(glad to see this coalition taking on misguided biomass promotion by the state. – promoted by eli_beckerman)
CONTACTS: Michaelann Bewsee, 413-734-4948 or 413-455-3829 and Meg
Sheehan, 508-259-9154
PRESS CONFERENCE: Wednesday June 9, 4:40 p.m., informational session
4:15 to 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Springfield, MA, Pynchon Park on the corner of State and Chestnut Streets, next to the main branch of the Springfield Library
immediately prior to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection’s hearing on the Global Warming Solutions Act.
WHO: Stop Toxic Incineration In Springfield, Arise for Social Justice, Concerned Citizens of Russell, The Enviro Show, Stop Spewing
Carbon Campaign, Massachusetts Forest Watch, Pioneer Valley Preservation Coalition, Concerned Citizens of Franklin County, Students for a Just and Stable Society and McKnight Neighborhood
Council in Springfield.
A coalition of health, social justice, and environmental groups is letting the state and federal governments know that biomass
incinerators are not a climate change solution but make are a public health and climate disaster and the state should not be promoting them.
“Giving taxpayer and ratepayer subsidies to incinerators that burn trees and garbage is not a “global warming solution” but a health and
climate disaster” said Meg Sheehan, Chair of the Stop Spewing Carbon Ballot Question Committee. “Incinerators are not “green” energy. The
five incinerators proposed for the area will emit pollutants such as mercury and dioxin, some of the most toxic chemicals known to science. They will give us only 1% more electricity but add 11% more carbon dioxide to the air.” Sheehan said.
“Hampden County gets an “F” in air quality already,” says Michaelann Bewsee, Arise for Social Justice Executive Director, “and yet a so- called ‘biomass plant’ would be under construction right now in Springfield if those of us who care about breathing clean air hadn’t
started organizing. But the battle for our community’s health has yet to be won-we’re still at risk.”
Keith Wright, Springfield City Councilor from Ward 8, said “I am deeply concerned by the prospects of a construction debris incinerator
in Springfield. Such a plant would add pollutants to our already over- burdened air quality, and that is a tax that Springfield’s school
children, who suffer high rates of asthma, should not have to pay. I believe such an incinerator would lower the surrounding property values because an incinerator is not the kind of neighbor people want to live next to. Over thirty years ago the Carter Administration put
solar panels on White House property, and then the Reagan administration took them down. Imagine how competitive we would be in today’s global marketplace if we had employed a Marshall plan of sorts to tackle energy independence by harnessing the sun’s power. I have read that our planet receives nine times moreenergy than we currently derive from fossil fuels from the sun. This is a relatively untapped resource and a smart forward-thinking energy policy should be doing everything we can to harness this resource, rather than relying on a carbon-burning energy policy.”
Enviro Show producer and co-host Don Ogden said, “Biomass is a living nightmare. It’s bad enough that the worst oil spill ever is spreading
out from the Gulf of Mexico and eventually up the Eastern Seaboard killing everything in its path, do corporations and their shills really have to trash our forests for energy as well? It’s like some awful end-of-the-world disaster film come to life!”
The Concerned Citizens of Franklin County are opposing a wood burning incinerator in Greenfield and a town wide vote to rescind a city
approval will be held on June 8. “Seniors, families, working people, professionals and folks from all walks of life are voting today to
keep our community free from biomass burner pollution. We’d like to reach out to others who are threatened by the biomass scam and let
them know that biomass power plant schemes can and should be stopped,”
said the CCFC spokesperson.
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