As someone who has lived (and driven) in both, my take on RI drivers is that there is an abnormally high %-age of "squatters" and "zoomers". Squatters get into the left most lane and stay there, regardless of if they are passing or not. Zoomers are constantly changing lanes, passing on the right, etc.

Now the question is: Are there more zoomers because there are more squatters, or vice versa?

One nice thing about some MassHousing loans is that they come with PMI+, which is their own program which will cover your mortgage payment for up to 6 months if you lose you job. Obviously nobody wants to pay PMI...but if you have to then this is a nice feature of the program.

Another nice feature is that MassHousing will always be the servicer of your loan, even if they sell the loan on. So you will always be paying MassHousing, and you'll always be able to call them for assistance, which is a nice benefit given some of the stories I've seen about some for-profit loan servicers.

heat pumps also operate as air conditioners and electric vehicles may increase year round energy needs

The hard part is Net Metering. In our northern state, you make most of your solar in summer, but with a heat pump, most of your use is in Winter. This will continue to raise winter electric rates. When you net meter, you gain the dollar value of the electricity in summer, but then have to pay the actual cost in Winter. Currently, with National Grid, The summer rate (minus the MassSave, since MassSave won't give you credits), was 22¢, and the winter is near 48¢, meaning you pay the grid (plus MassSave) 26¢ for power in winter, plus your cost of solar, depending on financing and such anywhere from 10-20¢, we'll use my personal 13¢ for my panels over 25 years, and you've paid 39¢ for electricity in winter, which is still higher than nearly any state. If you look at another comment I made above, pellets cost the equivalent of 21¢ of electricity, so 39¢ per kwh to run a heat pump is just crazy.

High efficiency wood stoves don't put the smoke inside the house, they have heat exchangers that put the heat into household air and blows it back in.

On the price, a bag of pellets is $6.40, providing 264,000btu in an 80% efficient pellet stove - that's 41,250 btus per dollar. With my Mitsubishi heat pump, the seasonal average is 8940 btu per kwh, which means I need electric to be under 21.7¢ to be cheaper than pellets. Standard rate from national grid is a hair shy of 48¢, even my super cheap supply rate that I locked in the day national grid announced their increases, my rate is 26.5¢, and I don't think that will be available next year.

maybe this will turn people to solar. :( the increased demand will probably raise prices.

Getting a great pump in the Spring!

Oof, not good for you indoor air quality if that's your primary source. Wood ain't cheap either.

I have a heat pump, I love my heat pump. I also have multiple backup options for electricity and heat. I'm not under any false impression that more electric use in the winter in MA won't continue to raise costs and destabilize the grid; it certainly will. Analyzing solar production in our northern state in the winter time, seeing our anti-peaker plant mentality, regular folk are headed for rough times in an all-heat pump and green energy environment. As a two-income-no-kid and heavy saver couple, we can afford whatever challenges these policies bring... The average person can't and that's who I feel bad for.

Heat pumps are the new conservative boogyman.

At the current electric rates it doesn’t make sense for me to install a heat pump. I’ll keep on burning wood.

In Eversource are very happy with everyone installing heat pumps!

Sad you think that would be an issue.

A change like this doesn't happen overnight. Having everyone change off of heating oil in the next 10 years let alone 30 years wouldn't crash the grid.

The change needs to happen eventually. Get the fuck over ot.

Sad this needs to be explained. I hear my house with oil, you force me and all my neighbors to switch to heat pumps, now we use electric. What happens when too many people are pulling from the grid? Here is a hint…they ask you to stop using power then you have rolling blackouts. Look at NJ on Christmas Eve they were asking people to turn off Christmas lights to ease the strains on the system.

......what

What happens when we run out of electric for those heat pumps though?

Do we really think driving habits are noticeably different from state to state? Maybe driving in the south versus the midwest versus the pacific coast but how can there be any real difference between Mass-Conn-Rhode Island? All three crowded urban states, lots of traffic, old winding roads... More likely real differences between rural-suburban-urban than between Mass and R. I.-- so worse in Pawtucket and Providence, better in Middleborough and Attleboro, and much worse in Boston, and great out in Deerfield, Sheffield, and all those other quiet rural areas.

Maybe a joke post since everyone knows the term "Masshole" applies to Massachusetts drivers and Boston area drivers in particular. No epithet for Rhode Island drivers because there's no vulgar but catchy pun available for Rhode Island.

Yes....they will not move out of the right lane either. Every screwball mindless thing they do. Pacing the car next to them, not signaling, can't maintain speed. Remember, a good number of the are uninsured also so good luck when the accident happens.

Personally, I disagree, but perhaps others here will have a different opinion than myself. Rhode Island drivers always seemed like safe drivers in my opinion. I do not find them "slow" but I do know they keep a good distance between themselves. That's something I admire.

But it’s only useful to commute into Boston: are there really people willing to commute farther than that?

Personally I’d like to see high speed trains from Boston to Worcester and Springfield, and wonder if they are big enough to support the beginnings of a train system. While that wouldn’t directly support rural areas, it would be supporting a much higher percentage of residents plus putting transit in reach of more people

Better than a $1700 fine at the end of the year for not having it… well I can’t afford that either! Quite a paradox.

I can barely live on $28 an hour much longer, gettin tired of workin 50+ a week just to struggle by. I dunno how people do it with families. Me and a cat and that’s pushin it.

The states the one who took away our zoning control. Now we have houses in wetlands and on roads we never intended for houses. Condo associations putting houses right next to each other instead of spaced like required. The state is also the one who mandates how we replace buildings with the absolute most expensive method possible then looks away when its bid time. I have turned obvious no bid contracts over to the AG, she called the person who wrote the bid to ask if they did anything wrong. Reinterpret laws to get what she wants though? Absolutely. She should be disbarred.

I agree that is safe to say, but it is also safe to say that a majority of MA tax money is spent on the greater Boston metro as well, so that doesn't tell us how much leaves greater Boston and goes to all the rural towns like you said. Do you have a source for your claim? I'd like to verify that and see how much towns are getting from Boston.

Additional rain diluted the poison in the water supply