Sheldon Whitehouse – Page 2

April 7, 2016May 3, 2016

Is Raimondo’s power plant support softening?

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In light of the letter to the Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) from Representative Cale Keable and State Senator Paul Fogarty expressing “unequivocal opposition” to the new “1000-megawatt, fracked gas power plant in the heart of Burrillville’s idyllic village of Pascoag” I reached out to the Invenergy‘s earliest booster, Governor Gina Raimondo for comment. Raimondo spokesperson Marie Aberger responded (italics mine):

The Governor and her team are closely monitoring the plans and listening to community feedback and concerns. We will be learning more about the health and environmental impacts of the plans as the Energy Facility Siting Board continues its review of the proposal, and reviewing those impacts carefully.

“At the same time, the Governor believes we need to take action to address our energy costs in the present for all Rhode Island families and businesses. A large part of the Governor’s strategy is to adopt new solutions that will lead us to a cleaner, more reliable energy system in the future, including offshore wind and solar power.”

It’s difficult to tell if this statement shows a softening of the Governor’s position on the plant, which she called, “something that’s good for Rhode Island” when she announced the project in July of last year. Since she announced the plant Raimondo has been petitioned by environmental activists to change her position and has been confronted by sign carrying protesters at many public events.

But recently opposition to the plant has been building Burrillville, where residents are facing potential economic and environmental disaster due to the plant. Hundreds showed up at a community meeting with Keable and Fogarty at the Jesse Smith Memorial Library in Burrillville and hundreds more came out to the EFSB public hearing at the Burrillville High School. The political pressure is intensifying and many residents feel that Raimondo talk about being an environmental champion rings hollow given her support.

It was perhaps because he wanted to protect his status as an environmental champion that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse went from supporting the plant in an interview with Channel 12’s Ted Nesi to claiming that he can’t oppose or support the plant for political reasons in an interview with Bill Rappleye of Channel 10.

It turns out you can’t support the environment and fracked methane.

Still, Raimondo’s statement said that she’s “listening to community feedback and concerns” so that seems to mean that she needs to hear from people opposed to this plant and who want to see Rhode Island embrace a clean energy future. Given that, here’s the governor’s address, phone number and a link to the Governor’s contact page:

Office of the Governor
82 Smith Street
Providence, RI 02903

Phone: (401) 222-2080

http://www.governor.ri.gov/contact/

March 24, 2016May 3, 2016

Power plant already adversely affecting Burrillville property values say realtors

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During public commentary at the Burrillville Town Council meeting Wednesday night, two real estate agents talked about the negative effect the proposed gas and oil burning Clear River Energy Center is already having on property values in the town.

Jeremy Bailey, from Acumen Group Real Estate, testified that he recently had a prospective buyer from Riverside about to put half down on a $449,000 piece of property on East Wallum Lake Road.

“He liked everything about the property,” said Bailey, “But before the conversation ended he asked, ‘Where are they putting the power plant?’”

Bailey pointed up the road and explained that the proposed construction wasn’t too far away. By the time he finished the buyer backed out, saying, “Nah, I’m not interested anymore.”

2016-03-22 Burrillville 002 — Outside the Burrillvile Town Hall

After the meeting Bailey told me that the buyer told him to let him know how the March 31 public hearing on the power plant goes.

Paul Lefebvre, another realtor and owner of Acumen Group, testified that when he heard about the proposed plant two years ago, he didn’t think much about it. He couldn’t see any way that the Town Council might support such a plan. But recently he learned that the power plant has the support of both Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Governor Gina Raimondo, and it now appears the power plant is being “forced on the town.”

“Which is insanity,” said Lefebvre, “I don’t see any benefits for the town. I see all detriments. Nothing good, only bad.”

Speaking about the effect the proposed power plant is having on property values, Lefebvre said, “We’ve lost some interest and lost one sale at the company I own because of the talk, the perception, of this thing coming to town.”

“What surprises me,” said Burrillville native and retired schoolteacher Chuck Boucher, “is that the political system seems to have cut us out of the process. I was under the impression that we were a democracy… I would like to think that when Governor Raimondo hears the situation out here that she realizes that it will adversely affect everyone’s property values. It will adversely affect everyone’s health. It will adversely affect the community at large. I would like to believe that she cares enough about her constituents to reconsider locating something of this size in a rural area that’s known for being pristine.”

Kathy Martley, founder of Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion (BASE), asked the Burrillville Town Council to consider a resolution similar to the one Providence City Councillor Seth Yurdin submitted to the Providence City Council last week that was adopted unanimously. Yurdin was concerned about the health, environmental and safety effects of the proposed Fields Point Liquefaction facility to be located in South Providence.

“As a Burrillville resident and tax payer, I urge you to pass the same resolution to stop this project,” said Martley, until health, environmental and safety studies are done.

Jeremy Bailey pointed out that the power plant wants to tap into the town well and the sewer system. “At a minimum,” said Bailey, the Town Council could speak to state and federal agencies and ask them to, “hold off on entertaining or approving” the power plant.

In the past the Burrillville Town Council has claimed to be powerless against the corporate might of multi-billion dollar fossil fuel companies like Invenergy and Spectra, but as Martley, Bailey and other residents speaking before the Town Council last night pointed out, there is plenty that can be done on a local level.

Video of all who testified on the proposed power plant here:

March 15, 2016March 15, 2016

Pattern of protester suppression at Raimondo events emerging

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Activists protesting the Clear River Energy Center in Burrillville, Invenergy’s proposed $700 million gas and oil burning energy plant, have been showing up at many of the public speaking events attended by Governor Gina Raimondo and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse over the last few months. Raimondo is on record as fully supporting the power plant, Whitehouse has recently shifted from being for the plant to saying that he has to be neutral.

The protesters have been peaceful and respectful. There have been no efforts towards disrupting events. For the most part protesters silently hold signs declaring their views, only speaking up at the end of the event.

Recently, however, protesters have been excluded from attending these public events and come under increased scrutiny from various law enforcement agencies.

On March 4, Lorraine Savard, a retired public school teacher, went to the Rhode Island State House with her anti-power plant sign, where she expected to be able to hold her sign at the back of the room during the Cherry Blossom Festival, held in the State Room.

“I was allowed into the State Room on the condition that I not wave the sign,” Savard wrote of the incident, “I sat with my sign on the floor next to me. Overstuffed red couch toward the back is where I sat. Sign facing out. It did not take long for the girl to come take my sign and hide it out of sight. I left with my sign.”

Savard told me that “the girl” is the member of the governor’s staff who maintains an office in the State Room at the State House.

In response to an inquiry, Marie Aberger, press secretary for Governor Raimondo, said, “The Governor’s staff did not take a sign away from anyone in the State Room. We are fully supportive of the public’s right to free speech.”

Three days later URI Professor of Physics and occasional RI Future contributor Peter Nightingale attended a NORAD press conference in Quonsett, RI. He stood outside the event with his sign, discussing the proposed power plant with Congresspersons David Cicilline and James Langevin.

Nightingale reports, “Mike Miranda, private owner of NORAD, did get tired with me and my off-topic message. He asked me to leave the event, which he referred to as private. The press was there and my impression was that the public was invited, but I left.”

Nightingale wonders, “how much state and federal money is spent on shuttling our leadership to and from these ‘private’ events.”

