Recently, the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved the building of a gas-powered “peaker” plant in Peabody. A peaker plant is one that goes online to produce electricity only at times when an area is running low on available power, such as during a heat wave or similar emergency. This information caught me up short because it made evident to me that the state entities that are responsible for ensuring that we have all the power we need felt it was necessary to do this dirty energy and unpopular move.
For a bit, I ranted about how those who are entrusted with the protection of our environment failed again to deny a license to a fossil fuel plant.
Then someone in Montreal emailed us that it was -25 degrees that day and HydroQuebec, her power company, was telling people to not use their clothes dryers, their ovens, etc. OMG! This was HydroQuebec, the people who use seemingly boundless amounts of water to supply the city with energy and they were asking folks to limit their electricity use!
Thinking then of how much I rely on having electricity whenever I need to see in the dark, to cook dinner, to store perishable foods, to run the mini-splits, to charge my cellphone, etc., I started to wonder about the EEA and that peaker plant. Could it be that the state is so concerned about having stored energy at the ready for emergencies that they would insist on licensing FirstLight’s operations no matter how bad they were for the river? The thought made me shiver!
Until that moment, I had been demanding that FERC shut down the pumped storage station. Let’s face it: the damage that both the pumped storage station and the dams are causing to the Connecticut River herself, her banks, her inhabitants, her human and animal neighbors, is unspeakable. But, in view of the state’s apparent desire to ensure that there is enough stored energy to deal with emergencies, it suddenly seems very unlikely that the FirstLight Pumping Station, the largest storage unit in the state, will be shut down at this time.
I have to admit, it took me a little bit to recover from that despairing thought. Could we as a population learn to live with so little electricity that we wouldn’t need emergency stores of the stuff? My daughter lives off the grid: wood heat, gas stove, gas refrigerator, gas washing machine, hangs her laundry to dry but they use electric lights, computers, cellphones, TV, vacuum cleaner. For these, they have a few solar panels and, in a pinch (more in winter), they use a gasoline-powered generator. But is her lifestyle really better for the environment than ours?
Since solar power doesn’t work when the sun doesn’t shine and since the wind doesn’t always blow (except maybe offshore wind which isn’t going to be available to MA for years yet), it appears that the state will need some kind of back-up plan to provide for our needs. Industrial scale batteries, polluters in their own right, do exist and are being used in 10 Massachusetts cities already. Could they be used statewide as a backup? How soon and at what cost?
So, there we are. The state has the right to tell FERC what conditions it wants imposed on FirstLight’s operations and FERC must include those conditions in the license it gives. In the hearings we are asking the EEA to provide for us, we will have the chance to ask for what we want. Those demands might include that First Light shut down completely. Or they might be that FirstLight build itself a closed loop system, creating a lower reservoir that is not part of the river, thus protecting the river and its inhabitants from any further destruction. They could insist that the right to use the river for pumped storage cease as soon as Vineyard Wind will come online. Or in 20 years, not 50. They should include the requirement that FirstLight start putting aside the funds that will be needed to take the system offline at the end of its useful life.
The possibilities are endless. The demands people make will be as varied as the people making them but that is the point. We can’t expect to get what we want for the river if we haven’t had the opportunity to speak. It is through our voices that the state will find the answers that will balance the needs of the people and the river.
To add your requests to the state, go to http://www.GreeningGreenfieldma.org for names, addresses and more to address your letters asking for ample public hearings. Then we will be able to demand our say in the future of our beautiful, long-suffering river!
Louise Amyot has lived in Greenfield for some 47 years and is a member of Greening Greenfield. This opinion is her own.