As part of the process, RIDOH issued an advisory opinion. Even a cursory reading of the document reveals issues so serious that they should prevent the construction of CREC. Yet another Rhode Island administrative body that lacks enthusiasm for the project!

RIDOH identifies serious negative health impacts of noise:

According to the WHO [World Health Organization], sleep disturbance, one of the most common complaints raised by noise-exposed populations, can have a major impact on health and quality of life. People can recognize and react to sounds, even when asleep. Those reactions, including wakening and changes in sleep stage, are associated with daytime after-effects, such as sleepiness, reduced cognitive and motor performance, and impairment of cardiovascular function.

The RIDOH opinion also quotes written testimony of Julia O’Rourke, who lives on Wallum Lake Road in Burrillville:

Specifically, in the past year, I have experienced excessive noise and vibrations coming from the Algonquin Compressor Station site which this project will be located next to. The noise and vibrations emanating from this site are extremely disruptive and negatively impacting our health and we are unable to sleep or enjoy the peace and quiet of our home. I am concerned that the noise levels and vibration are only going to increase during the construction and operational phase of this project.

Clearly, the neighborhood around the CREC site and Spectra Energy’s compressor station will become unlivable.  RIDOH suggests, if the plant were to be built, that Spectra Energy and Invenergy install sound proofing and buy “properties subject to noise levels that cause serious annoyance and/or sleep disruption.”

RIDOH’s opinion mentions that questions have also been raised as to whether National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of the Environmental Protection Agency adequately protect public health. We, and probably others, indeed raised those questions—those and quite a few others—in this public comment.  The federal standards fail to account for short-lived pollution spikes which are typical for the operation of compressor stations and power plants. Nitrous oxides are are highly problematic in this respect. In addition, there are lots of other problems with “data” Invenergy’s submitted to the Energy Facility Siting Board.

Sure,  we could go ahead with the construction of the power plant and turn Burrillville into a major air pollution dump. Is that justified simply to create a couple of jobs and export electricity to the Northeast? Can we justify that simply because “no states have promulgated a short-term NO₂ standard that is more stringent than the NAAQS and the process for adopting such standards is arduous?”

Interestingly, RIDOH is much more advanced in its understanding of the effect of the proposed power plant than the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources. RIDOH states:

The burning of fossil fuels and the extraction of fossil fuels by “fracking” both contribute to climate change by emitting various greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, most notably carbon dioxide and methane. Both have the effect of harming the health of Rhode Islanders now and in the future.

Of course, most of the methane problem occurs long before the fracked gas reaches Rhode Island. Information in a recent presentation of Rhode Island’s Office of Energy Resources shows that the office explicitly ignores such effects.

Not only does the office ignore basic science, it is also out of sync with federal guidelines on how the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on climate change should be taken into account.  Those guidelines, issued last week, explicitly call for:

1. Taking into account reasonably foreseeable direct, indirect, and cumulative GHG emissions and climate effects;
2. Consideration of reasonable alternatives and the short- and long-term effects and benefits in the analysis of alternatives and mitigation

Unless we change course, Rhode Island will be doing neither.  RIDOH writes:

We cannot measure the direct contribution of the proposed plant, or of any single facility, to public health by means of climate change.

Sure, but if we forge ahead without understanding what we do, we are in violation of the precautionary principle of  the Rio Declaration, an international treaty signed and ratified by the U.S. This is the supreme law of the land:

Principle 15

In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

How about we cannot “measure the direct contribution” of the plant to global warming?  True enough, but we can easily estimate the impact of the national policy of which construction of the plant is part. Because natural gas is worse for the climate than oil and coal, the conclusion is simple: given the rate at which natural gas escapes unburned, and before the use of methane starts paying off, we’ll be dead, leaving an uninhabitable planet for future generations.

State senators Stephen Archambault and Bill Conley lost their endorsements from the Rhode Island chapter of the Seirra Club because they voted against the Burrillville power plant bill as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Sierra Club condemns every member of the committee that voted ‘no’ to this bill, but we are especially disappointed in Sen. Archambault and Sen. Conley. Both senators were endorsed by the RI Sierra Club in 2014,” wrote Sierra Club political chair Aaron Jaehnig.

“With a record like this, they will not be endorsed again in 2016. Sierra Club demands that our logo be removed from all websites and campaign materials for both,” Jaehnig continued. “The people of Burrillville and the people of Rhode Island deserved better. Make no mistake – that vote was a betrayal of everyone who cares about our planet, and of future generations of Rhode Islanders. It represents an insane double-down on the dangerous fossil fuel economy that has taken our climate to the brink and that threatens all of our futures.”