The next day, at the Pawtucket Visitor’s Center in downtown Pawtucket, Lorraine Savard found herself unable to enter the building with her sign. “I was not allowed into the press conference this morning. I stood outside with my sign. The Visitors Center is a public place, paid for with federal funds. I’m incensed. I am a pacifist at heart and not assertive enough to have demanded entry. The police came out and asked if it was a peaceful demonstration. I alone was there. How peaceful can it get?”

In this case it was federal law enforcement officers asked Savard to leave the property.

Intrigued by these reports, I accompanied Savard to the State House State Room for the International [Working] Women’s Day Event where Governor Raimondo was going to speak. The woman who uses the State Room as her office did not take Savard’s sign, but did wag a finger and caution her against displaying it. A Capitol Police officer was stationed directly next to Lorraine for the entirety of the event as she stood at the very back of the room.

When the Governor spoke at East Providence High School on March 10, Savard was not allowed on school property. Further, even when she stood off school property, she found herself under scrutiny from two East Providence police officers.

“[I w]as not allowed on the school property,” writes Savard, “The Principal came out to tell me I would be escorted off school grounds if I did not comply. I stood at the end of the drive and was then approached by 2 EP police officers and told not to block the drive. Madam Gov waved at me when her car drove in. There was press there, I took advantage of her interview and the camera when I went back to my car. I lined up the sign to be in line with the camera. As I returned to my car with sign one of the EP police approached. I called to him and said I was leaving.”

Preventing protesters from attending and holding signs at public events is obviously a serious First Amendment issue, but in the cases above, it’s unclear that these events that were open to all or designed to be open to every member of the public. Determining whether a violation of the First Amendment has taken place depends on the facts of each particular incident and on the nature of the forum.

That said, you would hope that in an open and democratic society our leaders would be particularly sensitive to free speech issues and err on the side of allowing non-disruptive, peaceful expressions of critical views and opinions. When the public is disallowed from attending events we become victims of political theater and propaganda. Without true engagement the public will not be in possession of information that an engaged electorate needs.

Governor Raimondo and others, please take note: An informed, engaged electorate is only dangerous to a politician who is more interested in maintaining power than serving the public interest.

March 2, 2016May 3, 2016

Supporting Burrillville gas plant becoming politically untenable

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Politicians like Governor Gina Raimondo and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who want to position themselves as environmentalist elected officials, are finding that supporting plans to expand fossil fuel infrastructure is a losing proposition.

Raimondo, who came out early and strong for Invenergy’s Clear River Energy Complex, a $700 million dollar gas and oil burning plant in Burrillville, has been under continued pressure from environmentalists to end her support. When the Governor attends a public event, there’s about even odds that at least one protester will be there holding a sign asking her to change her position.

Yesterday Raimondo was greeted by three power plant protesters at the Hope Artiste Village in Pawtucket while on her way to a press conference. In the video, the Governor invites Nick Katkevich of FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) to walk with her as he asks her if her position on the plant is changing. (It isn’t.)

Even when Governor Raimondo goes out of state, she is confronted by environmental activists fighting against fracked gas. During her recent trip to Washington DC Raimondo engaged in a public discussion on climate change with Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. Pennsylvania is a state heavily invested in fracking. According to Nicholas Ballasy of PJ Media, “The moderator of the discussion… took just two questions from the audience before abruptly ending the event after the protesters interrupted. The protesters held up signs that said ‘Gov. Tom Wolf: Ban Fracking Now’ with the Food and Water Watch Fund’s logo on them.”

Though Raimondo was not the target of this protest, she must know that the plant in Burrillville will depend on the fracked gas coming out of places like Pennsylvania, and that the environmental devastation fracking wreaks there will be partly her fault if she continues to support Clear River.

In the video of the interruption below, you can see Raimondo seated behind a sign that says, “Climate and Clean Energy.”

When Invenergy proposed the new power plant, Raimondo must have seen it as a good idea. Energy prices in Rhode Island were high, construction jobs scarce, and the verdict on gas was still somewhat up in the air. All that has changed recently.

The power plant is not needed, as shown by the recent ISO New England Forward Capacity Auction. As the Conservation Law Foundation demonstrated electrical rates in Rhode Island are dropping, and the proposed plant has nothing to do with this drop.

The construction jobs on offer in Burrillville, which were not that many or for that long, are not as needed since Raimondo signed the Rhode Works legislation to rebuild our bridges and roads. Many of these jobs would go to out of state contractors if the power plant is built, and would not have benefited Rhode Islanders any way.

The evidence against fracked gas as a “clean energy source” and a “bridge fuel” is amassing. Countless studies are now showing that methane gas leaks erase the benefits of fracked gas. Worse, “natural gas plants don’t replace only high-carbon coal plants. They often replace very low carbon power sources like solar, wind, nuclear, and even energy efficiency. That means even a very low [methane] leakage rate wipes out the climate benefit of fracking.”

Finally, the fracked gas bubble is beginning to burst. As I pointed out in a previous piece, there isn’t as much frackable gas as was first assumed, and the price of gas will soon rise even as oil prices drop. With the proposed Burrillville plant designed to burn gas or oil, whichever is cheaper and more available, we may find ourselves with a brand new state of the art oil burning plant.

Raimondo wants to be seen as a leader on the climate. She serves as as vice chair of the on the Governors’ Wind and Solar Energy Coalition (GWSC). She’s one of 17 governors to sign the Governors Accord for New Energy and she was at the conference in DC, mentioned above. But it’s not enough to divest financially from fossil fuels: she has to divest herself politically as well.

Political support for fracked gas is eroding fast. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who came out in support of the plant in an interview with Ted Nesi, walked back his support Friday morning in an interview with Bill Rappleye, saying it would be unethical for him to take a position.

That the Environment Council of Rhode Island, a coalition of 62 different groups that protect the environment in the Ocean State “strongly opposes the proposal” may have had something to do with Whitehouse’s shifting position, but why this message hasn’t penetrated the Governor’s office is a mystery.

Asked yesterday about her position on the proposed plant, Senate President Teresa M Paiva-Weed said that she hasn’t formulated an opinion because there’s no legislation on it before the General Assembly. Sure, that’s a political dodge, but Paiva-Weed’s not backing the plant either. Her Green Jobs RI report says nothing about expanding fossil fuel infrastructure.

There is a chance that our political leaders will succumb to the will of the fossil fuel companies and force this plant down our throats, like they did with 38 Studios or tried to do with the PawSox stadium. They will pretend to believe the lies of the fossil fuel industry and stick us with a power plant that we don’t need, that is ruinous to the local environment and will destroy the climate of the planet. If so, their legacy will be that of destroyers, not environmentalists.

February 29, 2016April 18, 2016

Textron still makes cluster bombs despite downward global, US trends

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Rhode Island-based Textron is one of four private-companies on earth, and the last North American producer, to manufacture what is quickly becoming one of the world’s most controversial weapons of war: cluster bombs.

“The cluster munition industry is gone because many nations have banned the weapon,” said Mark Hiznay, a senior arms researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“Most foreign producers are state-owned industries,” he said, such as China and Russia. In addition to Textron he knows of only three other privately-held companies in the world that still make cluster bombs, two are in South Korea and one is in Singapore.

Human Rights Watch recently released a report criticizing the failure rate of Textron-made cluster bombs and accused Saudi Arabian-led forces in Yemen of using them dangerously close to civilians.

