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- - Leftyblogs MA Blogroll - Almost all of my favorite lefty blogs in Massachusetts can be found here. Linking here keeps my own blogroll short but still up to date! Below are some other MA blogs which are not listed at LB.
- H2Otown (Watertown, MA)
- MargeBLOG (Williamstown)
- Michael Forbes Wilcox (Western MA)
- The Gazebo (Worcester area)
Media in Lowell
- Community Connections The online archive of many of WUML's radio shows.
- LTC :: Our community cable access channel (8 & 10). Excellent people, I've worked with them before.
- Open Source :: Chris Lydon's new show, broadcast on WUML and WGBH locally.
- The Lowell Sun :: Love it or hate it, it's the big newspaper in town.
- WCAP radio :: Talk radio in Lowell - still locally owned, and in transition.
- WUML :: The student- and community-run radio station of UMass-Lowell. Lynne hosts a radio show, Thinking Out Loud, 10am on Fridays.
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The Arts in Lowell
- 119 Gallery - Art gallery with exhibitions of many local artists, interesting events, and living, breathing culture.
- Arts League of Lowell (ALL) - Artist community group, a recent but welcome addition to the arts scene in Lowell.
- Brush Art Gallery - Come and meet working artists in their natural habitats!
- Cultural Organization of Lowell (COOL) - Great local calendar of events.
- Lowell Opera Company - Community opera.
- Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra - Local community orchestra.
- Lowell Poetry Network
- Lowell Rocks - List of live music events
- Merrimack Repertory Theatre - A local theatre "presenting an exciting mix of contemporary and new plays in historic downtown Lowell."
- OUtlET - Paper and online 'zine making a splash locally with events in art, poetry, music, and everything in between!
- Revolving Museum Contemporary, local, public art space with a plethora of children's programs and art by and for the community.
- The Fine Print - Socially aware, themed, arts and issues periodic publication available throughout Lowell.
- The Image Theater - Theatre company which puts on all original works by local playwrights.
- Whistler House Museum - A great collection of contemporaries of Whistler at his historic birthplace.
April 11th, 2008 at 9:02 am
> There is a glut of capacity in New England
I’ve had the feeling that there is enough capacity. I don’t remember a brownout in the last ten years. I’ve always wondered if they’re trying to sell excess power to New York City where it is impossible to build a plant. But they have huge energy needs and it’s a lot easier to build plants in less populous areas. That’s why I think that NH would be a better place to stick these plants. Population density is far lower and we have the natural gas pipelines running through the state.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Or, how about we all start getting serious about conserving and getting renewable energy sources, and put a moratorium on ALL fossil fuel plants period end of story?
It’s getting frustrating. The status quo tells us, well, that’ll be for the future, right now we need to create MORE fossil fuel plants because there’s just no other way. So when is it that we draw the line and cross over to the point where fossil fuel plants are banned and all new energy sources be renewable? It should have been done years ago.
I think traditional power plant building should be stricter in this state, much more difficult to build. We’re too loose here. Peak power plants should just be outright banned. Let’s build the grid storage plants instead, that take in power when it’s plentiful to be released when it’s not. We’ll need those in a big way anyway, once we go to more renewable but less reliable sources of energy, like solar or wind. So we kill two birds with one stone - start building the infrastructure we’ll need in the future now and stop having to build these asinine and INEFFICIENT peak power plants.
Oh right, there’s not enough profit in grid storage plants. Silly me.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I agree with Paige and Lynne.
Why should adults and children in this area tolerate the burden of these peaking plants, especially when we are not demanding more power?
In the year 2008, why are we having to defend ourselves from the inevitable health consequences of excessive fossil fuels burning in our neighborhoods?
Technologies exist to eliminate the need for such plants. But, as Lynne described, they are just not profitable…at least in the monetary sense of the word.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:41 am
what opponents of new power plants fail to realize is that power companies would prefer NOT to build new plants - it is not in their financial interest to do so. If people, and corporations, would conserve energy (i.e. not use as much energy) then new power plants would not need to be built. Don’t blame the power company, blame many people’s perceived “need” that every building be air conditioned, every square foot of property illuminated all night long, and many people’s perceived “need” for wide-screen t.v.s, etc. If residents, and corporations, would REDUCE their power demand, their would be no need for a new power plant. As I see it, you are not devoting your focus in the right direction.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:43 am
WC makes a good point, and it should be applied to our use of gasonline as well.
As far as power storage on the Grid, I would think that during times of excess power, that electricity could be used to generate hydrogen, as the latent power in that could be used for fuel cell operation. So rather than the power company footing the bill for a power storage system, a separate company could buy their electricity at a discount and create hydrogen for eventual fuel cell systems.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Power companies don’t build power plants-energy investment firms do. Then they sell them. There is plenty of financial interest in building these plants. The energy is sold forward in a futures market-energy generated three years from now can be sold for a high locked price now. The other point w.c. makes about conservation is very critical. But, there is no need for new fossil fuel burning power plants. The developers hope you correlate a perceived need with their proposal to build a plant. The state isn’t telling us we need it, the developer is. Hmm. Where has this marketing been applied before????
April 14th, 2008 at 6:07 am
To WC - I like your point about conservation. Working in downtown Boston I do see improvements in attitudes as Building Mgt tries to reduce their energy bills. My own building institutes a blinds closed on sunnny days to keep the inside cooler & use less air conditioning, among other measures.
I do take issue w/ your comment that power companies don’t want new plants. ISO-NE actually provides seminars to power developers (separate entities) to help them choose the most financially sucessful location. The formula is that the more efficient a plant, base on location and access to gas, water, and transit, the more profitable it is. The developer builds the plant - locks in a price per KW, and then leaves after about a year. Another company is then hired to manage the plant. The developer has made it’s money (future) and the power company continues to be profitable because it has a more efficient running plant for the SAME PRICE - or market price of electricity.
I don’t know where you hear that power companies don’t want new plants, I’m curious if you would share that. If you look at ISO-NE web site from the perspective of a engergy plant developer you will see all the incentives for making a profit there.
And now I have to turn off my PC becuase I’m leaving the for day and I DO conserve power whenever I can grab the oppportunity. But I’ll check back.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:46 am
On PCs, we have Pentium 4 systems that use up a lot more power compared to modern PCs. I’ve turned off my office system and bring in my own laptop for use in the office - it has Intel’s latest chip which uses way less power than Pentium 4 systems. Technology continues to reduce the amount of power that CPU chips require - it’s pretty amazing to watch the progress over the years.
We’re not quite there with lightbulbs but I do hope we get there too.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:13 am
For those that attended the meeting last night, L’Energia is a regular, round the clock power plant. The developer states it is due to start operation in July/August-of course just when the air is at its worst. Please don’t worry though, he said there will be no health impacts from the plant. Cough, cough. Excuse me.
The plans for the second plant on that site, a peaking facility have been withdrawn per the DPU. However, Montgomery Energy still owns the parcel and could develop another plant on that site at some point in the future.
Since L’Eneriga is under 100MW, it did not have to go through the same permitting process larger plant projects do. But don’t worry, you are in good hands. The developer actually is doing you a favor, he said, by re-powering this plant (which has been idle=not emitting anything). He is rescuing Lowell from what could have been- someone who could have just limped along the plant with its old dirty engines (except it hasn’t been running=not emitting anything). So somehow, his emissions are now better than no emissions. Gosh, thanks.