Don't let the sun go down on Mass: Markey slams Trump over solar funding

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Good Monday morning, all.
You can count U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., among the chorus of Bay State pols who are less than thrilled over the Trump administration's decision to cancel a $7 billion grant program for solar energy.
The Malden lawmaker, who sits on the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, slammed the Republican White House over what he called its 'unlawful' decision to stick a fork in the Solar for All Program. Sixty states, including Massachusetts, which was in line for $156 million, were impacted.
'Instead of Solar for All, [President Donald] Trump and [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee] Zeldin want higher costs for all,' Markey said in a statement.
'This latest heist from the Trump administration will cause energy costs to rise, keep Americans beholden to monopolistic electric utilities, and make our grid overburdened and less reliable,' Markey continued. 'Trump and Zeldin's attacks on the Solar for All program and their attempts to cancel legally binding contracts will mean energy bills are going to continue to spike nationwide.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey also weighed in on the matter last week, urging the administration not to cancel the program. The plea fell on deaf ears.
'Solar is the fastest and cheapest way to bring affordable energy into Massachusetts,' Healey said in a statement
'Affordability isn't controversial – that's why states like Texas and Florida are building so much solar. And that's why my administration has been working hard to deliver more affordable solar to our residents and businesses through new incentives and programs like Solar for All," the Democratic governor continued.
Zeldin announced on social media last week that the administration was ending the program because the passage of the budget reconciliation bill in July eliminated its authority to run the program.
'The bottom line is this: EPA no longer has the statutory authority to administer the program or the appropriated funds to keep this boondoggle alive,' Zeldin wrote.
The program, passed under the former Biden administration as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, would have provided zero-interest loans, solar panels at public housing and funded workforce training, all with a focus on historically underserved communities.
It was set to begin in a few weeks in Massachusetts.
Healey's office said the funding was set to create 3,000 jobs and provide energy-bill-lowering solar for more than 29,000 households in the state.
Healey's office said the program would boost the state's solar capacity by 125 megawatts and touted the effect solar generation already has on the state.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also weighed in, arguing in a statement that 'canceling [the program] would be reckless and further proof that the Trump administration doesn't care about lowering costs.'
On April 20, solar arrays supplied 55% of electricity across the grid in New England, Healey's office said. It said local solar relieves stress on the grid's transmission and distribution infrastructure, The Republican, of Springfield, reported.
For Markey, that's a lose-lose-lose for consumers, the environment, and the economy.
'American households are already facing skyrocketing energy costs and are begging for relief, not political retribution. Solar for All was set to cut participating households' average energy bills by $400 a year, with more than $8 billion in savings overall across all fifty states,' he said.
'This program should have been a win for the Administration— cutting it means stealing $4.6 billion away from states with Republican governors or senators," he continued. 'A heist of that magnitude simply makes no political or practical sense, especially when energy bills are going up and our grid is desperate for more generation, not more gridlock.'
Kraft says Wu's plans for Mass and Cass are ineffective
Democratic Boston mayoral hopeful Josh Kraft has backed a Boston City Council member's call to declare a public emergency at the open-air drug market at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard in the city's South End.
Kraft challenged incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, also a Democrat, to explain how her office plans to tackle a public health and public safety crisis that remains an ongoing challenge after years of what he described as 'inertia' on the issue.
'Boston can no longer afford a passive response to the humanitarian crisis and public safety emergency unfolding on a daily basis,' around the area widely referred to as Mass and Cass, Kraft said in a statement.
Wu, he argued, has 'offered no coherent leadership. My plan puts public order, recovery, and real housing service solutions first.'
In a statement, Wu's campaign fired back, accusing Kraft of 'recycling' old ideas, The Boston Herald reported.
'Once again, Josh Kraft is willfully ignoring important work to enforce the law and address quality of life issues and root causes at Mass and Cass,' the Wu campaign said. 'Under Mayor Wu's leadership, Boston has built up pathways to recovery and permanent housing that never existed before and ended permanent encampments citywide. Hundreds of people who had been living on the streets are in treatment and housing, and fatal overdoses have dropped.'
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, a frequent Wu critic, issued the call for the emergency declaration earlier this month, arguing that the city's approach to the area, however well-intentioned, had failed.
'Any reasonable person who visits the area will say unequivocally that what has taken place there on a daily basis for over a decade now — an open air drug market and dealing, public drug use, the trafficking of women, acts of serious violence, public defecation and urination, among others — is completely unacceptable,' Flynn wrote in a resolution supporting the declaration.
Flynn said the challenges posed by the intersection have spilled into surrounding neighborhoods.
'South End and Roxbury are historic neighborhoods that are culturally diverse and host many families, seniors, and public housing residents who have lived in the area for many decades,' Flynn wrote. 'We must provide a safe and healthy environment, clean squares and parks, and a good quality of life for our residents by arresting and prosecuting those who are openly committing illegal crimes. It is critical that the Boston Police deploy more resources in addressing these complex public safety challenges.'