At one time 34 different nations made cluster bombs but now only 16 still do, or reserve the right to, according to the Cluster Munition Monitor, an annual report of the sale, use of and efforts to ban cluster bombs. 119 countries have banned them. Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and England, among others, have already destroyed their entire stockpiles, Hiznay said.

The United States, on the other hand, has not signed the 2008 Convention on Cluster Bombs treaty. In 2003, the US military used Textron-made cluster bombs against Iraqi tanks as it advanced on Kirkuk.

Both of Rhode Island’s senators say they see the need to curtail the use of cluster bombs.

“Senator Reed has supported efforts to limit the sale and transfer of cluster munitions and to ensure the use of more precise technologies to protect civilians,” said his spokesman Chip Unruh.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is a co-signer of the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act. “Cluster bombs can take a terrible and lasting toll on civilians, which is why I’ve cosponsored legislation to restrict their use,” he told RI Future. “I hope the Senate will take action on this bill to help protect innocent civilians from these dangerous weapons of war.”

The House-version of this bill is sponsored by Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern, who represents the Worcester area. Congressmen David Cicilline and Jim Langevin could not be reached for comment.

The Textron-made bomb – the CBU-105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon – is at the center of a new Human Rights Watch report that indicates the weapon malfunctions more than 1 percent of the time, a violation of US export law, and accuses the Saudi Arabian-led forces in Yemen of using the weapon dangerously close to civilian populations which has resulted in several documented injuries.

“It’s puzzling to us that Textron is marketing this as a reliable weapon,” Hiznay said. “We’re not sure if it’s Textron’s problem or the Saudis’ problem, but we’ve had the US Air Force use them in Iraq and produce duds and now we have Saudi forces using them and producing duds in Yemen.”

US export law requires cluster bombs sold to foreign countries to malfunction less than 1 percent of the time, a success rate Human Rights Watch says the Textron-made bomb has not achieved. A 2008 Department of Defense Directive, the current prevailing US policy on the use of cluster bombs, requires the US military to only use cluster bombs with similar success rates.

“Most of the SFW’s have been sold to the US Air Force,” said Textron spokesman David Sylvestre in an email. “Comparatively few have been sold to US allies.” He declined further comment about the sale of weapons saying, “Much of the data about what we sell to a particular military customer may be considered protected or classified info by the US government or the customer.”

According to a 2011 Department of Defense news release, Textron was contacted to sell 404 cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia for $355 million. In 2012, Textron was contracted to sell 325 cluster bombs to South Korea for $325 million. The US last put aside funds to buy cluster bombs from Textron in 2007, said Hiznay, but didn’t make the buy after the weapons malfunctioned more than 1 percent of the time.

“We believe that SFW is truly the best area attack weapon in the world,” said Ellen Lord, senior vice president and general manager of Textron Defense Systems. “Through a process of rigorous research, testing and analysis, we have created a weapon that is reliable, safe and meets current clean battlefield standards.”

February 16, 2016May 3, 2016

Environmentalists tell Sheldon Whitehouse: we don’t support fossil fuels

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Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was wrong to suggest the so-called “larger environmental community” isn’t disappointed that the climate champion of Congress is supporting a fossil fuel power plant in Burrillville, Rhode Island.

That’s the opinion of the Environment Council of Rhode Island, a coalition of 62 different groups that protect the environment in the Ocean State.

“While ECRI has deep respect for Senator Whitehouse’s work in the U.S. Senate to address climate change,” the group said in a prepared statement sent widely to local media. “ECRI regrets that in his Jauary 22 interview Senator Whitehouse misrepresented the views of Rhode Island’s environmental community.”

In an interview with WPRI’s Ted Nesi, Whitehouse said the “larger environmental community” understands why he supports a methane gas-fueled power plant in Rhode Island, which he says would help lower energy prices in the Northeast.

“There’s a small group of people who would like to have me change my position,” Whitehouse told Nesi. “From the larger environmental movement – the Save the Bays and the League of Conservation Voters and the Nature Conservancies and all that – there’s no blowback whatsoever. They understand the difference between the national and the local concern.”

Said the Environment Council of Rhode Island today: “To be clear: ECRI strongly opposes the proposal to build a new, long-lived fossil-fuel plant in Rhode Island, because building this plant would make it impossible for the state to meet its short-, medium-, and long-term goals for carbon-emission reductions.”

On September 14, ECRI, of which the Nature Conservancy is a member, took an official position on the Burrillville proposal:

Climate change is the most urgent problem facing Rhode Island and, indeed, the world. One of the major causes of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, oil and natural gas, to make energy. In this context, the Environment Council of Rhode Island (ECRI) strongly opposes the proposal to build a new, long-lived natural gas fueled electricity generator in Burrillville. ECRI supports the quickest transition to clean, renewable energy and greater energy efficiency; this is not the time to be building new fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Steve Ahlquist reported subsequent to the WPRI interview that Save The Bay and the League of Conservation Voters had no position on the proposed methane power plant. He wrote, “Given that two of the three groups that Whitehouse named have no position on the project, and the third group, “the Nature Conservancies and all that” doesn’t specify any particular agency, it appears that Whitehouse’s answer was intended to minimize the importance of local opposition to the power plant, not honestly appraise the support for natural gas infrastructure expansion that exists in the wider environmental community.”

The proposed gas-fueled power plant in Burrillville has exposed a rift between local environmental activists and the elected Democrats they often support. Governor Gina Raimondo was an early and ardent supporter of the project. Whitehouse was more measured. In August, his office told WPRI he was “still reviewing the details of the proposed power plant.”

The proposed power plant opposition has been led by grassroots activists, some of whom associate with a group called FANG or Fighting Against Natural Gas.

February 16, 2016May 3, 2016

Recent power auction proves Burrillville power plant unneeded

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The Clear River Energy Center, a gas and oil fired energy plant proposed by Invenergy for Burrillville, Rhode Island is not needed, according to the results of ISO New England Forward Capacity Auction, the results of which were released last Monday. The results of the auction means that cost of energy in Rhode Island in 2019-2020 will be reduced and these lower costs have nothing to do with the energy offered by Invenergy.

[Note: Jerry Elmer had this to say in an email received after the story ran: “Energy and capacity are two different commodities. (The third component of electricity price is ‘ancillary services.’) The price of both energy and capacity are elements of the ultimate price of electricity that is paid by ratepayers (electricity customers) but energy and capacity are not the same thing. (That is, energy and capacity are not the same thing as each other; and energy and capacity prices are not the same thing as the price of electricity.) As components of the overall electricity market in New England, energy represents about 80% of the value (price) of electricity and capacity represents about 20%. (Ancillary services are a very, very small part of the price.)]

Forward Capacity Auctions (FCA) are somewhat complicated, and making sense of the ISO NE press release was a big lift, so I talked to Jerry Elmer, senior staff attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), to get my head around it.

“Invenergy is planning to build a 900 – 1000 MegaWatt (MW) plant,” said Elmer, “Only 485 MWs cleared in that auction and got a capacity supply obligation (CSO). So what that tells you immediately is that the plant is not needed in RI. If the plant were needed it would have gotten a CSO of 900 MW.”

Hold up. Let’s take this a little slower.

