Another chance for Quebec hydro-power line into New England
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s Digital Diary, in GoLocal24.com
It looked like the long-delayed power line to run from hydro-electric generation in Quebec (comfortably close to us) into the New England grid was kaput after a legally dubious referendum in Maine blocked the line. The project is called New England Clean Energy Connect.
But the Maine Supreme Judicial Court held last month that important sections of the law enacted by the referendum were unconstitutional because they deprived the company building the line -- Avangrid -- of rights that had already been legally vested before the vote. In short, the justices opposed the retroactive nature of the referendum.
Now the case goes back to a lower court for review.
Note that well-funded opposition to New England Clean Energy Connect includes such still fossil-fuel-heavy companies as NextEra Energy, which naturally see the power line as threatening their businesses.
The story is far from over, but in a world of accelerating global warming and countries held hostage by corrupt dictatorships financed by natural gas and oil, the Maine decision is a glimmer of good news.
Loving 'the vigor of decay'
— Photo by Andrija12345678
“Right now — September — is the crossover season, the delicious intersection of our geographic section: the final remnants of New England’s sweet corn in happy collision with the first press of apple cider.’’
— Journalist David Shribman in The Boston Globe
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"Some of us spend our lives preferring fall to all the seasons, accepting winter’s blank as the completion or fulfillment that our season presages, taking spring only as a prologue, and summer as the gently inclined platform leading all too slowly to the annual dazzle. We are in love—not half in love, and not with easeful death—with the vigor of decay….’
— Donald Hall (1928-2018), New Hampshire-based poet and essayist
Summery elite
Painting by South Dartmouth, Mass., artist Sarah Benham in the group show “Coming Full Circle,’’ at Dedee Shattuck Gallery, Westport, Mass., through Sept. 16.
‘Where is everybody?’
“North Truro Red” (oil), by Mitchell Johnson, in his show “Nothing and Change, 1990-2022,” at Truro (Mass) Center for the Arts.
From Jesse Nathan’s commentary on the show:
"Fewer human figures populate Johnson’s spare but vibrant art than do {Edward} Hopper’s — and in this exhibition, you can almost count them on one hand — and Johnson’s often have their backs to us, or their faces blurred.
“Where is everybody? Where are the cars and their drivers? The beach houses and benches and lifeguard chairs are empty, as if the occupants are swimming or walking or long gone. Where did the lifeguards go? Where did any of us go? Because they seem almost peaceful, the weight of the sadness in these paintings didn’t hit me until later: humans are a mess.”
‘Cool cloak’
Lemon Stream, in Maine, on a September day.
—Photo by Cinclemflt
“This was one of those perfect New England days in late summer where the spirit of autumn takes a first stealing flight, like a spy, through the ripening country-side, and, with feigned sympathy for those who droop with August heat, puts her cool cloak of bracing air about leaf and flower and human shoulders.”
— Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), American novelist, short-story writer and poet, best known for her works set along or near the southern coast of Maine.
‘Because our daddy owned it’
Boston & Maine Railroad map as of 1916.
”We would walk to the railroad station
then hop along the platform while mother
straightened her hat and checked to be sure
The Pass was in her purse, because
that meant we rode the B&M for free,
because our daddy owned it.’’
—From “The Magic Show,’’ by Mary Spofford French (born 1932), a New Hampshire-based writer
Littleton, Mass., B&M depot in 1910.
Things can get violent
“Volcanic Equinox 20/100” (silkscreen print), by Lita Albuquerque, from “Joan Quinn’s Post-War L.A.’’, at the Armenian Museum of America, Watertown, Mass., through November.
— Photograph by Alan Shaffer
Built in 1891, the Church of Our Savior in Worcester was the first Armenian church in the U.S. It now hosts a Russian Orthodox congregation.
About time they’re getting this museum in New London
Rendering of the National Coast Guard Museum, on the New London, Conn., waterfront.
