Massachusetts regulators have issued new, stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions from the state’s fossil fuel power plants and ordered utilities to buy at least 16% of their electricity from clean energy sources in 2018.

Energy Policy Massachusetts

Residents said they feared the 500-foot tall turbines would adversely affect the aviation tradition on the lake, culminating every fall with the Greenville Fly-in. “There’s a lot at stake,” McDonald told the group. “The view and the wilderness experience. There’s a future at stake if you want to develop tourism in the area, the turbines pose a serious threat to the region.”

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views Impact on People Maine Massachusetts

A group that fears that more industrial wind development in rural Somerset County will hurt the economy and quality of life for area residents.

Impact on Landscape Impact on Views Maine Massachusetts

An Acton couple are facing 30 years in prison after filing for more than $50 million in grants from the 2009 federal stimulus bill meant to spur the economy out of the Great Recession, in order to reimburse themselves for wind farm and biofuel projects the U.S. Department of Justice claims never happened.

General Massachusetts

Evans-Brown says opponents want to know why their scenery should become the pass-through for Massachusetts' electricity needs, "people who have businesses that would be impacted by the construction, and who believe they're business depends on tourists coming up to visit. There's a very famous pancake parlor that the owner came and gave very impassioned testimony."

Energy Policy Transmission Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire

The Massachusetts Clean Water Trust Board of Trustees voted Wednesday, August 2, to convert what was a conditional $4.86 million grant to the town into a loan. The money, originally stemming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, came to Falmouth through the trust to pay for construction of the second turbine, known as Wind 2

Taxes & Subsidies Massachusetts

Based on a vote taken Wednesday by the board of trustees of the Massachusetts Clean Water Trust, the town must pay back $2.9 million of the $4.9 million original loan. No interest will be charged and the town has until July 2029 to pay it off.

General Massachusetts

John Tynan, chairman of the Select Board, said he learned many residents who wanted to attend the hearing were unable to do so because of the date. "We can't put all the players together," he said. "We thought we had all our ducks in a row but we didn't."

Zoning/Planning Massachusetts

Project opponent Audra Parker of the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound said BOEM's supplemental environmental impact assessment was conducted with too narrow of a scope and did not take into consideration that offshore wind technology has advanced since Cape Wind was first given federal approval in 2010, Cape Wind's failure to extend state permits, alternative clean energy projects that are now possible, and the termination of power purchase agreements.

General Massachusetts

Canadian utility Emera has proposed exporting power from 1.2GW of future onshore wind farms in eastern Canada via a subsea cable to Massachusetts, to help the New England state meet its mandated renewables target.

General New Brunswick Nova Scotia Massachusetts

Proposed wind-power turbines on a Savoy ridge could get three stories taller. The town's Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. Thursday to consider amending its decade-old bylaw regulating wind energy. 

Zoning/Planning Massachusetts

Selectmen addressed the financial circumstances while announcing the decision not to appeal, saying “we know there would be substantial costs associated with taking down the turbines in addition to the lost electricity generated by both Wind 1 and Wind 2 as well as the looming debt associated with not running the turbines.” “These are real numbers and those liabilities have real impact on our community services and resources,” the statement read.

General Massachusetts

The shutdown comes nearly a year after the company took steps to replace an oil pump motor within the turbine's nacelle and brought it back up to full capacity last July 27. 

General Massachusetts

But the recent development in Falmouth, where a judge ordered the town’s two wind turbines at the municipal wastewater facility to be powered down because they constitute a nuisance, is a positive development. “It’s definitely a ray of hope for us,” said Ian Davies of Plymouth, a neighbor of the turbines. Davies was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit filed by a group of private citizens against Future Generation Wind and the town of Bourne.

Impact on People Massachusetts

“It’s just such a tremendous relief to me and it’s still taken these past couple of days to sink in,” said Barry A. Funfar, a plaintiff in the case that ultimately led the board of selectmen to drop legal proceedings. Mr. Funfar is one of several neighbors who argued that the presence of the turbines negatively affected their health. 

General Massachusetts

The costs of the Wind Turbine Curse keep adding up.

General Massachusetts

The Falmouth Board of Selectmen voted Monday night not to appeal a judge’s decision ordering the shutdown of the town’s two massive wind turbines. “It’s time to put the matter behind us and move forward,” board Chairwoman Susan Moran said.

Impact on People Legal Massachusetts

The seven-year saga of Falmouth’s two town wind turbines may now be coming to an end.

Legal Massachusetts

As Falmouth selectmen consider challenging a cease-and-desist order that left the community’s second wind turbine inoperable, they are taking into account all legal action surrounding the town-owned machines near Blacksmith Shop Road.

Impact on People Legal Massachusetts

Judge Cornelius Moriarty upheld the local zoning board’s finding that two 1.65-megawatt turbines at the town’s wastewater treatment facility were a nuisance, and he ordered them shut down. ...A few days after Moriarty’s June 20 decision, selectmen announced they had to gather more information before deciding what to do next, since the town could be on the hook for dismantling the turbines as well as loans and grants used to buy and install them if the turbines remain offline. The total potential cost to the town was previously estimated at $14 million.

Legal Massachusetts