Neither senator could be immediately reached for comment. This post will be updated if and when they respond to comment.

On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted down a bill that would have given Burrillville residents a vote on a tax agreement between Invenergy, the corporation that seeks to build the power plant, and the Republican town council. Residents convinced legislators Cale Keable and Paul Fogarty to introduce the legislation because they say they can’t trust the town council to negotiate in good faith.

At the first committee hearing, Archambault was dismissive of this concern, saying, “The town council, at large, has been elected and is in a position to best negotiate tax treaties.”

I’ve annotated the editorial here. (Editor’s note: The Providence Journal changed the url on this editorial after it was annotated. Here is a new url. We will update this post again if the ProJo again changes the url. )

Click on the yellow highlighted phrases to find out what they really mean, or what the author should have written.

We’ll be at the headquarters of FERC, 888 First St. NE, Washington, D.C., where the agency rubber stamps approvals for interstate fracked gas pipelines, export terminals and other infrastructure that is destroying local communities and super-charging the climate crisis. (Fracked gas is methane, and leaked methane traps 86 times as much heat per molecule as carbon dioxide.)

We’ll be visiting the four FERC commissioners at their homes to hold them accountable for their decisions, which are made far from the communities affected and with no consideration of the harm from climate change.

In solidarity with frontline communities, we’ll also visit the D.C. headquarters of some of the pipeline and gas companies, whose profit-driven arrogance overrides property rights and even a state constitution, as well as the Congressional offices of some elected officials who don’t support their constituents’ needs to stop the fracked gas build-out.

And, people in 21 frontline communities are holding their own events and have decided to link them to the Rubber Stamp Rebellion in order escalate our collective opposition.

Listen to these voices from the frontlines:

Megan Holleran, New Milford, PA: “The FERC allowed Williams and Cabot to clear over three acres of forest on my family’s property without our permission, for the construction of the Constitution Pipeline, which, due to lack of permits, is now unlikely to be built. Irreparable harm was caused to our home and business, prematurely, for absolutely no reason, and that is entirely the FERC’s fault. I think it’s about time that someone holds the FERC accountable for the decisions it makes. BXE is doing something innovative in forcing the awareness that regulatory agencies are just as responsible and culpable as the corporations for the existence of the current fossil fuel infrastructure and for the future of the industry.”

Hattie Nestel, Athol, MA: “Through an extraordinary uprising of grassroots opposition, support from many elected officials and honest, comprehensive news coverage, we stopped Kinder Morgan’s N.E.D. (Northeast Energy Direct) pipeline. But FERC recently approved Kinder Morgan’s Connecticut Expansion Project, which would tear through our constitutionally protected open space in Otis State Forest. In May, a superior court judge in western Mass. sided with the company, ruling that FERC approval is proof that it has determined the project ‘advances the public interest.’ So our fight continues.”

It’s Time For the Rubber Stamp Rebellion

No New Permits! Keep fossil fuels in the ground!

[From a press release by Beyond Extreme Energy]

FANG

On their Facebook posting for the event, FANG says,

“Right now there are three major fracked-gas projects proposed for Rhode Island. A $700 million fracked-gas power plant that’s been proposed for Burrillville, a $100 million liquified natural gas (LNG) facility in South Providence and a second expansion of Spectra Energy’s fracked-gas compressor station, also in Burrillville.

“The power plant in Burrillville would emit the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of 763,562 cars a year and add more noise and toxins to a community that is already inundated by gas infrastructure. Meanwhile the LNG facility proposed for Providence would be built in a community that already has one of the highest asthma rates in the State.”

People interested in joining this protest can RSVP on Facebook. This is an open invitation to anyone interested in preventing the fracked gas, extraction economy future being foisted upon Rhode Island by fossil fuel companies and some of Rhode Island’s most influential politicians, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Governor Gina Raimondo  and Speaker Nicholas Mattiello.

