Mr. Meyer, You clearly have an ax to grind after reading your letter (March 16), voicing opposition to the Northfield Pump Storage facility operation.
Your mumbo jumbo and mashing of words into your own personal opinion masquerading as facts was hilarious.
The picture on the front page of The Recorder you so despise, is a reality you did not want others to see.
The Northfield Pump Storage facility is one the most reliable and important electricity generation plants in Massachusetts. The electricity generated by this facility is needed now more than ever, since Vermont Yankee and Holyoke plants were shut down.
Let me get some facts out of the way; The 1,100MW plant operates at an astounding 80 percent efficiency rating (solar and wind can barely achieve 15 percent). The pumping, storage and releasing of water does not affect river temperature and is nonpolluting.
What more could you ask for?
Do you not trust FERC and DOE that oversee the plant’s operations? There are fathers, mothers, daughters and sons, many who live here in the Valley, that work at the facility or indirectly benefit with supplies or subcontract labor.
They enjoy the Connecticut River and life here, as much or more than you do.
Let me enlighten you further. The beauty of the Northfield facility is it has a natural form of storing electricity. Efficiently the motors work in both directions. They pump water up to the reservoir at night, and release the water back down through the same motors to generate electricity, an elegant design.
The most vocal people who live here in the Valley, the ANTInuke, coal, oil, natural gas, biomass zealots offer no viable alternatives to the electricity needs of Franklin County. Two large solar projects in Shutesbury and Amherst were voted by down their respective residents. No new wind turbine projects are being considered.
Our new governor is looking to Canada to purchase more hydropower to add to the Massachusetts energy grid. We have one of the best and most efficient plants right here in our own backyard.
JIM BATES
Greenfield