Time to restart all those long-shuttered nuclear plants? | Slide in condo, apartment construction accelerates | Coming to a town near you: Bans on natural gas hookups | Quick Hits | About Contrarian Boston
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Ready or not, here come the bans on natural gas hookups
Cambridge, Lexington, Concord and Newton. These are among the 10 suburbs and cities in the Boston area that would be given a green light to experiment with bans on new gas hookups under a much larger climate change bill that is headed to Gov. Baker’s desk.
After significant pushback from developers and other members of the business community, the final version is significantly narrower than what was first proposed, with exemptions for new lab and medical buildings, while towns and cities must demonstrate they are committed to boosting the amount of affordable housing in order to participate.
The booming life sciences sector relies heavily on natural gas, with no easy off ramp at the moment, while there has also been concern that the hookup bans might increase the cost to build new housing at a time of soaring rents and prices.
A state study issued in February found that single-family homes and small condo and apartment buildings would be cheaper to build and maintain over the long run if they are all electric from the start, according to James Sanna at Banker & Tradesman.
Overall, the larger climate change bill will boost rebates for buyers of electric vehicles and crack down on tailpipe emissions, while also upping support for new wind and solar projects.
Now the question is whether Baker will sign off on the bill, given the still strong reservations in some quarters about the inclusion of the gas hookups ban.
Stay tuned.
Developers get cold feet: Slide in local condo, apartment construction steeper than realized
Speaking of housing, we took another look at the latest data on Boston-area building permits, zeroing in on multifamily projects.
As we noted here, there was a 6.4 percent drop in the number of building permits issued for new condos and apartments during the first five months of 2022, compared to the same period last year, U.S. Census Bureau numbers show.
But that drop, while pretty significant, doesn’t tell the full story.
Up until March, builders were fairly busy gearing up to start work on new rental and condo projects, with permit numbers coming in above where they were a year before.
But after a double-digit decline in April, the bottom fell out in May, with a roughly 50 percent plunge to 711 units compared to May 2021.
And this is at a time when the vacancy rate in Boston’s rental market stands at an unbelievably tight 0.43 percent, according to Boston Pads.
A combination of a shortage of key construction materials, with surging prices for them as well, has led developers to delay or even stop some projects, Jeff Rhuda, business development manager for Symes Associates, a Beverly-based residential developer, told CB.
In fact, construction costs are up 30-to-40 percent over pre-pandemic levels, Rhuda noted.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on the June numbers when they come out.
As the planet cooks, nuclear power gets a second look
Can nuclear power make a comeback?
Well, the short answer is maybe in other parts of the country, but not in New England. From the 1970s on, opponents of nuclear power very effectively demonized a key source of non-carbon emitting power, hounding one plant after another out of existence.
Now one of those activists, who took part in protests outside Seabrook when the nuclear plant was being built in 1979, is having second thoughts.
Check out this opinion piece in the Globe by John DeVillars, a former state environmental affairs chief who went on to oversee New England for the federal EPA.
DeVillars’ argument is simple and compelling: As climate change goes from bad to worse, we can’t just confine our efforts to wind and solar. We need every weapon in our arsenal, including nuclear.
In practical terms, that means hanging on to the 54 remaining nuclear plants across the country, while moving ahead with a new generation of smaller, and more technologically advanced reactors.
Here’s DeVillars: “But if I had known in the ’70s what I know today, I might well have been on the other side of the street holding a sign reading: “Better to Build It Today than to Leave a Scorched Earth Tomorrow.”
Gannett decision to slash opinion pages panned
As we noted here, the struggling newspaper chain’s decision to scale back the opinion pages at its holdings across the country is a real head scratcher.
Slashing and trashing local papers in Massachusetts and across the country, Gannett is likely just trying to squeeze a few more pennies out of its holdings.
For the record, though, Gannett is arguing that its opinion pages are driving away readers and leading them to cancel subscriptions.
Dan Patio Dalton, a veteran of the ad and marketing side of the news business, also takes issue with Gannett’s short-sighted move.
Here’s what he had to say on LinkedIn:
“Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK is reportedly cutting back on opinion pages saying they are alienating readers and becoming obsolete. Having represented the likes of Mary McGrory at The Washington Post and William F. Buckley at The National Review, among others, I am saddened to learn of this. Good columns, like the one Steve Lopez at The Los Angeles Times, crafted yesterday, not only explain both sides of an issue, but are a precursor of developing stories. If you are concerned about our democracy, and the direction it is headed, I can think of no better way to defend it than an informed public.”
Well said.
Quick hits:
Just when you think the meltdown at the T can’t get any worse, this happens: “Fire and Smoke Led to Chaos on the Orange Line Once Again” Boston magazine
Is time finally up for the MBTA? “Charlie Baker open to dissolving the MBTA” Boston Herald
Globe discovers politics are indeed different beyond I-495: ‘A little red pocket on the New Hampshire border’: The national fissures splitting a competitive Mass. state rep. race
Interesting take on MassGOP gubernatorial debate. Also, Doughty scores with the best one liner: “Doughty says Diehl cannot win running as an Alabama Republican” CommonWealth Magazine
What is Contrarian Boston?
I have fielded emails over the past couple of months asking what Contrarian Boston is about.
Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.
For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.
An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.
Our focus is:
· Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;
· Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;
· The media and why it does what it does;
· Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;
· And whatever else catches our fancy.