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
New London will be the site of the long-awaited 80,000-square-foot National Coast Guard Museum, on which construction is finally set to begin soon. The facility, which will include immersive and interactive exhibits, is expected to open sometime in 2024.
It’s very appropriate that New London be the site since the Coast Guard Academy in there.
Given the Coast Guard’s age – it was founded in 1790 – and sometimes exciting activities, it’s surprising that such a museum hasn’t yet gone up.
Think of its maritime security work (watching for enemy submarines, etc.), search-and-rescue and anti-crime activities (against smugglers, bootleggers, etc.).
Then there’s chasing drunk weekend boaters.
Chris Powell: Time to stock up on antivenin; paying for utility deadbeats; coping cops
Don’t pet: Timber rattlesnake.
MANCHESTER, Conn.
Another protected species made news in Connecticut other week when a venomous timber rattlesnake attacked two dogs in their yard in Glastonbury. Their owner rushed the dogs to the Pieper Veterinary clinic, in Middletown, just in time for them to be saved with snakebite antidote, what is called antivenin. The dog owner is lucky he wasn't bitten, too.
Connecticut once treated rattlesnakes as the dangerous nuisances they are. They were widespread and it was open season on them. But now that their habitat is limited to the northwest corner of the state and Glastonbury, East Hampton, Marlborough and Portland, state government has made killing them illegal, as if Connecticut couldn't live without them.
State law feels the same way about bears and bobcats, other predators that attack domestic animals.
As a result the habitat of the predators is expanding. While zoning often is used by suburban and rural towns to exclude housing that might be inhabited by unrich people, it is considered environmentally sound and high-minded to expand the habitat of the predatory animals.
The predators even have their own lobby at the state Capitol, environmental extremists who frighten the state's timid legislators more than the predators themselves do.
So Connecticut residents should ask their legislators how many more rattlesnakes, bears, and bobcats state government plans to accommodate, and hospitals and veterinary clinics should stock up on antivenin.
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Hospital and medical insurance bills are not the only places where state government has been hiding social-welfare costs from taxpayers. Such costs long have been hidden in electric and gas utility bills as well.
The Connecticut Examiner's Brendan Crowley reports that 25,000 utility users haven't been paying their bills for many months, some since as far back as October 2019, on account of state government's seasonal restrictions on disconnection and the disconnection moratorium imposed on electric and gas utilities when the virus epidemic started.
Eversource says it is carrying $171 million in bills overdue for 60 days or more. The company and United Illuminating have asked the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to let them start disconnecting delinquents in September.
Eventually the expense of the unpaid bills is transferred to paying customers through higher rates.
Why should paying customers particularly have to pay the electricity and gas bills of customers who don't pay? For the same reason paying customers of hospitals and medical insurers are forced to pay for people who don't pay for their own treatment in Connecticut's hospitals. This is done because transferring social welfare costs out of state government through intermediaries lets state government escape political responsibility for them. So hospitals, medical insurers, and utility companies are wrongly blamed for price increases caused by government.
This doesn't mean that state government shouldn't assist with medical and utility costs for the indigent. It means that state government should cover those costs directly and honestly, through regular and general taxes.
But honesty would show that the cost of state government is far higher than people think, increasing the public's desire for efficiency in government and jeopardizing government's many less compelling expenses.
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Police in New Haven in June were disgraced by their callous treatment of a man who had seemed drunk when arrested on a complaint that he was brandishing a gun at a block party. He was handcuffed and put in a van without seatbelts. Video showed his head smashing into the wall of the van when it stopped abruptly. More video showed him being dragged out of the van at headquarters when officers didn't believe his claim to be injured. At last report he was paralyzed.
But this month police video showed three New Haven officers hastening to rescue a young woman about to jump from the roof of a parking garage. The officers functioned not only as saviors but also as social workers.
The country is going nuts all around the police, so as tired of it and flawed as they may be, it's a wonder that they cope with it as well as they do.
Chris Powell is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester, Conn. (CPowell@JournalInquirer.com.)
