Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

Will, I recently moved to Belmont and had an energy audit done through the Mass Save program. The auditor told me that because I live in Belmont I was not eligible for several Mass Save programs, including free efficient light bulbs and no-interest loans for energy improvements. Can you explain why Belmont residents are excluded [...]

Is Governor Patrick reversing his progressive position on “trees to energy?”   An August 31 Boston Phoenix article (http://thephoenix.com/Boston/news/126080-devals-green-blues) says he is.   The independent Manomet Report (www.manomet.org/node/322) was unequivocal in its conclusion that large scale forest biomass energy production is not a “carbon neutral energy source.”  The only woody biomass, aka trees that should be burned [...]

Builders can do good and make more money through green building. It’s not so hard to get started.

On Wednesday, June 8th 2011, at the Joint Committee hearing on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, many bills were presented mainly relating to the high costs of utilities state wide, their burden on large industrial companies as well as individuals, the leakage problem with natural gas and the need to replace the outdated pipe system. State [...]

By Audrey Schulman You can look up your neighbor’s house value, what their mortgage was, how much they paid in taxes, what their home looks like from the street and from above. In many municipalities, you can look up how much water they use per month and if they are behind in the payments. Why [...]

This is a set of thoughts for builders seeking to become more green oriented. The thoughts may also be helpful for homeowners thinking about green projects.

The all-electric Nissan Leaf will be available in MA by end of 2011.  The federal incentive is $7500.  Some regions and states, including California, offer additional incentives up to $5,000.  What is MA planning to do in order to encourage electric vehicles?

A meeting tonight in Belmont will consider adoption of the stretch code. The local option to adopt the stretch code comes out of the Green Communities Act that we passed in 2008. In communities adopting the stretch code, new homes and major renovations will have to meet lower energy use targets.

Hi Will, I have been researching SRECs for MassAudubon’s.  To date we have 250 kW of installed capacity around the state of which  44 kW qualify for the MA solar carveout.  I learned thatoin January 1, 2011 the DOER reduced, by over 8%, the penalty that producers pay for each MW below the state’s mandated solar quota (ACP).  Their stated [...]

I am working on a portfolio of bills to further a clean energy strategy in this session.

This post continues the sharing of learning from the “deep energy retrofit” of our home. It summarizes a financial analysis of the project.

What is the net environmental impact of a deep energy retrofit (DER)? We know that adding insulation, a more efficient furnace, modern windows and leak sealing foam to an older house will reduce the energy required to maintain a given temperature. We can calculate the cost savings and GHG reductions. But what of the environmental [...]

Building Sciences Corporation has published a case study of our super-insulated home project.

Jon Stewart’s framing of this question is as powerful as it is amusing, although his answer is only more humor.

We are doing a “deep energy retrofit” of our home. It’s a nice time to drive by if you are interested in the insulation process — different parts of the structure are at different stages.

Yesterday, like thousands of others, I wasted much time in a fruitless effort to log into the state’s web site for the appliance rebate program.   Of course the telephone option did not work either.   This to me is just another example of poor government planning and execution.  As someone who has been in the systems work [...]

The Global Warming and Climate Change Committee held a hearing on the climate impact of the transportation sector this week. The presentations were useful and read well as standalone documents.

Below is a text that I expect to deliver in rough form this afternoon at a rally in Concord for action on climate change sponsored by 350.org.

If the carbon issue were being approached with cold rationality; evaluating the data, risks, costs, and so on, the result would be a truely massive effort by all humanity to change what we are doing.  As things are, the problem is characterized by piddling measures completely underscale.  Read the history of the first world war [...]

Keep up the good work. The tax that makes sense to me is increasing gas taxes and spending the money on, in priority order:  expanded mass transit (this helps drivers too by reducing congestion and wear and tear on the road), roads and bridges.  Making gas more expensive makes sense from a global warming perspective.  [...]