The way electrical prices are determined in Rhode Island is through a series of annual auctions. Most recently we completed FCA 10 (Forward Capacity Auction 10). Power companies bid to supply energy and ISO NE takes the best offers at the lowest price. The companies in the bidding are then obligated to supply that power during the time period specified and at the determined price. This is the capacity supply obligation (CSO).

In the most recent auction, FCA 10, Invenergy cleared only 485 MWs, about half of what their proposed 900-1000 MW plant could produce.

Under the rules of ISO NE, a certain amount of energy must be locally sourced in each zone. Here in Rhode Island, we are in the South Eastern New England (SENE) zone and the amount of locally sourced power required is 10,028 MW.

As Elmer explained the math, “The zone cleared the auction at 11,348 MW. So do a thought experiment: Invenergy got a CSO for 485 MW. Take 485 MW out of 11,348 MW and you’ve got 10,843 MW in the zone without Invenergy. You’ve got a surplus. You’ve 500 MW more than you need, without Invenergy.”

This is not what Invenergy expected when they presented their plans for the new plant. “If you look at Invenergy’s filing with the Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB),” says Elmer, “they were talking about how desperately the plant is needed, it’s needed in RI to keep the lights on, and that the clearing price of capacity is going to be much higher in RI than in the rest of the ISO NE pool, what they call ‘rest of pool.’”

In the previous auction, Rhode Island did not fare so well. The reason for this is that between FCA 9 and FCA 10 the zones were restructured. “It used to be, up until this auction, there were two separate zones,” said Elmer, “There was SEMA RI (SouthEast Massachusetts and RI), NEMA Boston (SouthEast Massachusetts and Boston), and ‘Rest of Pool,’ but for FCA 10, the ISO collapsed what used to be the NEMA Boston zone with the SEMA RI zone and made one SouthEast New England (SENE) zone.

“The interesting thing here is that Invenergy has been planning this plant for a couple of years and it is true that in the two previous actions, FCA 8 and FCA 9 one year ago, the SEMA RI zone cleared much higher than rest of pool. Invenergy was right about that. So they start this plan for this plant, and they figure that they are going to absolutely clean up financially.

“This is an import constrained zone, clearing price is double what the rest of the pool is, we’re going to put 900 or 1000 MW into this very high priced zone, we are going to make a fortune. This was their thinking.

“Between FCA 9 and FCA 10, ISO NE collapsed the NEMA Boston and SEMA RI zone into a big zone, and now, instead of the zone that includes RI being very constrained with a shortage of power, we now have an excess of power in the zone.”

Drawing the lines of the various zones has nothing to do with politics, said Elmer, “It’s nothing you can vote on or put political pressure on. It’s physics! It’s where the transmission does or does not exist.”

Let’s look at this from Invenergy’s point of view for a minute: Invenergy “thought they were supposed to have 900 or 1000 MW cleared, at a very high price,” said Elmer, “instead only half the plant cleared, 485 MW. What cleared went at exactly the same price as rest of pool, no premium, zero. The rest of pool came out 25 percent lower than last year’s clearing price, and the zone here [in Rhode Island] cleared at about half the price of last years price for this zone.”

This is great news for Rhode Island, but for Invenergy, not so much. “Here’s the kicker,” said Elmer, “Invenergy got a CSO for 485 MW. That means they have got to build the plant. They are on the hook. They posted a huge bond with the ISO called Financial Assurance (FA) just to be allowed to play in the auction. So now Invenergy has the worst of all worlds.

“It only sold half its capacity to the ISO and at a much lower price than anticipated, but they still have to build the plant, or as an alternative, they could sell their CSO between now and June 1, 2019 in one of the annual or monthly reconfiguration auctions that the ISO runs, and get out of the business altogether and not even build the plant.

“They are now forced to build the plant that will be much less profitable and lucrative than they thought, or get out of it.”

Currently, the EFSB is holding hearings to determine whether or not the plant will be built. In their filing with the EFSB, Invenergy’s two major arguments in favor of the plant were, “The plant is needed for system reliability, to prevent blackouts, to keep the lights on” and “The plant will end up lowering the bill for ratepayers,” said Elmer.

“What the results of the auction shows is that both of Invenergy’s main arguments are just wrong. They are false,” said Elmer, “The plant is not needed for system reliability, it is not needed to keep the lights on and the net effect on the clearing price is either zero or very close to zero because the plant wasn’t needed.”

“CLF is presenting three witnesses to the EFSB,” said Elmer, “one witness for each of the three arguments that Invenergy is making in favor of the plant. We’ve got one witness on the system reliability issue: Is the plant needed to keep the lights on? The answer is no and this auction proves it.

“We have a separate witness on the money issue. Will building the plant save money for rate payers? This auction result says no, the answer is no.

“And then we’ve got another witness on the climate change/carbon emission issues whose testimony is going to be that if the plant is built, it will be impossible for the state to meet its carbon emission reduction goals.”

This information is “absolutely all relevant to the EFSB. In fact, Invenergy is the party before the EFSB that raised these issues! CLF is not raising these issues. We’re addressing these issues because Invenergy raised them. In legal terms, Invenergy opened the door on each of these issues, we’re just walking through it. We’re not raising these issues, Invenergy’s raising these issues. The reason we’ve got witnesses addressing these issues is because Invenergy raised them!”

The arguments in favor of the plant that we are hearing from our elected leaders, such as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, that Rhode Island suffers from an energy “choke point” and needs this plant for grid reliability, is simply not true any more, if it ever was. Given this new information, Senator Whitehouse should now feel very free to change his position on the proposed plant.

The low energy prices available now allows Rhode Island the luxury of planning a just transition to renewable energy sources and the time we need to concentrate on efforts to lower the amount of energy we need. Political leadership is needed to take advantage of this opportunity, and should not be squandered on an unnecessary fossil fuel plant that will harm Rhode Island’s environment and keep us addicted to fossil fuels for at least another half century.

February 12, 2016

Prison Op-Ed Project gives inmates a voice

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This fall, I visited a class of smart and engaged Rhode Island students. They seemed a lot like other students I’ve visited over the years: They asked good questions. They shared their experiences openly. They thought critically about what others said. They were respectful.

But unlike other students I’ve visited in the past, this group was serving time at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institution’s medium-security facility in Cranston. They were earning credit toward a college degree from the Community College of Rhode Island, and participating in the Prison Op-Ed Project, one of several training, treatment, and educational programs designed to give inmates a better chance of staying out of trouble when they leave prison.

Completing this type of course has proven a smart investment of inmates’ time and of our correctional system’s resources. Since Rhode Island in 2008 introduced a number of new policies and programs designed to better prepare inmates for life after release—things like college courses, drug treatment programs, and job training, combined with requirements for good behavior— incarceration rates in Rhode Island are down 17 percent. We’ve also seen a six percent drop in recidivism rates and a decrease in crime.

Those numbers are encouraging, and it’s not just Rhode Island that’s seen this kind of progress. My partner on federal legislation to reduce recidivism is Senator John Cornyn, whose home state of Texas has engaged in similar efforts. We’ve cited Rhode Island, Texas, and other states’ successes to show how programs that help prisoners avoid returning to crime can reduce our federal prison population and incarceration costs. Our proposal is now part of the comprehensive criminal sentencing reform bill that has passed out of the Judiciary Committee and awaits a vote in the Senate.

We should pass the sensible Senate sentencing reform bill and put Rhode Island’s successes to good use in our federal system. We’ll realize the benefits not only in our federal system, and it may help move other states around the country.