Water view
Betsyann Duval: “Whales’ View” (oil/wax on plaster and canvas), by Betsyann Duval, in her show “Stream of Unconsciousness,’’ at Bromfield Gallery, Boston, through Oct. 2.
The gallery says her “artworks explore the current madness of our political, cultural and sexual” context.
‘The whole act’
“The jokes over the phone. The memories packed
in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.’’
— From “Perfection Wasted,’’ by John Updike (1932-2009) novelist, short-story writer, essayist, critic and poet. He spent most of his adult life in various Massachusetts North Shore towns.
A view of the Beverly Farms, Mass., public library. Updike lived in Beverly Farms the latter years of his life.
— Photo by John Phelan
And you don’t have to tip them
Front view of a Kiwibot.
— Photo by Ganbaruby
Edited from a New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com) report:
Framingham State University will deploy food-delivery robots on campus. In partnership with Kiwibot, the new service will roll out 15 robots so that students can access affordable and eco-friendly on-campus food delivery.
This new service will work with Sodexo, the current food-service provider of Framingham State. Students will be able to order food from their devices and the robot will deliver the food directly to their door. To ensure the safety of students, the app will allow them to track the robot’s location on the delivery route and open the lid to grab their food. Kiwibots use semi-autonomous driving systems with human supervisors ready to assist with immediate support. The new technology will help Framingham students reduce their carbon footprint as the robots produce zero carbon emissions.
Nancy Niemi, president of Framingham State, said, “Sodexo has been a great food service partner for the University, as they continually evolve to meet the desires of our community. The addition of Kiwibot technology is the latest advance and I know many of our students will be excited to have these mini delivery systems coming right to them, on our campus.”
‘Natural patterns’
“What Was Scattered Gathers, v8” (drypoint and collagraph on stained Kitakata paper), by Massachusetts artist Carolyn Webb, in her show “Carolyn Webb: Works on paper: Drawings and Prints,’’ at Salmon Fall Gallery, Shelburne Falls, Mass., through Oct. 1
The gallery says:
“This show highlights Webb's intricate and twisting work on paper. Delicate, winding lines arranged in patterns that evoke images of the natural patterns are highlighted with ephemeral pops of color. Webb's work weaves print and drawing to create a larger whole.”
The famous Bridge of Flowers, in Shelburne Falls, over the Deerfield River. It connects that town with Buckland.
Berkshires bathos
Sweet-fern
“Even the abundant enumeration of sweet-fern, asters and mountain-laurel, and the conscientious reproduction of the vernacular, left me with the feeling that the outcropping granite had in both cases been overlooked. I give the impression merely as a personal one; it accounts for Ethan Frome, and may, to some readers, in a measure justify it.’’
Novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937), who had a summer estate in The Berkshires, in her introduction to her tragic novel Ethan Frome (1911), which is set in that region.
Vista overlooking The Berkshires from the New York State border at sunset
— Photo by BenFrantzDale~commonswiki
A start on the housing crisis
“Dream Home Dream” (exterior latex paint, plywood, metal, and chalk), by Rob Hitzig, in the group show “Exposed 2022’’, at The Current, in Stowe, Vt., through Oct. 22.
The gallery explains:
The show represents nine artists “in an outdoor sculpture exhibit sprawling across the streets of Stowe….'Dream Home Dream’ invites viewers to engage with the piece, covering it in chalk markings.’’
Mr. Hitzig is based in Montpelier, Vt.
Stowe Community Church
-- Photo by Terry Foote
State Street, in the Montpelier Historic District
— Photo by Georgio
Llewellyn King: Uberizing your solar-paneled roof
WEST WARWICK, R.I.
The Uber model is changing America. First it made a business out of the family car. Then it made a business out of the spare room or vacation house.
Soon it might make a business out of the roof over your head.
That is the dream of a group of hugely successful entrepreneurs who see roofs as the next big monetization of a widely held capital asset.
