I write to support H3150/S2117 “An Act advancing clean energy, equity, and innovation within municipal utilities.” This bill is supported by 30 climate organizations in the Commonwealth.
Photo: Mother and child. Bonnie Bain and Peyton Massie look into their future during their participation in a demonstration against the Peabody peaker plant.
We burn fossil fuels—coal, oil, gas, wood, diesel, gasoline—for the energy we use in all our activities. These fires create pollution that harms our health and endangers our climate. Come with me and survey some of the sources of pollution in our city, Peabody, Massachusetts. Then we can begin to discuss how we can work together to change things and reduce pollution.
Remarks prepared for the Peabody meeting of the ISO New England Community Liaison Group on June 8, 2023.
I’m Jerry Halberstadt, a founding member of Breathe Clean North Shore and Coordinator of the Clean Power Coalition and of Healthy Air Peabody.
Prepared for presentation at Brooksby Village on March 6, 2023
[Steve Andrada presented his film, "Stop the Peabody Peaker Plant," to an enthusiastic audience of over 100 at the Torigian Senior Center on February 16, 2023. The film documents the 2-year long efforts of residents of Peabody and beyond to stop the construction of an old technology facility that would create additional pollution. Here is Steve's introduction.]
Guest article by Win Flint
We all want to see the truly enormous changes required of our nation and world to mitigate and slow climate change. Only government has the power to mandate and implement the needed systemic changes. Getting government to change requires legislation and for that to happen, politicians need to change. They only do this after extreme pressure from voters.
So British Petroleum (BP) and the fossil energy empires are doing everything they can to prevent people from uniting for change. Hence the “carbon footprint”.
Everyone wants their family (children, adults, and elderly) to enjoy good health. We all want to breathe healthy air, avoid illness, and live a long, happy life.
But pollution poisons our air, makes us sick, and kills some of us.
Introduction to the Healthy Air Peabody program, a community organization effort focused on health education and mitigation of harm is a springboard for remedial action.
I appreciate the decades of service to the people of Peabody by Charles Bonfanti as he retires from his position as Commissioner of the Peabody Municipal Light Plant (PMLP), as reported on January 2, 2023, by Caroline Enos (Light commissioner steps down over activists' push to stop peaker plant).
Like Mr. Bonfanti, we are all struggling to understand and adapt to what seems like a sudden emergency as we become aware of high rates of illness and death from pollution and the looming threat of climate change. Yet although these existential threats have been known for decades, we have all conspired to ignore them.
Within the context of emissions monitoring, I want to return to the point of cumulative impact. This facility is being built on the same site as two existing peaking power plants—two plants that have been polluting surrounding neighborhoods for decades with serious impacts. Preliminary studies have shown that census tracts around the Waters River site have significantly higher levels of pulmonary disease, cardiac issues, cancer, and other illnesses than other parts of the city and the state. This new facility cannot be considered in a vacuum: it will be piling on top of existing emissions and generations of environmental racism and harm.