More on the fracked gas expansion in Rhode Island:

• Siting Board acting on Invenergy’s schedule for Burrillville gas plant
• Enviro group support for Burrillville power plant cited by Whitehouse does not exist
• Invenergy’s proposed power plant will burn oil
• EJLRI confronts the EPA in Boston
• Mattiello’s position on energy and environment ‘defies economic and common sense’
• Strong public opposition to Burrillville power plant at hearing
• While touting health and natural resources, Raimondo challenged on her support for fossil fuel
• CLF uses Resilient RI Act to block Invenergy’s fossil fuel power plant

Fasters from Beyond Extreme Energy (BXE), together with their supporters from several faiths, will break bread in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in D.C. today to end a dramatic 18-day hunger strike undertaken to demand that FERC stop issuing permits for the pipelines, storage facilities and LNG export terminals that use fracked natural gas, and instead heed Pope Francis’s call to care for the Earth, according to a BXE press release.

On Friday copies of the pope’s encyclical will be presented to the five FERC commissioners. There will be music, brief statements, and a procession, featuring BXE’s colorful and moving 50-foot anti-fracking banner, “The United Sates of Fracking.” BXE will also display the new quilt made in collaboration between fasters and residents of far-flung communities fighting fracking infrastructure in their communities.

“Being here, eating no food for 18 days, has taken me at 72 the oldest faster a fascinating and disorienting rabbit hole, where ‘normal’ appears absurd and even suicidal, and where unrealistic may be our only way out,” said Steve Norris, 72, of North Carolina, is one of the oldest fasters. “I think because of our legal structures, because of their narrow fossil fuel focus, and because people disbelieve in viable alternatives, their minds are wedded to the madness of more fossil fuels.”

Sean Glenn, 23, of Connecticut, is one of the youngest fasters. “I think this fast has just reinforced my belief in the power of people and our ability to overcome our old ways and really embrace new ones with complete curiosity, not knowing what we’re getting into,” she says. “The love that everyone has shown has been really powerful and the respect that we’re receiving for it is what has surprised me.”

WHERE: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), 888 1st St NE, Washington, DC.

WHEN: Friday, Sept. 25, noon to 1:30 p.m.

WHO: The fasters, their supporters, and faith leaders.

WHY: The BXE fasters demand that FERC end its fracking-friendly support for expanding natural gas infrastructure, which has led to a toxic locked-in fossil fuel network at the expense of safe, sound, and clean renewable energy. Fracking wells and gas pipelines contaminate the homes and communities nearby, and also leak methane, which is responsible for about 25% of the man-made global warming we experience today.

Earlier this week a rally took place at the RI State House for People, Peace and Planet.

On Wednesday afternoon fasters adorned a street corner on the city side of the State House.

After that, on Wednesday, there was a vigil and prayer service at the State House in anticipation of Pope Francis’ address to Congress the following day.

Finally on Thursday, Fossil Free RI attended the celebration of International Peace Day at URI.

Today at noon, our friends in DC, in Rhode Island and across the nation will break their fast. Also my wife, Beatrijs, and I will end our two-week fast; the battle against extractivism and wholesale destruction of life on Earth continues: “Where there is no vision, the people perish …” (Proverbs 29:18)

To fast is absurd. This is true especially for someone like me who doesn’t believe anything absent systemic, revolutionary change will do much good.

Yes, I had read Lee’s testimony; it sums up my feelings.

This is what Steve wrote about his experience occupying the Sidewalk at the FERC Gates of Hell:

Being here, eating no food for 18 days, has taken me down a fascinating and disorienting rabbit hole, where “normal” appears absurd and even suicidal, and where unrealistic may be our only way out. I recall hearing Starhawk saying something like this many years ago. “The time for reasonable is past,” she said. But I have struggled to make sense of this. The fast is a journey into unreasonable.

The other day was hot on the sidewalk in front of FERC, I was talking with a guy I dislike – he dominates conversation and is loud and bombastic. He mentioned something about money in the middle of our conversation, but I got so tired of him after 15 minutes I got up and, so as not to appear impolite, distributed fliers to passersby on the sidewalk. He continued talking to another faster, but when he decided to leave, I asked if he was serious about donating money. He hemmed and hawed, but we talked for a minute about the $1000 BXE wanted to give to Lincoln Temple, the very poor African American Church which generously has been providing us space for sleeping. He left, and I forgot about him. But half an hour later he returned and gave me an envelope with $1000 in cash. “Use this for whatever BXE needs.” We’ve given it to the minister of Lincoln Temple.

