Another MassGOP food fight | Scoop of the century | Warren’s complicated dance on inflation | About Contrarian Boston |
Killing the golden goose? Natural gas hookup bans could pose big problem for booming lab sector
The life sciences sector is the Bay State’s leading growth engine by far.
Pharmaceutical giants and small biotech companies alike are looking to hire tens of thousands of new employees, while developers are working on plans that could triple the amount of lab space.
But the booming sector now faces a head-on collision with a growing campaign on the local level to ban natural gas hookups in all, or at least most, new buildings.
The state Senate recently unveiled a climate change bill that would allow 10 communities to ban new natural gas hookups, a group that includes Brookline, Concord and Lincoln.
While restaurants, retailers and restaurants have opposed the ban, inexplicably little attention, if any, has been paid in the local media to the impact on the life sciences sector, which is far more reliant on natural gas than is commonly understood.
The lab sector is described by insiders as an “energy hog,” requiring huge amounts of power, even compared to your typical office building, to do all sorts of research work in stable, climate-controlled environments.
Greg Vasil, chief executive of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, likens the budding natural gas hookup bans to “shooting ourselves in the head.”
“The life sciences sector really saved us through the pandemic and it’s great to have its good paying jobs,” Vasil said. “I think we should be doing everything we can to foster that industry.”
Meanwhile, developers are now struggling to design new lab and biotech manufacturing buildings that rely less on natural gas. But let’s just say it’s not easy.
A top executive at HYM Investment Group, which is redeveloping the old Suffolk Downs racetrack site in East Boston, told a gathering of engineers last Friday that reducing the reliance on natural gas in a new research building planned for the site has been a challenge.
The best HYM has been able to come up with is a 25/75 percent mix – that is, 25 percent electricity and 75 percent gas.
While there is broad agreement in Massachusetts about the need to deal directly with climate change, the devil is in the details.
The Biden administration recently announced plans to pump billions into researching green hydrogen as an eventual replacement for natural gas, with some of those dollars slated for Massachusetts.
If viable, this might provide an alternative to dismantling the natural gas industry, while also saving a whole lot of jobs.
Legal threats erupt as MassGOP convention looms
A scheme that would have packed the upcoming state Republican convention with Trumpie supporters of gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl has backfired in a big way.
The legal counsel for the MassGOP has issued a stern warning to the Western Mass GOP Patriots PAC, which took part in a thwarted effort to elect hundreds of Diehl delegates to the state convention and to circumvent established Republican town and ward committees.
Apparently, the MassGOP’s decision to reject the credentials of the group’s delegates didn’t go over well with the Western Mass GOP Patriots. The organization, which bills itself as “purpose driven TRUMP Conservative agenda PAC,” has been a big backer of Diehl, who won Trump’s endorsement last year and who has hired Corey Lewandowski, the ex-president’s long-time political henchman, as a top campaign advisor.
In an April 27th letter, the state party’s general counsel, David Carr, chastised the head of the Western Mass group for his “irrational, ungrounded accusations.” Lowering the boom, Carr warned that “any similar correspondence will be viewed as harassment” and that “criminal and civil penalties will be considered should you continue in the same manner.”
Yikes!
It’s no secret the state Republican party has been embroiled in a mini civil war between moderate supporters of Gov. Charlie Baker on one side, and Trump enthusiasts led by Diehl, state party chairman Jim Lyons, and Carr, a close ally and general counsel, on the other.
But that’s not what’s happening here. Rather, this particular spat signals a falling out within the state party’s Trump faction, pitting frustrated Western Mass Trumpies against the party’s leadership, currently controlled by equally diehard supporters of the ex-president.
Given their common idol’s penchant for bombast and filing foolish lawsuits at the drop of a hat, maybe the acrimony and threats of legal action are par for the course.
Still, it’s not a particularly good look as the MassGOP gears up for its state convention in Springfield on May 21.
Here’s how you know it’s a great scoop . . .
. . . When the powers that be threaten not a libel suit, but criminal prosecution to figure out where you got the story from.
Such is the case with Politico, which broke the news on Monday evening that the U.S. Supreme Court plans to overturn the 1973 Roe Vs. Wade decision after the political news site obtained a copy of the draft decision.
Chief Justice John Roberts plans to launch an investigation into the source of the bombshell leak, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans are raging about a potential criminal investigation by federal authorities.
Meanwhile, a Washington Post/ABC News poll shows the pending shocker of a decision by the high court is well out of step with public sentiment nationally. With 54 percent of the public against overturning Roe, compared to 28 percent in the anti-abortion camp, it’s not even close.
Of course, those numbers are likely to be very different in the Deep South and parts of the West, and therein lies the problem.
Warren pivots on inflation
When Sen. Elizabeth Warren hit the front-pages of The New York Times on April 18 to warn of a looming disaster for Dems in the fall mid-term elections, she used the word inflation just once, as we noted here.
And that was to blast a business mogul who had suggested “a little bit of inflation” may not be such a bad thing for his bottom line.
So, it was quite interesting to see the state’s senior senator appear on the front-page of The Boston Globe Tuesday morning in a story that portrays her as voice in the wilderness urging her party to confront inflation head on.
In fact, the story cites a study that finds Warren mentioned the word inflation during the first three and half months of 2022 a respectable 83 times, the most of any Democrat in Congress.
But it may not be so much that Warren wants to tackle inflation as to find a scapegoat, which is an understandable urge given Republicans are trying to pin this mess on the Democratic donkey.
We did a quick clip check of our own, and when Warren does use the I word, it’s often in the same breath as condemning some predictable corporate villain for engaging in price gouging.
By all means, go after the price gougers. But count us as skeptical that simply going after a corporate bad apple or two is going to do anything to rein in the global surge in prices.
Quick hits:
Will we finally see a cooling off in home prices? “Fed expected to hike interest rates Wednesday” The Hill
Not what anyone wants to hear: “Layoffs hit Bose as the company focuses on its ‘most popular’ products” Boston Globe
Banker & Tradesman’s Steve Adams has the scoop: One Congress Fully Leased as Intersystems Departs Cambridge
Sad but so true: “Battenfeld: Tragic death highlights MBTA’s history of cover ups and stonewalling” Boston Herald
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