This group, which at present chooses to remain anonymous, believes that with the right communications network and smart computer linkage, the nation’s sun-trapping roofs could become a new source of electricity and, if connected to in-home batteries, a virtual power plant of scale and reliability.
What Uber did for ride sharing and what Airbnb did for lodging, these entrepreneurs believe could be done for the electric-utility industry.
One of them told me, “A network can be many different things, but in the context of a network of potentially millions of solar rooftops, it means virtually real-time capture and analysis of billions of data points. Only a wireless network, using the latest broadband technologies – similar to those that support our smart phones – can handle that workload.”
Rewind the clock to when solar cells became generally available: Utilities encouraged their use and bought electricity from customers when it was generated, not when it was needed.
At the same time large solar plants began to be developed and owned by the utilities, which worked better for them, and they soured on rooftop solar.
In talking to utilities, I find them to be cool-to-indifferent to rooftop solar but enthusiastic about solar central station generation, particularly if linked with battery storage. Mostly, utilities like solar generation because of its predictability.
The idea of hooking together a vast network of millions of solar panels on roofs with their own batteries puts demand back in the hands of the utilities, giving them the flexibility of having a great new resource.
Also, like the Uber model, there would be variable pricing: In a crisis or a high-demand situation, the utility or the system operator would order power from homeowner batteries at surge prices, befitting all. Owners of solar rooftop and battery setups would become “citizen solarizers.”
The concept of a vast, on-demand, virtual power plant isn’t entirely speculative. Brian Keane, president of SmartPower, told me that what might be a frontrunner is already being tested in Connecticut.
“All residential customers who choose the ‘Connecticut Green Bank’s CT Storage Solution’ option receive the generous, upfront rebate incentives for agreeing to have their battery drawn from every weekday afternoon during June, July, and August, as well as on high-need 'critical’ days on the weekends, in September, and for a handful of days during the winter months. Customers will get a payment each year based on the amount of electricity that is drawn from the battery,” Keane explained.
The development of a national virtual power system would enhance something that is happening quietly, which is what I call the “buttressing of the grid.”
It is what might be seen as the tacit acceptance that the grid isn’t going to be rebuilt in any substantial way, but it will be buttressed by new generation and limited new transmission. Uberizing rooftop solar could be an important part of this buttressing – and a gift to the nation both as a source of clean power and citizen involvement.
It remains to be seen whether regional solar networks would be subject to regulation by the federal government or by the states.
Going forward, a rooftop solar installation might be more than a convenience for a household, and a way of signaling green virtue.
Llewellyn King is executive producer and host of White House Chronicle, on PBS. His email is llewellynking1@gmail.com and he’s based in Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.
‘Regimented chaos’
"Crack an Egg on your Head, Let the Yolk Drip Down, Seesaw" (flocking, resin, wood, metal, and mixed media), by Greater Boston-based artist Meagan Hepp, in her show “Play Date: Companions Club, at Kingston Gallery, Boston, through Oct 2.
The gallery says:
“Meagan Hepp’s work balances advanced planning with chance. Each Companion is made from a base of flocking and resin and is mixed with found objects, acting as a catalyst for regimented chaos. The Companions in the installation are based on nostalgic toys and pop culture references from the late 1990s and early 2000s that specifically resonate with Hepp’s childhood. Hepp combines discarded plywood, disco ball mirror, and other recycled materials taken from everyday life to give each piece a distinct personality, in a way creating a three-dimensional puzzle. Finding themself suddenly cut off from their social networks and communities during the COVID-19 crisis, Hepp began to think of their sculptures as company. As these sculptural friends started to accumulate and interact with the furniture, architectural built-ins, and everyday objects in Hepp’s home-studio, Hepp found themself yielding their space to what began to feel like a ‘Companion playground’’’.
Our clever masked neighbors
They’re watching you. The raccoon's social structure is said to be grouped into what Ulf Hohmann calls a "three-class society".
