[act-ma] Wednesday, June 9 - Biomass protest in Springfield

[Tribal Scribal]

Coalition of Activists Protest Biomass Incinerators at State Global
Warming Hearing in Springfield, Massachusetts

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 more energy 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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"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as
necessary in the political world as storms in the physical world."

                                - Thomas Jefferson
more rebellion here:
http://concertobi.blogspot.com/
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CAPE WIND: RIGHT PROJECT/WRONG PLACE!!
Checkout The Enviro Show on WXOJ-LP, 103.3fm. Northampton, MA, Tuesdays,
6:30pm
Also on WMCB, 107.9, Mondays at 9pm.
http://envirosho.blogspot.com
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