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COVID-19 Devastating Massachusetts Economy

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This week’s Massachusetts news is again dominated by the great 2020 pandemic. While hospitalization rates remain high in Massachusetts, unemployment in the state has passed the 25 percent mark. In other news, the Clean Energy Center agrees to pay more than $20 M in a lawsuit, a UMASS professor is awarded a $1.4 M grant for wind turbine tech, and shuttered Mass. adult-use cannabis dispensaries are facing an existential threat. 

Unemployment Over 700,000

It’s been more than a month and a half since the state instituted social distancing measures in response to the coronavirus crisis. However, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Mass. continues to hover around the 4,800 mark, dropping only one percent in the past week. The official death toll in the state is now 3,562.

Meanwhile, another 70,700 unemployment claims were filed in the state in the past week — down from almost 81,000 the week prior. The total of unemployment claims in Mass. over the past six weeks was 722,171 as of Thursday, continuing an unprecedented trend not seen since the Great Depression.

According to WCVB News, that number includes claims filed through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program which provides benefits for self-employed workers and independent contractors.

Roughly 30.3 million US citizens have now filed for unemployment compensation in the six weeks.

Shutdown of Recreational Cannabis Shops Could Be ‘Catastrophic’ for Industry

With Gov. Charlie Baker’s executive order to shutter nonessential businesses soon to expire, recreational cannabis dispensaries in the state fear the possibility of an extension on the ban or severe limitations in how adult-use shops may operate.

According to Adam Fine, at cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg:

“[Massachusetts] is really an outlier in terms of how the governor has responded to COVID with respect to the cannabis industry. Unlike liquor stores and unlike a lot of other sectors, [adult-use cannabis companies] really were treated differently. …It’s about as catastrophic as you can get for their businesses. They were forced to shut down with very little notice in a highly regulated industry after they had already implemented social distancing.”

Fine, who spoke with Cannabis Business Times, also pointed out that an ongoing shutdown could adversely affect employee retention in an industry in which hiring and training costs can be high. 

Furthermore, federal lifelines being offered to small businesses do not apply to the cannabis industry which is still considered to be in violation of federal laws — especially the adult-use sector which is not covered under Cole Memo guidelines. 

UMASS Lowell Researcher Receives $1.4 M for Cutting-Edge Wind Turbine Monitoring System

A clean energy researcher at UMass Lowell has received a $1.4 million grant from the US Department of Energy to further develop his scheme to identify damage in wind turbines before they fail. 

Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Murat Inalpolat’s novel system “uses wireless microphones mounted inside blades, wireless speakers inside the turbine's cavity and a microphone placed near the structure to monitor the sounds emanating from inside of it,” Inalpolat told Eurekalert!, adding “Any changes in audio frequencies would signal blade damage.”

According to a study by Global Market Insights Inc., wind power is projected to surpass $170 billion over the next four years. And according to figures from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Global Wind Energy Council, there are 60,000 wind turbines in the US and more than 341,000 in operation globally. 

Clean Energy Center to Pay $2 Million in Lawsuit 

After shelling out $2.3 million to law firms to defend the organization, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has lost a high-profile suit and now must pay a $20.8 million settlement. 

Already on shaky financial ground, the Center, which has been charged with growing the state’s clean energy economy, has been overspending its allotment of Revenue Trust Fund funds by millions of dollars each year. The fund was established in 1998 as part of the deregulation of the electric utility industry. 

According to a report in Commonwealth Magazine, the lawsuit “stemmed from work related to the 28-acre, $113 million New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, a staging site for offshore wind development that has yet to take off.” 

The Clean Energy Center was sued by two contractors on the project who alleged the agency “misrepresented the amount of work necessary to dredge the harbor to make way for the terminal.” According to the report, the Clean Energy Center claims the underestimate was the fault of the contractors.

After a trial that lasted several weeks, a verdict was entered in one day awarding the plaintiffs $21.3 million which includes a $20.8 million settlement reached in February plus the plaintiffs’ legal fees.

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