Leadership
There is a gas pipeline being proposed to run through our rural communities on its way to a port north of Boston. Landowners were asked for permission to do some initial surveys to try to determine the best place to route it. The proposed route was through the least densely populated places, which tended to be preserved land and/or state forests and/or farm land.
Massachusetts has some of the highest energy costs in the United States, and is unusually dependent on heating oil. As such, we are masters at efficiency; we are really good at using less energy than everyone else because it costs us so much. But, oh my God, it costs us so much. Heating my house is about $4,000 a winter. Poor and elderly populations are being priced out of homes due to the cost of heat.
Meanwhile, Europe gets held hostage to Putin's natural gas. Without a way to get it from us - hello, lack of ports - they have to put up with shit like shooting down passenger airplanes.
Natural gas is problematic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the damage fracking does as it forces underground elements to the surface. It kills fewer people than coal or heating oil, though, and new pipelines mitigate the methane leaking that the old ones are subject to. Emissions are far cleaner than burning wood, and the impact on global warming is better than for any of the other choices for heating.
The people putting in the pipleline, Kinder Morgan, are very big players in the energy infrastructure market. Nearly every senior citizen I know with an invested portfolio has some Kinder Morgan energy partnerships. Ask your parents. Bet they own some. It's offering a solid return on investment in a world where savers are mostly just reamed. But it's been a win-win for investors who are providing the gas people want to purchase.
So, guess what? Did Elizabeth Warren say, "to reduce global climate change, to provide infrastructure jobs, to increase social justice by providing an affordable way for poor people to heat, to decrease Europe's reliance on Putin for energy, I am coming out in favor of the gas pipeline through rural areas in Western MA"?
No, no she didn't. She said "solar is good. Let's do solar instead. NIMBY all the way!"
Yes, yes she did.
Another editorial in today's paper explains that the high cost of energy in MA is a *good* thing because it makes us willing to buy expensive alternatives and to use a lot less. And that, my friends, is how this is going to land. This is what it looks like to live in an undeveloping nation.
Massachusetts has some of the highest energy costs in the United States, and is unusually dependent on heating oil. As such, we are masters at efficiency; we are really good at using less energy than everyone else because it costs us so much. But, oh my God, it costs us so much. Heating my house is about $4,000 a winter. Poor and elderly populations are being priced out of homes due to the cost of heat.
Meanwhile, Europe gets held hostage to Putin's natural gas. Without a way to get it from us - hello, lack of ports - they have to put up with shit like shooting down passenger airplanes.
Natural gas is problematic for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the damage fracking does as it forces underground elements to the surface. It kills fewer people than coal or heating oil, though, and new pipelines mitigate the methane leaking that the old ones are subject to. Emissions are far cleaner than burning wood, and the impact on global warming is better than for any of the other choices for heating.
The people putting in the pipleline, Kinder Morgan, are very big players in the energy infrastructure market. Nearly every senior citizen I know with an invested portfolio has some Kinder Morgan energy partnerships. Ask your parents. Bet they own some. It's offering a solid return on investment in a world where savers are mostly just reamed. But it's been a win-win for investors who are providing the gas people want to purchase.
So, guess what? Did Elizabeth Warren say, "to reduce global climate change, to provide infrastructure jobs, to increase social justice by providing an affordable way for poor people to heat, to decrease Europe's reliance on Putin for energy, I am coming out in favor of the gas pipeline through rural areas in Western MA"?
No, no she didn't. She said "solar is good. Let's do solar instead. NIMBY all the way!"
Yes, yes she did.
Another editorial in today's paper explains that the high cost of energy in MA is a *good* thing because it makes us willing to buy expensive alternatives and to use a lot less. And that, my friends, is how this is going to land. This is what it looks like to live in an undeveloping nation.