Truth Behind Chocolate

In the past several years, the buzz behind chocolate and it’s potential health benefits has been circulating throughout various lifestyle magazines and science-based publications. It might even be the sweet excuse we needed to consume more dark chocolatey desserts than usual, and without the guilt! Unfortunately, most of the chocolate sold to us in stores and at restaurants is generally not the ‘superfood’ we’re looking for rich in vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, and flavanols. Though popular consensus tells us that eating a little raw cacao everyday could lower our risk for cardiovascular disease and other heart-related illnesses, it is widely known that sugar and milk fats will not. And, as with any food, the way it is harvested, processed, stored and distributed can also alter the (believably beneficial) chemical composition. I look forward to coming research and, in the meantime, keep tuned to your body and what you put inside it!

First U.S. Off-Shore Wind Farm in Rhode Island

Despite the public controversies, legalities, and political hurdles, the untapped source of renewable energy provided through off-shore wind projects has been of keen interest to many Americans and clean energy proponents for years now. Thus, last Thursday, August 18th, was a momentous event as Deepwater Wind completed it’s Rhode Island pilot project off the coast of Block Island, and is set to begin generating electricity this fall. The five turbines (a modest array when compared to the capacity of wind power supplied in the European Union) will for the first-time ever connect Block Island to the mainland grid, and is projected to reduce local electricity rates by 30-40% (currently, electricity on the island is supplied by diesel, which must be shipped from the mainland).

Spectra’s Days Are Numbered

A victory was won last week for environmental groups in Boston when the Supreme Judicial Court ruled against a finance scheme proposed by the pipeline consortium to have ratepayers foot the $3 billion necessary for upfront construction costs. The gas and electric utilities, Eversource and National Grid, had teamed up with the pipeline company, Spectra Energy, to construct Access Northeast, a pipeline they say would have saved annual greenhouse gases equivalent to 650,00 cars. However, the court ruled that ‘customers cannot be forced to shoulder costs for private gas pipelines’. Not to mention the schools, residential neighborhoods, wetlands, and wild spaces they wanted to build through!