Infrastructure
COVID-19 Closed Showers for the Homeless. Quick Thinkers Came to the Rescue.
This spring, precautions against COVID-19 closed some of the few showers open to people who are homeless and living outdoors, including one in the basement of the Duffy Health Center in Hyannis. Now, with a little ingenuity and some help from the state, showers are back — in a special trailer that meets COVID-19 protocol.…
Read MoreNew Study Shows Methane Leaks Prevalent In Connecticut Cities
A new study of natural gas infrastructure in Connecticut says harmful amounts of methane are leaking from aging underground gas pipes. The findings add to an emerging body of science demonstrating the scale of methane leaks in America. Methane is the main part of natural gas. Like carbon dioxide, it’s a greenhouse gas, trapping heat…
Read MoreFarms Will Harvest Food And The Sun, As Massachusetts Pioneers ‘Dual-Use’ Solar
Paul Knowlton owns 300 acres of land in Grafton, and farms about 50. The farm has been in his family for five generation, ever since Knowlton’s great-great-grandfather settled in the Blackstone Valley in 1872. These days Knowlton grows pumpkins, squash and corn. Up a gravel road, past the family cemetery, corn stalks are still standing…
Read MoreIndustry Heavyweights To Invest In UMaine Offshore Wind Project Near Monhegan Island
The University of Maine’s effort to pioneer floating offshore wind technology took a $100 million leap forward Wednesday with the announcement that two industry heavyweights are going to invest in development of the project near Monhegan Island. A subsidiary of the Mitsubishi company, called Diamond Offshore Wind, is joining with RWE Renewables to invest the…
Read MoreTowns Struggle with Costs as ‘Corona-Recycling’ Increases by 20%
At the Bourne Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility, everything has its own smell. “You get the gas smell, old trash smell, new trash smell, recycling smell,” said Dan Barrett, general manager of the facility. “There’s a lot of different smells, and if you’ve been around long enough, you’ll know the difference.” After driving his truck…
Read MorePandemic Complicates New Hampshire Cities’ Plans For Dealing With Climate Change-Driven Heat Waves
New Hampshire is seeing more heat waves due to climate change. And staying cool is even harder this year because of COVID-19. Our new climate change reporting project, By Degrees, has this look at how New Hampshire’s cities are coping. On one of the hottest days of the summer so far, the sprinklers built into…
Read MoreWhen Your Remote Classroom Is Your Car: How Some Rural Students Without Broadband Are Connecting
Even though school is closed, on a given day there are about a dozen cars lined up in the parking lot of Sanderson Academy in Ashfield with people using the school’s Wi-Fi. Natalie Szewczyk is one of them. The 18-year-old has turned her Toyota Corolla into a mobile work station. “I stay in my driver’s…
Read MoreScott Administration Says Traffic Data Show No Spike In Out-Of-State Entries
A massive data-gathering operation at border crossings across Vermont hasn’t shown a major influx in the number of visitors from states with COVID-19 “hotspots,” according to the Scott administration. Scores of employees at the Agency of Transportation have been manually logging license-plate data at as many as 43 border checkpoints since April 1. Rebecca Kelley,…
Read MoreAfter Years Of Slow Action On Climate Change, What Sets Offshore Wind Apart For New Hampshire?
Most New England states have been investing in alternative energy sources for years. But New Hampshire has been slower to act in response to climate change. Now, the Granite State is looking to be a leader in a major new source of renewable energy: offshore wind. Turnout exceeded all expectations at the first meeting, last…
Read MoreHow A Climate Change Nonprofit Got Eversource Thinking About A Geothermal Future
Natural gas utilities in Massachusetts are facing an existential crisis: they could be out of business by mid-century. That’s because the state’s 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act requires emissions from burning fossil fuels — like natural gas — be cut by 80% economy-wide by 2050. But now a solution that could help save the companies…
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