One of the members of the class I visited noted how difficult it is for former inmates to access good substance abuse treatment after release. Another pointed out how former inmates often go without health insurance in spite of serious health conditions. Other Rhode Islanders returning to life after prison have told me how difficult it is to get a job without clothes to wear to an interview or don’t have internet access to search for openings online. These problems also contribute to the cycle that leads former inmates to re-offend and return to our over-burdened prisons.

There are smart, well-informed people in our corrections system, with first-hand perspective of the challenges of meaningful reform. I’m grateful to the Prison Op-Ed Project for giving them a voice as we work to fix our overcrowded, expensive prisons.

This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:

Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook – James Poston
Why don’t female ACI inmates have a nice big rec yard like the men – Merissa Piccoli
Literal segregation – Philip Randall
Religion, violence and America – Derick Smith
They say knowledge is power, but is it? – Devin Kyle-Garris
Time to change what we consider newsworthy – David DuBois

February 3, 2016

Two protests rock State House during Governor’s budget address

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As Governor Gina Raimondo presented her budget to the General Assembly and the television viewers at home, she was being simultaneously protested by two groups. The first was a coalition of environmental groups opposed to her support for the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in Rhode Island, and the second was made up of undocumented workers and their allies, there to hold the Governor to her promise to make driver’s licenses available to all.

The evening started with members of FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas), BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion), Fossil Free Rhode Island and the Environmental Justice League of RI (EJLRI) coming together to protest the Governor’s support for three fracked gas projects in Rhode Island: Invenergy‘s planned fracked gas power plant, the Clear River Energy Center, to be built in Burillville; Spectra Energy‘s planned expansion of pipelines and a compressor station in Burrillville; and National Grid’s planned liquefaction plant at Field’s Point in South Providence.

About five minutes before Senate President Teresa Paiva-Weed, as per tradition, lead Governor Raimondo to the House Chambers, English for Action, a group dedicated to improving the lives of immigrants and undocumented workers, entered the State House to stage their own protest. Candidate Raimondo had promised this group that she would issue an executive order, within her first year in office, allowing undocumented workers to get driver’s licenses.

The Governor has broken this campaign promise.

The two groups lost no time in joining forces and ascended the stairs to the second floor chanting and marching. They were kept from approaching the entrance to the House Chambers by Capitol and State Police who formed a line in front of them. The protests were loud, but completely peaceful.

2016-02-02 State House 021 — Governor Raimondo

After the Governor entered the House Chambers to deliver her State of the State address, (successfully avoiding any contact with protesters) the two groups briefly separated before joining forces on opposite stairways in the main rotunda. Here they gave a series of short speeches explaining their positions and pledging to support each other’s efforts.

As EJLRI’s Jesus Holguin said to me afterwards, the two issues are actually more related than they might appear. The same forces that drive people from their home countries to seek work in the United States are working to keep the United States addicted to fossil fuels. During his address to the crowd, Nick Katkevich of FANG pointed out that English for Action is one of many groups that has signed onto FANG’s letter opposing the power plant.

The two groups pledged to support each other’s issues and future actions.

One thing that became abundantly clear is that the number of people who are willing to protest the Governor (and, as we saw yesterday, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse) is growing. Katkevich asked those present to join with FANG “everywhere the Governor goes” to call Raimondo out on her support for the power plant.

February 1, 2016May 3, 2016

FANG confronts Whitehouse over his Invenergy support

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As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse stood up to speak to a room packed with concerned environmentalists and sustainability stakeholders at the #ResilientPVD Sustainability Workshops, held in the Providence City Hall Monday afternoon, climate activists representing FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) and BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) stood up and silently held aloft signs challenging the Senator on his stated support for Invenergy‘s Clear River Energy Center (CREC) in Burrillville.

The event was not interrupted and proceeded as planned. At one point Leah Bamberger, Providence’s Director of Sustainability, confronted Nick Katkevich of FANG, who was handing out flyers to people in the room. The flyers ask “Did you know?” and answered, “Sheldon Whitehouse supports the massive fossil fuel power plant proposed for Burrillville.” After their brief interaction Bamberger returned to her seat and Katkevich resumed handing out flyers.

Among those standing with signs I recognized Sister Mary Pendergast of the Sisters of Mercy and Burrillville resident Kathy Martley.

Senator Whitehouse came out in support of the CREC power plant in an interview with Ted Nesi. In the interview Whitehouse cited support from environmental groups for his stance, support that subsequent investigation has revealed does not exist.

The #ResilentPVD event today is part of a three day series of “charrettes, workshops, and community meetings to explore how Providence’s infrastructure, buildings, and neighborhoods can prepare for the impacts climate change.” An impressive array of sustainability experts from across the country are in attendance. There is a report expected on Wednesday.

Mayor Jorge Elorza introduced Senator Whitehouse as the state’s foremost climate champion though some in the audience were audibly agitated by that designation, with someone commenting that “He supports the fossil fuel plant in Burrillville!” Whitehouse was not visibly disturbed by the protesters, though he seldom looked their way as he spoke.

FANG and BASE are planning to protest at the RI State House Tuesday evening during Governor Gina Raimondo‘s State of the State address Tuesday evening. Governor Raimondo has also been a vocal champion of the CREC plant, as has Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello.

2016-02-01 FANG Whitehouse PVD City Hall 06 — Whitehouse and Elorza

2016-02-01 FANG Whitehouse PVD City Hall 13 — Bamberger and Katkevich

February 1, 2016

FANG needs YOU: To protest Governor Raimondo

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FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) has announced that they and their allies will be protesting Governor Gina Raimondo during her State of the State address because of her continuing support for the methane gas power plant to be built in Burrillville. Raimondo will be speaking the the RI State House before both houses of the General Assembly.

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:

January 25, 2016May 3, 2016

Enviro group support for Burrillville power plant cited by Whitehouse does not exist

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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at Forward on Climate rally

Senator Whitehouse supports the new gas powered energy plant in Burrillville, but the support he cites for his position from environmental groups doesn’t exist.

In a short interview with Ted Nesi, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, widely considered to be the most environmentally conscious member of the US Senate, threw his support behind Invenergy’s Clear River Energy Center in Burrillville, a power plant to be run on fracked methane.

Whitehouse said, “Rhode Island and a large part of Southern New England are on the wrong side of a couple of gas pipeline choke points, with the result that at certain times costs soar in Rhode Island because the choke point creates a supply-demand imbalance which causes prices to soar, and in other states that’s not happening.

“I don’t think it’s valuable from Rhode Island’s perspective to make Rhode Islanders pay high winter gas prices when it doesn’t change the overall complexion of the gas market. So I am not objecting to that particular plant, because it’s a choke point issue.”

When Nesi asked Whitehouse if he’s received any blowback for his refusal to oppose the plant, Whitehouse said, “Some. There’s a small group of people who would like to have me change my position.

“From the larger environmental movement – the Save the Bays and the League of Conservation Voters and the Nature Conservancies and all that – there’s no blowback whatsoever. They understand the difference between the national and the local concern.”

Peter Nightingale, second from left, was arrested at Sheldon Whitehouse's office. — Peter Nightingale, second from left, was arrested at Sheldon Whitehouse’s office.

So do Save the Bay and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) really support Whitehouse’s position on the new Burrillville power plant as the Senator implies?