On Thursday twenty year old Berenice Tomkins, a college student, went into the “open” FERC commissioners meeting, which does not allow public comment. The five polished FERC Commissioners are the corrupt decision makers in this powerful regulatory agency which makes life and death decisions for communities and people all over the country. Most of us are not allowed entry because we have disrupted meetings in the past, but this was Berenice’s first time, so she got in. She wasn’t sure what to do and waited through the incomprehensible conversations of the Commissioners, which in a coded language talk about decisions already made behind closed doors. When they started talking about forest fire mitigation she could no longer hold her tongue. She stood up and with a twenty year old’s strong voice took over the meeting: ” What are you talking about? It’s your policies which are creating the climate crisis, and you can’t mitigate the fires without talking about the climate crisis!” She talked for a minute or so until until FERC Security grabbed her arm and dragged her out. She was crying and proud as she came out.

The brave people of BXE need our love and support, they and all others who put their lives on the line to expose the ecocidal and communicidal crimes of our federal and state governments in support of their sponsors on Wall Street: No New Fracked-Gas Power Plant in Burrillville, RI!

Please join us at the People’s House in Providence tomorrow—come and hear the what motivates some of our local fasters in Rhode Island.

Help us avoid this:

The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks and everything sown by the brooks shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.

Maybe it’s not too late yet.

“You can’t negotiate with a beetle. You are now dealing with natural law. And if you don’t understand natural law, you will soon.”

Oren Lyons, a member of the Onandaga Council of Chiefs, quoted by Mary Christina Wood in her book Nature’s Trust, sums up what’s wrong with our self-absorbed political system and its failure to deal with our planetary climate emergency in referring to four million acres of Canadian forest wiped out by beetles now thriving in warmer winter temperatures as a result of global warming.

Maybe Gina was doing the hard work of making sure that Providence will not be left behind, as—in city after city—we build what Frank Deford calls “Athletic Taj Mahals,” monuments for the “filthy rich.”  Thanks, Frank; you nailed it: Spending Public Money On Sports Stadiums Is Bad Business.   But do not forget that Gina is an honorable person; so are they all, all honorable people.

We The People who do not revolt against systemic corruption are the problem.

Since August 31, I’ve been trying to make an appointment with Gina to deliver a basic physics message.  It took until September 13 before I got a reply: “Once again, thank you again for being in touch,”  pretty pathetic writing that I should have received within three seconds rather than after two weeks, but no appointment.

The web site of the Office of the Governor is totally dysfunctional, but, dear reader, I’ll spare you details.  I just wonder, why should we trust people to run a state if they cannot manage a web site?  Of course, the problem in Rhode Island is not small-scale incompetence; broken democracy is what we are dealing with, but it’s not Gina, for Gina is an honorable person; so are they all, all honorable people.

Pia Ward, my dear friend, is the engaged artist who made the black-and-white photographs in this post.  Pia and I went to Gina’s office on Wednesday to deliver a pizza, a lunch skipped in support of Beyond Extreme Energy’s No-New-Permits fast in DC.

Of course we were told that web site was not the way to make appointments with the governor.  We have to follow procedures, no matter how many people have their lives destroyed or put their lives on the line in DC and elsewhere in the nation.  We are but a nuisance and who cares about Terry Greenwood?

One of Gina’s aids, who dutifully took notes of our story, instructed us that I had to go home and to make an appointment I had to send an email to the gubernatorial scheduler, Kelly Harris (Kelly-Harris@governor.ri.gov).  Never mind that we were already at the State House; the important work for corporate America and the filthy rich should never be interrupted, for they are all, all honorable people.

Report from the No-New-Permits fast in DC

Ted Glick of ChessapeakeClimate.org and one of the Beyond Extreme Energy water-only fasters in DC had the following exchange with Norman Bay, the chairman of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  Ted asked if the chairman would come down to receive the five copies of the Pope’s encyclical, Laudato Si’, on September 25th at noon. Bay said he would consider it.  We all know what that means, but let Ted speak:

Then he stopped and we looked each other in the eye. He told me that he respected what we were doing with the fast and the commitment it showed as far as our beliefs. He said he felt this type of action was a good type of action.

However, he went on to say that he really had problems with us disrupting their monthly meetings and asked if we would stop doing that.

I responded: “How can we do that when there’s no change at FERC as far as permitting gas pipelines and fracking infrastructure, one after the other, with virtually no exceptions.”

His response: “These are just pipelines. We’re a regulatory agency. Blaming us is like blaming the steel companies that make pipes. It’s the production of the gas that you need to deal with.”

Keep up the disruption, my friends; irritation makes pearls. Dear reader, if you ever have to explain Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil,” this exchange would be a perfect starting point.

