You could say COP 28 was all about money. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) wanted to host the event primarily to make clean energy investment deals.

The UAE launched their $30 billion “Alterra” fund at COP 28, even though it wasn’t part of the official agenda. Alterra is an investment fund for climate projects, with a particular focus on Africa and Latin America.

Alterra is also part of a plan to raise $250 billion in matching funds by 2030. Brookfield, Blackrock and TPG (large commercial investors) immediately stepped up with multi billion dollar commitments. Other private investors are sure to follow. [… continue reading]

As many of you know, I teach a course at Colby College called “Advocating for the Environment”. I’ll admit it’s a challenge for me to get up on dark January mornings and make the hour plus commute to campus. But the eagerness and dedication of the students make it worth it.

As I strolled the campus this year, I marveled at the many new buildings and athletic facilities that have been built in recent years.

The baseball and softball complex features an indoor batting range, public restrooms and two turf fields with brand new electronic scoreboards. Quite a difference from [… continue reading]

The news over the past several weeks has been hard to stomach. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Failed leadership in Congress. And now the first mass shooting in Maine, the 565th mass shooting in the US this year.

Not to mention the dangerous heating of the planet, and the poisoning of our lands and waters with toxics. Where are we headed? You might be asking.

My answer to that question is that we need to double down on faith. One of my favorite bible quotes is the one where Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is within you.”

What this means [… continue reading]

Opponents of Pine Tree Power talk about the costs and length of time for Pine Tree Power to acquire CMP and Versant Energy as if they are huge, scary numbers.

But there are real numbers. And they are based on what we know from similar transactions elsewhere.

London Economics International, a respected utility consulting firm, looked into these numbers in a 2021 study commissioned by the Maine PUC (Public Utilities Commission). Here’s what they found:

1. The average acquisition price of 13 utilities recently sold was 1.55x net book value. (1) Net book values are published by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [… continue reading]

Climate action plans in towns, cities and states call for “beneficial electrification” and “decarbonization”. These are fancy terms for electrifying transportation, businesses, and the heating/cooling of buildings.

In the same vein, a consortium of US states and territories recently announced a commitment to deploy 20 million heat pumps by 2030. These are laudable energy goals, if we power the grid with renewable energy.

But can our electric grid handle the increased demand? Few analysts have answered this question.

Studies on the electricity demand of EVs have been done. But I’ve found little information on what happens if we electrify homes, transportation, [… continue reading]

How Electric Utilities Have Changed
When most of our electric grid was built (1935-1960), it was owned by either municipalities or locally owned private companies. In both cases, executives and managers were trusted members of the local community. They were accountable. And they were seen as heroes for bringing electric power to the rest of us.

Corporate takeovers during the 1980s and 90s changed all that. The thinking was that if we allowed large, publicly held corporations to take over our electric utilities, it would bring more capital to invest in the grid.

While that may be true, the trade off is [… continue reading]

One thing I can say about energy policy is that it’s a complex subject But I’ve volunteered for Our Power for the past five years, so I have some knowledge of the subject. Below is a summary of the important points. I hope you’ll find them compelling, and support the referendum with a “yes” vote on election day, November 7th.

1. Substantial savings through lower interest rates: Our electric grid needs substantial investment to meet our state energy and climate goals, an estimated $5 billion over the next 30 years.

The least expensive way to finance this investment is through municipal bonds, at [… continue reading]

Some investors I know, my brother among them, are excited about nuclear fusion. Really excited. So I decided to find out why. Here’s what I learned:

Nuclear fusion powers the sun in a process where atoms are forced together at extremely high temperatures. This fusion forms a new atom minus a little bit of mass, the loss of which generates lots of energy.

Nuclear fusion is not to be confused with nuclear fission, used since the 1960s in power plants. As the word fission implies, it’s based on a process where atoms are broken apart to generate energy.

So here’s what’s exciting [… continue reading]

In 1973, Dupont patented the PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) plastic bottle as an innovative and durable alternative to glass. Since then, production of plastic bottles has skyrocketed to 500 billion a year.

Most people think our plastics problem is primarily about litter. And yes–there is a litter problem. But plastics also pollute air, water, foods and beverages with toxic chemicals.

Defend Our Health is a Maine based nonprofit that’s studying plastics as part of a campaign to eliminate plastic pollutants. Defend’s recent report, “The Hidden Hazards of a Plastic Bottle” traces the “chemical footprint” of a plastic bottle from fabrication [… continue reading]

When I visited my family summer home last week I saw something troubling: the tick, mosquito and lawn chemical people were out. Everywhere.

The lovely, high-end neighborhood where I grew up is right on Mattapoisett harbor—a place that used to be teeming with life. As a kid I used to scoop up starfish and bay scallops at low tide. I haven’t seen a starfish or bay scallop there in years. In fact, low tide now looks like a dead zone.

My brother just hired an organic landscaper for our family summer place. When he met the new landscaper, he asked him if [… continue reading]