Flynn's resolution was on last week's Boston City Council agenda.
Both Wu and Kraft have acknowledged the tremendous difficulty of addressing the nationwide opioid epidemic and growing homelessness crisis at the local level.
The two campaigns also have advanced their own plans for dealing with the area, MassLive previously reported.
Wu's plan calls for using 'all levers' of city government, in partnership with the state and nonprofits, 'to end congregate substance use in Boston and the criminal activity that supports it,' she wrote to South End residents in a letter in June.
Under Kraft's plan, police would increase enforcement of public drug consumption, trespassing, tent camping, and other quality-of-life crimes. Prosecutions would be handled in specialty courts (something that's out of the mayor's hands), aiming to drive people into recovery programs rather than prison.
Kraft would also revive the Community Syringe Redemption Program, a needle collection program supported by pandemic relief money that encouraged people to return used needles for a monetary refund.
The city's preliminary election is Sept. 9.
Pressley calls for hearing for Epstein survivors
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District, joined by 15 of her Democratic colleagues, has called on the U.S. House Oversight Committee to hold a public hearing to 'prioritize' the voices of people abused by Jeffrey Epstein.
'If we are to hold powerful people to account, our investigation must center the voices they tried to silence. To ensure that our investigation is comprehensive and credible, we urge the Committee to allow survivors the opportunity to provide their testimony if they wish to do so,' Pressley, who sits on the panel, wrote to its chairperson, U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.
The letter was first reported by The 19th.
Pressley, of Boston, has made no secret of her own experience as an abuse survivor and has emerged as a vocal supporter of fellow survivors.
'I know the pain and trauma that survivors carry. Those that have been victimized by Epstein and his co-conspirators, they deserve this transparency, this accountability, this healing, and I think they've not been centered enough,' Pressley told The 19th. 'People have gotten distracted and derailed with what they perceive as the political gamemanship of this and people doing what my Republican colleagues do so often, which is playing games with people's lives.'
They Said It
'It's more illegal insanity from Trump.'
— Massachusetts Secretary of State William L. Galvin has some thoughts on Trump's call last week for a new Census that would not count people living in the country illegally. Galvin's office administers the Census, and he is the state's chief elections officer. (h/t Axios Boston)
Read more MassLive politics coverage
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Mass. Gov. Healey signs 'landmark' shield law update to protect people seeking reproductive care
'Severely lacking': Trump admin has backlog of 27K student loan complaints
Mass. Auditor DiZoglio lawyers up, calls Legislature an 'authoritarian regime'
First-time Worcester candidate has raised nearly 50% more than any competitors
Springfield city councilor files lawsuit against former colleagues, alleging 'calculated attack'
Housing advocates propose ballot question to bring rent control back to Mass.
What Goes On
A contingent of state lawmakers, agency officials and advocates is headed to Maine on Tuesday to talk to farmers and others who have been affected by so-called 'forever chemicals,' or per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals often referred to as PFAS chemicals.
The trip is part of an effort by state Sen. Joanne M. Comerford, D-Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester, and state Rep. James Arena-DeRosa, D-8th Middlesex, to advance respective Senate and House bills aimed at tackling the environmental and public health challenge.
The Bay State contingent is set to visit a PFAS-impacted farm in Arundel and then head to the state capitol in Augusta for further discussions.
The trip will 'offer an opportunity to learn from Maine's nation-leading work on this issue,' Comerford's office said in a statement, noting that 'Maine was the first state in the country to investigate the impacts of sewage sludge applications on farmland.'
Turned up to 11
Indie poppers Fritz and the Tantrums play the House of Blues in Boston on Aug. 18 (tickets and more info here). The band's new record, 'Man on the Moon‚' has just dropped. And from that LP, here's 'Withdrawals.'
Your Monday long read
The Atlantic's Anne Appelbaum takes you inside what she describes as 'the most nihilistic conflict on Earth:' the brutal and seemingly endless civil war that's consumed Sudan.
Its lesson: 'This is what replaces the liberal order — anarchy and greed."
Here's the germane bit:
'Statistics are sometimes used to express the scale of the destruction in Sudan. About 14 million people have been displaced by years of fighting, more than in Ukraine and Gaza combined. Some 4 million of them have fled across borders, many to arid, impoverished places — Chad, Ethiopia, South Sudan — where there are few resources to support them."
'At least 150,000 people have died in the conflict, but that's likely a significant undercounting. Half the population, nearly 25 million people, is expected to go hungry this year."
Hundreds of thousands of people are directly threatened with starvation. More than 17 million children, out of 19 million, are not in school. A cholera epidemic rages. Malaria is endemic."
'But no statistics can express the sense of pointlessness, of meaninglessness, that the war has left behind alongside the physical destruction.'
That's it for today. As always, tips, comments and questions can be sent to [e-mail]. Have a good week, friends.
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