Not quite.

I asked both Save the Bay and the League of Conservation Voters for comments on what Whitehouse said. Neither group came close to backing the Senator up.

Seth Stein, National Press Secretary for the League of Conservation Voters, said, “LCV does not have an RI state league partner. We focus on Federal policy, and do not generally weigh in on local politics in states where we do not have a state league.”

Students from Brown and URI with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at the People's Climate March — Students from Brown and URI with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse at the People’s Climate March

Topher Hamblett, director of policy at Save the Bay, said, “Save The Bay has not taken a position on the project (we’re focused on a host of Bay issues). On development projects like this we usually evaluate potential impacts to water resources, wetland systems and Bay/coastal eco-sytsems.”

Save the Bay’s executive director Jonathan Stone wrote, “Save the Bay has not taken a position on the plant. On energy development proposals like this we always evaluate impacts on water quality, wetlands habitat, public access, and other impacts on the health of the Bay and coastal Rhode Island.”

Burrillville is not positioned near the Bay.

Given that two of the three groups that Whitehouse named have no position on the project, and the third group, “the Nature Conservancies and all that” doesn’t specify any particular agency, it appears that Whitehouse’s answer was intended to minimize the importance of local opposition to the power plant, not honestly appraise the support for natural gas infrastructure expansion that exists in the wider environmental community.

One nature conservancy that does have a strong position on Invenergy’s plans is one that will be directly impacted by the plant. The Burrillville Land Trust, has been granted intervenor status in the process to determine the power plant’s fate and has filed a motion to shut the application process down.

So none of the environmental groups that Whitehouse implied would support him, do. Instead, we have wide ranging opposition to the plant from a host of groups that understand what is at stake in allowing Rhode Island to continue to depend on fossil fuels for its energy.

The Conservation Law Foundation, the Burrillville Land Trust, Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion (BASE), Fighting Against Natural Gas (FANG), Fossil Free RI, Rhode Island Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Green Party of RI, Occupy Providence and the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats have all come out against the plant.

In his interview with Nesi, Whitehouse cavalierly dismissed the concerns of local environmental groups, and could name no environmental groups that support his position.

If Whitehouse is truly the Senate’s climate champion, we are all in serious trouble.

December 7, 2015December 7, 2015

FANG and BASE crash Raimondo/Whitehouse press conference

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Governor Gina Raimondo and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse found themselves confronted by activists from Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion (BASE) and Fighting Against Natural Gas (FANG) at a press conference to announce a new federal program to fund “major infrastructure projects like the 6-10 Connector in Providence.”

As US Representative David Cicilline finished up his short statement about the transportation funding, four activists, including Nick Katkevich of FANG and Kathy Martley of BASE entered the press conference area, under the 6-10 Connector behind Wes’ Rib House in Olneyville.

The four protesters held large signs and stayed quiet throughout Gina Raimondo’s short presentation. After the press conference ended, Kathy Martley tried to get the attention of the governor with a question about the new methane gas energy plant planned for Burrillville, but the Governor and Senator Whitehouse seemed intent on only answering the questions of the media present, and avoided engaging with the protesters.

In the video, Katkevich said to Whitehouse, “You’re not a climate champion, you’re supporting a fossil fuel power plant,” before asking, “You go to Nebraska, to fight the Keystone, but you can’t go to Burrillville?”

Whitehouse, “didn’t say a word” to the protesters, according to Martley by phone after the event was over. She was told by a Whitehouse aid that she and BASE had “given us enough information” on the pipeline expansion and new power plant. Martley complained to me that when she had previously approached Whitehouse, he had promised to meet with her, but that meeting never materialized. Today, Whitehouse simply ignored her and drove away.

Governor Raimondo, said Martley, “didn’t want to talk to us… she said ‘we’ll meet with you’ and I said, ‘we’ve tried to call your office and you’re still not making a date with us. Are you going to make a date with us when the power plant is already built?'”

This is the second time that Martley and BASE have attended a Raimondo press conference to ask about the methane infrastructure expansion projects in Burrillville. Back in September she crashed the governor’s press conference for the opening of the Linear Park. Today’s action comes on the heels of a large weekend rally and march against Spectra in Burrillville in which eight people were arrested.

November 9, 2015

New facility will help end veteran homelessness in RI

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The Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless (RICH) is on track to satisfy their goal, outlined in Zero: 2016, of eliminating veteran homelessness by the end of the year. Since January, RICH has housed 163 homeless veterans and today they cut the ribbon on a new building, Veterans for Tomorrow, located at 1115 Douglas Ave in Providence.

Governor Gina Raimondo, as well as Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and Representatives Jim Langevin and David Cicilline were on hand for the ribbon cutting ceremony, as were many other politicians. Well over 150 people turned out for the event, to the surprise of many of the speakers.

The best speaker at the ceremony was Larry Crudup, a homeless veteran who served ten years in the Army and ten additional years in the Army Reserves. who finally has a safe and private home to sleep in. “When I first saw the room,” says Crudup, “I fell in love with it.”

The rooms are spacious and come with a small living, dining area, a separate bedroom and a separate bathroom. Also, the facility comes with a community area and a classroom. “It’s better than being by yourself,” said Crudup.

Several of the political speakers made the point that no one who served our country in the military should have to suffer from homelessness. It is hoped that Rhode Island can be the first state to eliminate veteran homelessness this year.

October 9, 2015October 9, 2015

Peter Nightingale’s call to action at URI

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At the University of Rhode Island’s 19th annual Diversity Week, Peter Nightingale, professor of physics at URI, and climate activist, challenged students’ perspectives on climate change and offered a call to action in order to address environmental racism. The event, “Race and the Environmental Justice Movement,” was held at the Multicultural Student Services Center.

Nightingale began the event with a stark warning: in order to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must reduce greenhouse emissions globally by 7 percent. The U.S. is home to a fraction of the world’s population, it emits 25 percent of global greenhouse gasses. Even though the U.S. is greatly responsible for climate change, it will be the poor of the world, nations with less developed infrastructure, that will bear the consequences.

Nightingale referenced Robert Bullard’s work, “Dumping in Dixie”, in the presentation:

The environmental movement in the United States emerged with agendas that focused on such areas as wilderness and wildlife preservation, resource conservation, pollution abatement, and population control. It was supported primarily by middle- and upper-middle-class whites. Although concern about the environment cuts across racial and class lines, environmental activism has been most pronounced among individuals who have above-average education, greater access to economic resources, and a greater sense of personal efficacy.”

“I’m one of those people who are in a position of privilege,” said Nightingale. It was Nightingale’s privilege that allowed him to be treated politely by police when resisting fracked gas expansion. “Suppose I were half my age, and my color is a little bit darker – would they be equally polite, and nice? No – absolutely not.”

In the fight for the environment, there are the following stakeholders: the environmentalists, the social justice advocates, and the neo-liberal boosters, who, “have as their chief concerns maximizing profits, industrial expansion, economic stability, laissez-faire operation, and deregulation,” said Nightingale, quoting Bullard.

“If you follow the economic discussion in Rhode Island,” continued Nightingale, “all you hear people say is ‘all we need is more jobs, more jobs’ – but when you scrape away the rhetoric, a lot of people of color and poor minorities are being divided among themselves… the elites never mention that it’s all about their profits, about busting unions, about exploiting people – and this is one of the problems we have to deal with.”

