AMHERST — In Amherst to host a town hall focused on climate change in 2018, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey remembers 1,000 people packing into the auditorium at Amherst Regional Middle School to talk about ways to confront the crisis.
Back in Amherst on Thursday afternoon, this time at the University of Massachusetts flagship campus for the first time since the pandemic began, Markey said he believes the $995,000 he and U.S. Rep James McGovern inserted into the federal budget to support the work of the Energy Transition Institute will be money well spent.
“I know how much Amherst cares about climate,” Markey, a champion of the Green New Deal, said. “We just have an incredible interest in that issue out here.”
Speaking at the Old Chapel, Markey and McGovern celebrated the congressionally directed spending for the institute, which is bringing together energy technology research and social justice, with an aim of enhancing green energy technology and infrastructure, while also focusing on equity.
The money will go toward three main objectives of the institute: supporting community-engaged research to develop an equitable energy transition framework throughout the state; funding graduate and postgraduate energy transition fellowships; and supporting research and development of low-cost means for putting electrical and broadband lines underground.
Markey said the institute strives toward a future that leaves no one behind, and he understands it is critical to help people from all backgrounds and income levels, observing his own childhood in Malden when corporate polluters were allowed to ravage the Malden River.
“We’re at a critical juncture. We have to get this done,” Markey said, observing that Boston Harbor is the second-fastest warming body of water in the world after the Arctic. “The planet is running a fever, and there are no emergency rooms for a planet.”
McGovern said the money will be used for faculty and staff to innovate and take programs to the next level.
“It think it is revolutionary,” McGovern said. “It is what we have to do.”
The money for the institute will also support community engagement, the education of diverse future leaders and cutting-edge research to inform an equitable energy transition.
The importance of this work, McGovern said, can be seen in the recent spikes in gasoline prices and the challenges the energy supply is facing from the war in Ukraine.
Meantime, an additional $1 million in federal spending is going toward the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences robotics and computer science programs, ensuring that women and other underrepresented populations can access scholarships and fellowships.
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy praised Markey and McGovern for their work, adding that the nearly $2 million coming to UMass is indicative of their values. “They’ve dedicated their lives to championing equity and access for all,” Subbaswamy said.
The money will also help toward the goal of having a campus free of fossil-fuel energy consumption in the next decade.
Markey and McGovern were also on hand for the 50th anniversary of the University Without Walls program. That program is the hub of online education, lifelong learning and the Amherst campus Flex initiative, as well as home to one of the oldest bachelor’s degree completion programs in the country.
Kate Hogan, who graduated from the program in 1988 and is speaker pro tempore of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, was the keynote speaker.
As they arrived at the Old Chapel, the politicians were met by a handful of protesters, including members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wearing monkey masks. They are calling on UMass to end laboratory research on marmosets.
McGovern observed that he always learns something when on the campus, and that in addition to being approached by the protesters, he also made a donation to and spoke to students supporting Ukrainian relief.
Earlier in the afternoon, Markey held a press conference at ISO New England in Holyoke to object to the regional electric grid operator’s recent proposal to delay the elimination of the minimum offer price rule. That delay, Markey said, will put clean energy at a disadvantage, drive up energy bills for households and prevent renewable energy and energy storage from qualifying for wholesale electricity auctions.
ISO representatives, though, have said the delay is about continuing the green energy transition while maintaining the reliability of the power system.
Markey, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, has written a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission explaining his position in requiring immediate reform of the minimum offer price rule.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
