Report by Judith Black, Photos by Jerry Halberstadt
[Judith Black hosted the gathering, supported by 350 Mass members including Steve Andrada, Jim Mulloy, and Ellen Leaman]
On April 11, 2024, at a meeting organized by members of the 350 Mass-North Shore Node, advocates for climate and justice launched the Northeast of Boston Climate Roundtable at the Torigian Senior Center in Peabody.
Healthy Air for All is a voluntary community organization effort focused on health education and mitigation of harm from pollution and a springboard for advocacy and remedial action.
Everyone wants their family to enjoy good health. We all want to breathe healthy air, avoid illness, and live a long, joyful life.
But pollution poisons our air, makes us sick, and kills us.
That pollution is caused by burning coal, oil, and gas in our homes, factories, and cars.
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.
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”.
At Devereux Beach, the dark sky and light rain gradually gave way to clearing and brightness. Reverend Kendra Ford led climate activists in the process of openly admitting their feelings of grief and seeing that mourning for loss because of the destruction unleashed by global warming is painful because of love for their families and the natural world.
The people of Peabody care for each other, honor their fallen heroes and nurture their children and their youth.
Clean power from renewable resources is beating fossil fuels in price, reliability, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As governments support these climate-friendly sources of power with financial and other incentives, they pose a threat to suppliers of fossil fuel energy.
We are concerned about the future of our grandchildren. Their future depends on our rapid action to replace burning fossil fuels to produce energy with renewable energy sources. This goal is essential to mitigate climate disaster and must be met by everyone working together, especially by the government. Therefore we are advocates for a responsive government that serves the public—but people that we trust to do the people’s business are not acting in our interests.
So here we are, watching a new but already obsolete methane gas-fueled electric generator being installed to help meet the responsibility of 14 municipal light plants to provide power to meet the peak needs of the electric system. This Project 2015A, the Peabody peaker plant, developed by the Massachusetts Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC), has no rational basis consistent with public health, environmental concerns, or climate warming. There are better solutions, nonpolluting, more reliable, and less expensive.
But our regulators have not adapted to the changing technology options and do not recognize the danger of the climate crisis in determining policy. The regulators at the regional and national level claim to use competition on price as a means of regulating and serving the common good. But we know that people and institutions motivated by profit tend to be vulnerable to economic and political influence that can punish innovation and harm the public good. Today, we see policies that protect fossil fuel plants that cause harm and create unfair challenges for renewable sources of energy and battery storage.