For instance, Governor Gina Raimondo stated, “I am committed to moving ahead with cost-effective, regional energy infrastructure projects—including expansion of natural gas capacity—that will improve our business climate and create new opportunities for Ocean State workers.”

Nightingale also referred to the President’s Climate Action Plan as the “President’s Business Climate Action Plan” – stating that it is based on the interests of Wall Street, not in science. We are moving away from fossil fuels, and going towards natural gas, essentially replacing carbon dioxide with methane, a gas that is much more potent than carbon dioxide. “Let that sink in – that’s what [Senator] Sheldon Whitehouse is saying we should do and it’s a bad plan”

Not only are we “Dumping in Dixie,” but we are dumping in Providence, we are dumping in Burrillville, and we are dumping globally. From National Grid’s proposed LNG liquefaction facility to the proposed gas-fired power plant in Burrillville, the environment and the people are under assault says Nightingale.

“Who are the people that live next to I-95 in Providence… the people are about to thrown out of their houses… their skin tone is a couple of shades darker than mine.” Nightingale directed attendees to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice website, which shows several environmental and demographic indicators regarding pollution. In the presentation, Nightingale showcased the current indicators for the proposed LNG liquefaction facility at Fields Point location in Providence, and compared the indicators to those of East Greenwich.

Nightingale continued by critiquing Cap and Trade. “We are taking a serious problem [and] financializing it. We’re putting it on the stock market, and we’re allowing people to speculate.” By allowing environmental destruction to continue in impoverished communities, while Wall Street profiteers from the destruction, we thus institutionalize environmental injustice. “We can live yet another day, because we are taking the livelihood from someone else in the Southern Hemisphere.” A prime example of this is the continued deforestation of the Amazon rain forest. Nightingale drew a parallel to Pope Francis’ comments on climate change and tax credits:

The strategy of buying and selling ‘carbon credits’ can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. This system seems to provide a quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require. Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.”

Nightingale concluded by offering a powerful statement from Pope Francis, “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

October 9, 2015October 29, 2015

FERC listens as no one speaks in favor of National Grids’ LNG facility

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No one spoke in favor of the project, but more than 100 people packed the room and 33 people spoke against National Grid‘s plan to build a $100 million methane gas liquefaction facility in Fields Point in South Providence before representatives of FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), the agency tasked with the job of approving or disapproving the project.

One after another speakers from the affected community, environmental activists, concerned Rhode Islanders and elected members of the General Assembly spoke passionately about negative environmental impacts and the explicit environmental racism implicit of National Grid’s plan.

The liquefaction facility is to be located adjacent to one of Rhode Island’s poorest communities, which already suffers from higher rates of asthma and other respiratory ailments. This community has become a sacrifice zone, a place where dangerous chemicals are stored. A representative from FERC admitted that some additional methane leaks are to be expected as a result of this plan, and methane is one of the most dangerous gases contributing to global warming and global catastrophe.

Peter Nightingale, a member of Fossil Free Rhode Island, has been involved in several FANG (Fighting Against Natural Gas) actions and who was arrested for his peaceful protest at Senator Sheldon Whitehouse‘s Providence office, pulled no punches when he told FERC, “To you who are here silently doing your jobs for this project I have but one thing to say: You are complicit in crimes against humanity and against Mother Earth.”

Monae McNeil, from the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island (EJLRI), a group central to the community’s resistance to this project, said, that this project “puts low-income communities at risk, if something were to happen.” The site of the project is not protected by the hurricane barrier. There was an earthquake near this location in August. A disaster at this facility would affect as many as 140 thousand Rhode Islanders.

Jan Luby pointed out that no storage facilities like this are being proposed for Barrington, Lincoln or East Greenwich. Instead, these projects are proposed for low-income communities where resistance is expected to be minimal.

Greg Gerritt spoke on behalf of the Green Party of RI and Prosperity For RI. FERC, he said, “has never turned down one of these projects” demonstrating that the agency is not serious about climate change.

Kate Schati doesn’t live on the South Side, but she cares what happens there, because “it affects the people who live in Providence with me… I don’t want them to be at risk of a breach or a leak or an explosion or even the normal operation of a plant…”

Ben Boyd: “…we need to be investing in clean, renewable, sustainable energy sources…”

One of the most impassioned testimonies of the evenings came from Stephen Dahl, of Kingston, RI. “Weep, weep, weep, weep,” he began, quoting William Blake on the Industrial Revolution. This was more performance piece as testimony, and was powerful.

Marti Rosenberg lives within the affected community. “This project shows us that the impact of fracking is much closer than we think.” Methane is used by communities near the South Side, but the South Side itself not so much. Instead, this community bears the brunt of the negative impacts of methane gas, and none of the benefits.

Peter Sugrue questioned National Grid’s motives for project. “We will clearly see a rate increase for this $100 million project,” yet all National Grid is promising is a smoothing of price volatility. How does this benefit Rhode Islanders, is that even to be honestly expected and is it worth the cost?

Paul Klinkman

Liberty Goodwin

Karen Palmer

Nick Katkevich of FANG, which has lead several actions against fracked gas infrastructure in Burrillville and Providence, promised resistance to this project in the event that FERC approves it.

Gina Rodriguez-Drix is a resident of Washington Park, a mother of two and a birth worker, is “deeply concerned about the disproportionate effects” this project will have on women and children of color in her neighborhood and other affected communities.

Julian Rodriguez-Drix is tired. “I’ve got a family with two kids, a full time job, and now it’s up to us to us, spending our free time poring through pages and pages of bureaucratic nonsense that is trying to find ways to justify a facility that you’ve heard everyone here speak out against.”

Representative Aaron Regunberg

Claudia Gorman

Servio

Lisa Petrie

Yudiglen Sena-Abrau

Jesus Holguin

Ana Quezada

Dania Flores is a board member of EJLRI. She spoke to the community (not to FERC) about how National Grid’s plan impacts the Latino community, about how we have our own solutions, and how we need to deport National Grid.

Paul

Beth Milham

Senator Josh Miller

Senator Juan Pichardo

August Juang

Vanessa Flores-Maldonado

Helen MacDonald

Steve Roberts

Susan Walker

Michelle Lacey

Will Lambek

September 30, 2015September 30, 2015

What to make of Trevor Noah?

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Trevor Noah’s premiere on THE DAILY SHOW, taking the place of Jon Stewart, was a nice opening. His discussion of the papal visit to America was funny, his take on Speaker of the House John Boehner’s resignation went over well, and his coverage of the discovery of water on Mars, which included the introduction of a new correspondent, Roy Wood, Jr., made me laugh out loud.

However, there remains a certain gap in the show that keeps me from rolling on the floor. Part of it may have to do with the absence of Tim Carvell, the Mad magazine writer who worked on the show from 2004 to 2014 before following John Oliver over to HBO. The Daily Show has had some brilliant moments in the past few years, including its takes on race, gender, and sexuality issues, but it does not have the same zing it did in 2004, when the Bush administration was providing plenty of material. It is also not out of line to notice that the show has been muted in comparison when dealing directly with the Obama administration, a criticism that also can be leveled at the late, great Colbert Report.

