clean energy

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.

We can reconcile the urgent demand of citizens to have carbon-free energy and the obligation of our municipal light plants to provide affordable, reliable power when the two sides, citizens and light plants, join together.

The Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC), acting for a project consortium of 14 municipal light plants, is proposing to build a 55-megawatt peaker power plant in Peabody to assure a supply of capacity power during times of heavy use and in an emergency.

Their proposed use of fossil fuel blended with hydrogen will be a threat to public health, harm the natural environment, contribute to the climate crisis — and the plant is a risky financial investment.

We must not continue to rely on fossil fuels for everything. There are new ways to provide reliable, affordable, renewable power. Can we provide the peak demand for electricity using renewables?

Guest Article by Lew Milford and Abbe Ramanan (Clean Energy Group) ~ In a hotter world, we can expect more power outages — both from surging demand and from climate-driven disasters. The question is, how can we protect vulnerable people when the power goes out?...Industry representatives admit that natural gas is in the “fight of its life.” And what is their strategy to convince the public to keep burning gas? One slide revealed their plan: take advantage of power outage fears.

Many gas developers already have proposed continued investment in fossil fuel-based resources — and to blend and burn hydrogen with gas — because, they say, renewables will lead to more frequent power outages.