perspectives and few correct answers. We discuss.

Explainer: “Loss and Damage”

COP27 (the Conference of the Parties) will be held in Egypt in November of 2022. One of the topics of discussion will likely be ‘loss and damage’ suffered by countries and people who cannot afford to adapt to climate damage they did not cause. We take a moment to explain some background for this subject.

Glimmers of a just and rapid transition

The IRA provides money for building clean energy generation, but the permitting process could slow progress. We look at several interesting proposals that show a path to an energy transition that is both rapid and just.

Rep Roy on what comes next for climate in MA

We talk with our special guest, MA State Representative Jeff Roy. The last time Jeff was with us we were all waiting for the governor to take action on the recent climate legislation. Now that it is on the books, what is next for our journey along the roadmap?

How to think about our rising electricity rates

Electricity providers are raising rates. How should you think about this? From a climate perspective, we should recognize the long term problem and build more renewables.   

Manchin folds. Now what?

In a big win for climate activists, Joe Manchin withdrew his flawed permitting bill. Climate folks should be impressed with their growing political clout, but what comes next? How does our country, in an equitable way, build the urgently needed transmission infrastructure that we need?

From Maine to Manchin

The Inflation Reduction Act is good climate bill, but in the sausage making  process, a companion bill that pretends to improve the ‘permitting process’ was needed. Now the ‘Manchin side deal’ is moving to a vote. For greens, permitting reform relates to what is happening in Maine, but for Manchin (read Big Oil) it about rolling over local voices for faster pipeline construction.   

Words to Watch

Embodied Carbon', 'Net Zero Building Codes' and 'NEPOOL' are words to watch for in discussions around climate action here in Massachusetts. We explain.