Events for the rest of our fast

Following up on the pledge to do three Ramadan-style fasts centered on each event in RI, Wednesday’s visit to the State House got Beatrijs, my wife, and me restarted fasting on Tuesday, after a one-day interruption. The following will get us to Friday, the 25th, when Beyond Extreme Energy will end its fast:

• Peace Fest RI, Kennedy Plaza, Saturday, September 19, 2015, 1:30pm-4;30pm
• Rally for People, Peace and Planet
• URI International Day of Peace on the Quad 10am-3pm

Of course, it’s not too late to call Gina’s friends at Invenergy to tell them that fracked gas is not clean and that they should cancel the fracked-gas power plant proposed for Burrillville.  Just keep in mind that Gina signed a contract with Invenergy, but Gina is an honorable person; so are they all, all honorable people.  We The People are the problem, we who think that the next fully-scripted ElecToon will bring system change.

Oh, yes, how about that pizza we took to the Gina’s office? As anticipated, it ended up feeding hungry people on Kennedy Plaza.

Activists opposed to methane gas expansion locked themselves to construction equipment being used to prepare an area in Burrillville for a gas pipeline project early Monday morning.

“I expect them to be arrested at some point today,” said Sherrie Andre, who sent out a press release and photos of the action on behalf of FANG, or Fighting Against Natural Gas. “If not, they are pretty determined to stay there as long as their bodies can hold out.”

Three fire trucks and local police are on the scene, said Andre, but she did not know if the three activists had been arrested or were still attached to the earth-moving equipment.

“Matt Smith of New Jersey, Nick Katkevich of Rhode Island, and Keith Clougherty of Massachusetts locked down with fortified PVC pipes to disrupt construction for the day at the compressor station which Spectra is hoping to double in capacity as part of the AIM project,” according to the press release.

“Spectra Energy, Invenergy and those that support them are on the wrong side of history, we will keep coming back with more people until their projects are cancelled.”  said Katkevich, according to the press release.

FANG has waged a high profile campaign against both the Algonquin pipeline project and a methane gas compressor station that Governor Gina Raimondo has hailed as good business expansion for Rhode Island. Both projects would be built on land owned by Spectra Energy in Burrillville.

Andre was arrested for a tree sit at the site this summer and, two weeks ago, Peter Nightingale and Curt Nordgaard were arrested for chaining themselves to a chain link gate on Spectra property. Nightingale was also arrested at Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s office for protesting fracked gas and methane gas expansion. While Whitehouse has been supportive of the pipeline project, he has reserved judgment on a methane compressor facility in Burrillville.

“What happens in Burrillville doesn’t stay in Burrillville. This project hurts communities across the Northeast and climate change is already killing people around the world,” said Keith Clougherty, one of the activists locked to Spectra construction equipment this morning, according to the press release.

There you have it, a piece of my mind, freely adapted from Émile Zola’s J’accuse, but why and why now?  Beyond Extreme Energy issued the following press release last Tuesday to announce their No New Permits fast at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC—this is the industry-captured body that rubber-stamps the projects described in a previous post)

(September 8, 2015) WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Tuesday morning, a dozen people begin an 18-day water-only fast in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to raise awareness of the agency’s contribution to worsening climate change and to harming the health and well-being of frontline communities where these projects are built.

The fasters, ranging in age from 23 to 72, are demanding that FERC issue “No New Permits” for industry projects such as interstate pipelines, compressor stations and LNG (liquefied natural gas) export terminals until the agency prioritizes solar, wind and other renewable sources of energy. These projects release methane pollution, a potent greenhouse gas that is worsening the impacts of climate change.

Fasters, organized by Beyond Extreme Energy, will hold vigil in front of FERC, 888 First St. NE, Washington, D.C., weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. They will be joined by others fasting for shorter periods at FERC or in their own communities.

They will end their fast on Friday, September 25, the day after Pope Francis speaks to Congress, where he is expected to address the issue of climate change and its disparate impact on the world’s poor.

In Rhode Island AFSC-SENE, Occupy Providence and Fossil Free RI are supporting the fast of our dear and unshakable friends in DC. I pledged to fast three days centered at each event in our community that I can attend.  The fasts are Ramadan style: no food and liquids from sunrise to sunset. Beatrijs, my wife, is joining me to the extent that her diabetes allows it.

Here is our first event: a vigil with the Raging Grannies in Westerly this Saturday—hope to see you there!