Protesters Take Aim at Fossil Fuel Infrastructure in Peabody
Members of Breathe Clean North Shore and 350 Mass protest the construction of the Peabody 'peaker' plant, highlighting climate and health consequences
Activists rally in opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure in Peabody (Copyright 2022 Jerry Halberstadt)
A coalition of local residents and environmental activists from throughout Massachusetts convened Tuesday on the Danversport bridge between Peabody and Danvers to call for the end of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, construction workers across the water were busy laying the foundation for a fossil fuel plant with an expected lifespan of 30 to 50 years.
“The signs are everywhere that global warming and burning fossil fuels is destroying life as we know it,” said Monte Pearson of 350 Mass, standing upon a portable stage in front of a crowd of about 40 people next to slow-moving traffic. “We need to fight the dark side of the fossil fuel era.”
Four police cruisers and cluster of officers lurked across the street, eying up the protesters on the opposite sidewalk. After about an hour they seemed to lose interest, the demonstration being almost aggressively nonviolent.
Residents and environmental advocates have spent the past year and a half opposing a new ‘peaker’ plant, which will burn either oil or gas at times of peak electricity demand. While construction on the plant has begun, advocates remain determined to stop the project.
Speakers and protesters focused on two main dangers of building additional fossil fuel infrastructure: locking in more greenhouse gas emissions that will worsen an accelerating climate crisis, and increasing air pollution for nearby residents.
Peabody and its surrounding towns all face air pollution levels above the recommended upper limits set by the World Health Organization.
According to a recent study released this year by Boston College’s Global Observatory on Pollution and Health, air pollution — almost entirely a result of fossil fuel combustion — kills about 35 people each year in Peabody alone. In neighboring towns of Beverly, Danvers, and Salem, air pollution deaths range from 16 to 19 annually.
Protesters call for environmental justice (Copyright 2022 Jerry Halberstadt)
Air pollution increases mortality by increasing rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke, and chronic lower respiratory disease. It also increases cases of asthma and low birth weight in infants. Globally, air pollution causes the premature deaths of millions, disproportionately concentrated in underdeveloped countries in the Global South.
Jerry Halberstadt is a Peabody resident who lives about a mile from the site of the proposed plant, where two existing oil and gas plants have been running for decades. Halberstadt was one of the founding members of Breathe Clean North Shore, the group that sprung up in response to the plant’s proposal.
Halberstadt himself suffers from asthma and considers the local health consequences of air pollution to be a key component of the fight against new fossil fuel infrastructure.
“Going straight for the climate and planet issues is very hard for people to appreciate,” Halberstadt said. “We’re hoping that when people get involved for their family, or for their children, they’ll also relate it to the source of pollution. They don’t even have to care about the climate, because if they do it for their health, it achieves the same goal.”
To highlight the threats to human health, protesters also staged a ‘die in,’ where they lay down and placed foam gravestones denoting their cause of death: “COPD,” “COMBUSTION EXPLOSION,” “GOVT. INACTION.”
Ultimately, activists pointed a finger of responsibility at ISO New England, the federally authorized nonprofit that oversees the region’s energy grid, along with the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC), the municipally owned electric company behind the new Peabody plant. “ISO-NE is Blocking Solar & Wind Power,” read the event’s largest banner, suspended between two poles held up by protesters.
As protesters called for the end of fossil fuels, construction continued at the site of the new plant
Activists accused ISO of a pro-gas bias, pointing to the fact that many of the people running the organization are former executives of the gas and electric utility companies. Cheryl LaFleur, the current chair of the ISO New England Board of Directors, was previously the acting CEO for National Grid USA, one of the largest and most powerful gas providers in New England.
“ISO New England is the leading agency in New England, and other organizations, state and local governments, and private companies as well, kind of follow its lead,” said Pearson of 350 Mass. “ISO has perpetuated the myth that natural gas is more reliable than solar power or wind power or batteries, and that myth is being used as a way of keeping those alternative energy sources from displacing the natural gas plants that are the main players now in our power grid.”
Protesters hold a sign which reads “ISO-NE is Blocking Solar & Wind Power” (Copyright 2022 Jerry Halberstadt)
Climate News Roundup
Connecticut
Fueled by the warming climate, extreme heat poses a major health threat, particularly to lower-income city residents. Researchers and government officials are increasingly focusing in on this issue (Jan Ellen Spiegel — CT Mirror)
Maine
CMP has pointed to climate change as one of driving factors of a proposed hike of electricity prices, posing the question of who should bear the financial burden of modernizing the grid (Tux Turkel — Portland Press Herald)
With hurricane season in full swing, a look at Maine’s long-term hurricane future (Annie Ropeik — Maine Monitor)
Massachusetts
15 protesters from Extinction Rebellion Boston were arrested in the city for blocking traffic. The protested called for a moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure (Dialynn Dwyer — Boston.com)
New maps from the Trustees of Reservation project how flooding from sea level rise will impact the state’s South Coast (Dharna Noor and Sabrina Shankman — The Boston Globe)
New Hampshire
As Eversource gas and electricity rates skyrocket, top executives are raking in millions (Michaela Towfighi — Concord Monitor)
Rhode Island
August of 2020 was the hottest August ever in Rhode Island, almost seven degrees above the state’s 20th-century average (Roger Warburton — ecoRI)
An upcoming ballot question would approve a $50 million bond for environmental initiatives (Rob Smith — ecoRI)
Vermont
A new incentive program, “Replace Your Ride,” provides $3,000 towards an electric vehicle for owners that turn in a gas vehicle 10 years or older (Emma Cotton — VT Digger)
Across the region
Looming natural gas shortages are spurring fears of rolling blackouts in New England. Environmental advocates and grid operators disagree about what this means for the clean energy transition (Sabrina Shankman — The Boston Globe)