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
As a reminder that humans are far from the only intelligent creatures around us, consider raccoons -- those wily, rather distant relatives of bears who have learned how to thrive in suburbia and cities. They may be smarter than dogs. We have some charming families of them near us in our Providence neighborhood. We see their heads pop out of holes in trees, stormwater culverts and other refuges. But cute as they are, don’t get too close to them. They’re wild animals, which can become very aggressive if they feel threatened, and you don’t want to be bitten or scratched by them. And, rarely, some contract rabies.
Their ability to get around our impediments in order to grab food seems to strengthen over the years. That may be because the smarter ones are more likely to survive and pass on their genes.
In any case, their dexterity and ingenuity (they’re good at opening trash cans, boxes and other manmade objects), not to mention their bank-robber-style masks, make them great fun to watch – from a few feet away. I love seeing them use their hands, or rather front paws, with five long, tapered fingers and long nails. They lack thumbs, so they can't grasp objects with one hand/paw as we can, but they use both forepaws together to lift and then manipulate objects with a curious elegance. If they also had opposable thumbs like us, we’d be in big competitive trouble.
Cherry tomatoes may give you the best value of vegetables you plant, at least within the limitations of city or suburban space. They grow fast, don’t take up much room and each plant produces lots of tomatoes, which serve as easy snacks. The main drawback is that they require a hell of a lot of water.
We recently planted a second crop, which should do well in our increasingly warm late summers and autumns. Maybe a third crop, too?
But raccoons, which are omnivorous like us, like tomatoes too. So you might want to sprinkle some Critter Ridder or similar product near your plantings.
Frank Carini: In search of old-growth forests
An old beech tree in the Rhode Island woods.
— Photo by Frank Carini
From ecoRI News (ecori.org)
WARWICK, R.I. — Last winter Nathan Cornell accidentally found himself “walking into a different world,” one that isn’t protected from human intervention. For the past two years, the University of Rhode Island graduate has been searching for old-growth forests in Rhode Island.
He found one not far from his Warwick home.
His hunt for old-growth forests led him and Rachel Briggs to found the Rhode Island Old Growth Tree Society, a nonprofit determined to locate, document, map and advocate for the preservation of all remaining old-growth and emerging old-growth trees and forests in the state. This means trees and groups of trees that are 100 years old and older.
Cornell, with the help of licensed arborist Matthew Largess, owner of Largess Forestry, in North Kingstown, R.I. has so far identified more than a dozen potential old-growth pockets, including on the University of Rhode Island campus in South Kingstown and in Cranston, North Kingstown, Portsmouth, Warwick and West Greenwich.
In mid-July, the 24-year-old took this ecoRI News reporter on a walking tour of the hidden-in-plain-sight “5- to 10-acre” Warwick property owned by the Community College of Rhode Island and Kent Hospital. To listen to the audio story, click the bar at the top.
Anyone interested in joining the Rhode Island Old Growth Tree Society, can contact Cornell at ncornell@my.uri.edu. To read an opinion piece written by Cornell and recently published on ecoRI News, click here.
Frank Carini is co-founder and a journalist at ecoRI News.
David Warsh: In Ukraine, echoes of Vietnam
— Map by Amitchell125
SOMERVILLE, Mass.
The most interesting news around in August was the debut of a major series in The Washington Post about the beginnings of the war in Ukraine. Clearly it is intended to be an entry in next year’s contest for a Pulitzer Prize.
The first installment, “Road to war: U.S. struggled to convince allies, and Zelensky, of risk of invasion,” was a ten-thousand-word blockbuster.
The second, “Russia’s spies misread Ukraine and misled Kremlin as war loomed,” ran another six thousand words.
The third, “Battle for Kyiv: Ukrainian valor, Russian blunders combined to save the capital,” was similarly substantial.
And yesterday, a story appeared, not part of the series, about a disaffected Russian soldier who fled the war, featuring lengthy excerpts from his journal. “‘I will not participate in this madness.’”
