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Category Archives: Environment

Nicole LaChapelle

Easthampton’s LaChapelle Receives State Commission: Conservation & Rec…

Transition is coming early to the City of Easthampton. Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, who had announced last year she would not seek another term, will resign early to take on a new state role. Come July 21, LaChapelle will join Governor Maura Healey’s administration as Commissioner of the Department of Conservation & Recreation.

EPA

Springfield and Attorney General Coordinating to Recover $20 Million Feds Snatched…

The federal government has confirmed its cancellation of a $20 million environmental grant to the city of Springfield, but officials are not giving in. There is a formal, administrative appeal process. When city officials learned of the grant’s cancellation, it said it was considering all options. Since then, the city has been in touch with the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell. That could add some firepower to Springfield’s response.

Biomass

If Biomass Could Turn Back Time; Appeals Court Found a Way…

This past Wednesday, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a lower court ruling and, in effect, reanimated—although did not fully resurrect—the prospect of a biomass plant in Springfield. The decision gives the biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard enough life to punch open the project’s coffin.

Springfield

Take My Council, Please: As the Tree Fund Turns, er, Revolves…

SPRINGFIELD—The City Council sped through a thin agenda Monday that included a final realization of the new tree ordinance. Earlier this year, the Council approved a revamped arboreal code including fines and fees for removing public trees. However, the creation of the fund to use

State Office Building Springfield, MA

Has MassDEP Decapitated Springfield Biomass at Long Last?…

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection may have driven a stake through the heart of the nigh-undead biomass power plant proposed for Springfield. In a five-page decision dated April 2, the department said it pulled the air quality permit amid growing public pressure and heightened

Lederman Markey

Markey Grabs a Shovel to Help Bury Zombie Biomass Project…

UPDATED 2/22/21 10:09AM: To include a statement from DEP and to include comments from Sen. Warren’s office. SPRINGFIELD—United States Senator Ed Markey joined opponents of the ever-undead proposal to build a biomass power plant here to voice his support for stopping the project once and

Take My Council, Please: Still Burning through Agendas…

SPRINGFIELD—Aside from its atypical procedure to a select a new Council President, the City Council here glided through its last meeting of 2020. This Hell-spawned year had driven the body from its friendly-enough confines to cyberspace for nearly all of 2020. Monday was no different.

Our One Hundredth: Leveraging a Position in Hampshire County…

Our One Hundredth is an occasional series on Massachusetts’s US Senate Elections. WILLIAMSBURG—The candidates for the Democratic US Senate nomination have been barnstorming the state since the race erupted last September. At this stage, neither have ceded territory favorable to the other, but patterns of