On a bright November Saturday, advocates for clean energy from across Massachusetts joined Peabody residents in the "Peabody Peaker Push" at the courthouse in Peabody Square to advocate against the proposed gas- and oil-fired electric generator (“Project 2015A”).
Among them was Peabody resident Hunter, a young man of 8 years, holding a sign that said, “Non Renewable Energy is Peak Stupidity.”
I presented this document to Peabody Mayor Ted Bettencourt in 2012. That's right, nine years ago. Now compare the ideas of 2012 with the ideas in the letter I just wrote to Mayor Bettencourt, in 2021.
Peabody faces an energy challenge. We now depend largely on carbon-based sources of energy, and these pose major challenges: they are expensive and costs are uncertain, supplies are vulnerable, and the use of fossil fuels threatens society as well as all forms of life through greenhouse gases and global warming. But Peabody can seize the opportunity to transition to renewable sources of energy and save money while reducing harm to the environment.
When we stepped into ‘activist central,’ aka, the Hull home of Judeth Van Hamm, her computer sat on a desk, layers deep with books, articles, papers, art that echoed out into a fully utilized office/living room. Her abundant personal library features books on spirituality sitting next to those on Urban Planning, Solar Transit, and Biodiversity. Judeth is a dedicated climate activist who never separates the physical from the metaphysical, and she is determined to change this world for the better.
Tracy Valletti, in response to the planning of an oil and gas peak energy facility proposed for her town, is running to serve on the Board of the Peabody Municipal Light Plant.
Mary Harris Jones, the famous labor organizer, told a group of young miners who’d rented a church for their union meeting:
“Boys, you pray for the dead. You fight like hell for the living.”
Then Mother Jones snatched from the priest’s lap the hat, full of money that they’d paid to use the church hall, and led the miners out of the church into the fields.
If there were a contemporary incarnation of Mother Jones, it would be Pat Gozemba.
Some people are so self involved that they don’t notice the world around them, except in the ways it touches them.
Some people see a problem, shrug their shoulders and say ‘That is too big! I can’t do anything about it.”
Lynn Nadeau looks at a problem, rubs her hands together, rolls up her sleeves, and says “Let’s get to it, now!”
Residential neighborhoods in Peabody and Danvers are close to the proposed gas turbine peaker, marked by an old smokestack
Judith Black was Mistress of Ceremonies for a rally called by the National Green New Deal Alliance to urge Representative Seth Moulton to support the budget reconciliation bill. Members from participating organizations included 350MASS, SAFE, SEIU 32 BJ, League of Women Voters, MARA (Mass Renew alliance) Renew New England Alliance, Breathe Clean North Shore, Sunrise, and many others.
In stark violation of the Climate Law, Acts of 2021, Ch. 8 S. 15, the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) on August 12 approved the request of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) to borrow $85 million to finance building the project 2015A peaker plant slated to be sited at the Waters River, at the Peabody/Danvers border, with the option to refinance at a later date.
The provisions of the Climate Law should have required a comprehensive health and environmental review with consideration of reliability, equity, and impact on the climate, not just cost, before proceeding.
I write out of deep concern and a sense of urgency about the impacts of MMWEC’s
proposed 55MW peak capacity generator in Peabody (Project 2015A) on the people and communities I represent. I am requesting that you employ your authority to ensure that
both a comprehensive health impact assessment and an environmental impact report precede the granting of any permit by the DPU, and to insist that the provisions of the Climate Law, Acts of 2021, Ch. 8 S. 15 are adhered to by the DPU as they evaluate the proposal.