Plenty of news, but the most striking aspect of the series is its architecture. The Post so far has mostly omitted the Russian side of the story. This is, to put it mildly, surprising. It is always possible that much more background narrative is yet to come. “Begin toward the end” is a story-telling recipe frequently employed in novels and films, but the ploy is not common in newspaper series. On the other hand, given the customary wind-up of important series in December, it is entirely possible that eight or even ten more installments are on the way.
For simplicity’s sake, the analytic foundations of the Russian version of the story rest mainly on three documents. The first is U.S. Ambassador William Burns’s Feb. 1, 2008 cable from Moscow, “Nyet means Nyet: Russia’s NATO Enlargement Redlines’’. We know about this thanks to Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
Burns reported that RussianForeign Minister Sergey Lavrov and other senior officials had expressed strong opposition to Ukraine’s announced intention to seek NATO membership, stressing that Russia would view further eastward expansion as “a potential military threat.” President George W. Bush ignored Burns’s advice and President Obama pressed ahead, backing a second pro-NATO “Orange Revolution” in 2014 that caused a pro-Putin Ukrainian president to seek safety in Russia., Putin annexed the Crimean peninsula in response.
The second is Putin’s long word essay from August, 2021, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’’. That, Angela Stent and Fiona Hill argue differently in the new issue of Foreign Affairs, may matter much to citizens of NATO nations and, especially, the leadership of Ukraine, but Putin’s argument matters more to most Russians and some Ukrainians.
The third is the little-publicized and scarcely noticed U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership of November 10, 2021. After that, there could be no reasonable doubt among the well-informed on any side that the invasion would take place.
The real news had to do with maneuvering between the US diplomats and military commanders and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky that took place on the eve of the war. The U.S. emphasized the near certainty of invasion and sketched three alternative possibilities the Ukrainian might pursue: move his government to western Ukraine, presumably Lvov; to Poland, a member of NATO; or remain in place.
Zelensky chose to remain in Kyiv, while discounting the likelihood of invasion to his fellow citizens, seeking to avoid panic. In an interview with Post reporters, he was candid about his reasoning. A follow-up story, “Zelensky faces outpouring of criticism over failure to warn of war,” described the political turmoil that erupted thereafter in Ukraine. A full transcript of the interview followed four days later.
The subtext so far of The Post’s series reminded me of a little-remembered year or two in the early ‘60’s, before the dramatic escalation of the war in Vietnam took place, an episode usually glossed over, but well documented in Reporting Vietnam, Part One: American Journalism, 1959-1969 (LOA, 1998). The world was more mysterious in those days; there were fewer players on the stage.
Three correspondents for U.S. newspapers stood out for their short-lived enthusiasm for the fight against the Communists: David Halberstam, of The New York Times; Neil Sheehan, of the Associated Press; and Malcolm Browne, of United Press International. Feeding them tips were CIA agent Edward Lansdale, battlefield commander John Paul Vann, and, perhaps, RAND consultant Daniel Ellsberg, then himself a hawk. These three charismatic leaders and others on the outskirts of what was then a U.S. advisory group believed that the war against the insurgents could be won if only it were better fought. As Lansdale put it:
It’s pure hell to be on the sidelines and seeing so conventional and unimaginative an approach being tried. About all I can do is continue putting in my two-bits worth every chance I get to add a bit of spark to the concepts. I’m afraid that these aren’t always welcome.
In South Vietnam, the alliance between Catholics and Buddhist broke down after 1963, and before long the U.S. military took over the war itself. Ten more years and millions of lives were required to lose it to North Vietnam.
No such option exists in Ukraine: Ukrainians must fight the war on their own, however powerful are the weapons they are given. Domestic support for the admirable Zelensky may turn out to to be no more durable over the long haul than consensus among his NATO backers. Putin is a bully, but he seems no less formidable than was Ho Chi Minh. And though Putin is angry, he is not mad.
David Warsh, a veteran columnist and an economic historian, is proprietor of Somerville-based economicprincipals.com, where this column originated.