But I feel that only scrapes the surface. Noah says he will bring to the show a more internationalized focus, perhaps taking more material from the Global Edition of the show that has been in production since 2002 and broadcast on CNN International. Can we expect future episodes where correspondents cover political conventions of not just the Republicans and Democrats but also the British Tories or the Irish Sinn Fein? Will there be dispatches from the headquarters of Christian fundamentalists in Switzerland?

The fact is that those potentialities fail to address just how bizarre America is. On September 27, The New Yorker magazine carried a story worth remembering, WHY ARE REPUBLICANS THE ONLY CLIMATE-SCIENCE-DENYING PARTY IN THE WORLD? With the help of a survey of the worldwide right-wing parties by the University of Bergen’s Sondre Båtstrand, the periodical points out that every other conservative (read: Tories) to right wing party (read: European neo-Nazis like Greece’s Golden Dawn) on earth has climate change action as part of their campaign platform. The idea that Adolf Hitler fanboys have better policies than Gina Raimondo and Sheldon Whitehouse is simply disturbing. Now, there is a lot to say for these parties in terms of the implications of their policy statements, some of them demonize refugee immigrants from the Middle East and blame them directly for climate change because they were involved in the production of fossil fuels. But the point is clear, Båtstrand says that the GOP is “not representative of conservative parties as a party family” and our culture has become simply insane.

Does Trevor Noah have the intention or hope to take on this paradigm and try to shift it? Can he?

I do not believe so. Jon Stewart said in interviews leading up to his departure that he was exhausted by the specter of going through another election season. He was on the air for just over sixteen years, having replaced the terminally unfunny (and reportedly piggishly sexist) Craig Kilborn. After four presidential elections, several published books, and the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, co-hosted with Stephen Colbert, American politics are essentially the same as when Stewart’s first episode lampooning the Lewinski scandal aired. Indeed, we are in the midst of yet another Clinton scandal and about to crown Hillary in a farcical primary that would be called bad government, if not outright treasonous, by any other population on earth!

When we look at the last year of Stewart’s work, we see material terminally lacking in real value. For instance, he barely had the nerve to take on the murderous behavior of the IDF in Gaza during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. The farthest he could bother going was spoofing Israel’s policy of dropping a mortar on the roofs of houses they intendeded to bomb in the next few minutes. Meanwhile, the equally-Jewish Max Blumenthal is able to write this in his recent book THE 51 DAY WAR: RUIN AND RESISTANCE IN GAZA:

The Gaza Strip is a ghetto of children. Of its 1.8 million residents, a majority are under the age of 18. Most have never left the 360 square kilometers where they were born, raised and confined. There is no discernible future for them beyond the Israeli military occupation that has endured nearly 50 years and a siege that was officially proclaimed in 2007. The formative years of these young people have been marked by three major military assaults. These are their rites of passage. The Palestinians of Gaza have no reason or experience to believe that a fourth war will not arrive soon.

There are certain places where Mr. Blumenthal and I have differences about advocacy of Palestinian rights, but if the son of Sidney Blumenthal, who wrote for the Boston Phoenix and became an aid in the Clinton White House, can be this honest, why can we not see that same treatment from Jon Stewart?

Perhaps the answer is to be gleaned from the ownership. Comedy Central is owned by Doug Herzog’s Viacom, who has a history of donating to both the Obama Victory Fund 2012 and McConnell Senate Committee ’14, helping to keep Kentucky’s favorite Foghorn Leghorn impersonator in the Congress.

This kind of ownership, despite being palpable to liberals with support of abortion and gay rights, has no interest in the essential element of any critique of society, discussion of class. Of course, Marxism itself is not fully capable of such a critique of our neoliberal capitalist system, post-structural and post-colonial studies have shown us the gaps regarding the intersectionality of identity, as in the case of racism, gender bias, or homophobia. One cannot look to the Labor Theory of Value and hold DAS KAPITAL with the same level of surety that defines the religious fanatic. But in our cultural deficit in this area is so pronounced that just the cover of one of Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks would seem like an oasis in our desert of the real, where our celebration of Labor Day is one of mourning a return to the grind of work and our holiday praising the democratic socialist Martin Luther King, Jr., a holiday signed into law by Ronald Reagan, dares not even mention the words ‘Vietnam War’, let alone King’s evolution towards a united front with labor union against capital in his final year.

We need comedy that skewers our pathetic news media. We need comedians who are willing to speak truth to power about the abuses of the mighty. But it remains to be seen if Trevor Noah or any other televised personality dependent on ad revenues or cable subscription profits will have the bravery to tell the truth, that America is not the greatest country in the sum total of human existence, that our so-called progressive President is in fact a deeply conservative politician, and that our hyper-bloviating notions of patriotism are seen as buffoonish, reactionary, and ecologically dangerous by people in Europe who enjoy reading MEIN KAMPF.

Until then, the joke is really on us.

September 21, 2015May 3, 2016

Burrillville fracked gas opponents crash Raimondo’s linear park opening

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As Governor Gina Raimondo and the entire Rhode Island congressional delegation celebrated the opening of the new Linear Park on Washington Bridge, residents from Burrillville quietly held signs challenging her administration’s support for a new fracked gas energy plant and pipeline expansion in their city. The protesters are all members of BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion), and they represent a community on the frontlines in the battle against corporate sponsored climate catastrophe.

Kathy Martley, a spokesperson for BASE, told me that the protesters decided to hold signs quietly and not be disruptive during the event out of respect for the family of George Redman, a tireless activist for bike path development in Rhode Island and a World War II veteran. The park was being dedicated in his honor.

Bikes paths are smart investments towards building a more environmentally friendly future, and politicians eagerly turned out to capture some of the credit for the Linear Park dedication, an important milestone in bike friendly infrastructure. But for Governor Gina Raimondo it is becoming difficult to claim the mantle of environmental champion while backing the expansion of methane gas in the state.

Gina Raimondo said that Linear Park is an important part of preserving the quality of life in Rhode Island. But the Burrillville activists also live in our state, and the proposed Spectra pipeline expansion, and the addition of a new fracked gas energy plant, threatens to roll back the quality of their lives.

September 14, 2015September 14, 2015

FANG activists lock themselves to Spectra construction equipment

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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.

August 11, 2015August 11, 2015

Air quality benefits outweigh fracked gas facility

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The economic benefits from doing away with the burning of fossil fuels (including fracked gas) are tremendous in terms of “Air Quality Co-Benefits,” said James K. Boyce at the closing lecture at the Center for Popular Economics 2015 Summer Institute: Confronting Capitalism & Climate Crisis. “Add up those benefits” says Boyce, and you’ll find that the public health benefits are often twice the “social cost of carbon” which is the federal government’s measure of the benefits of reducing CO2 emissions.

Boyce is is a professor of economics at UMass Amherst researching development economics and environmental economics, with particular interests in the impacts of inequalities of wealth and power and the dynamics of conflict. His talk provided yet more reasons to oppose the construction of Clear River Energy Center, a fracked gas energy plant in Burrillville, Rhode Island.

The “vested interests of those who claim to own fossil fuels in the ground” says Boyce, “prevent good climate policy” from being enacted in the United States. It is not possible to design a strategy that can both prevent catastrophic climate change and appease the fossil fuel industry. (As Noel Healy said at a previous CPE talk, “There is no fixable flaw in the fossil fuel industry business plan. We are asking a company to go out of business.”)

But it is possible, stresses Boyce, “to design climate policies that do not impose costs but are beneficial in terms of public health and incomes.” These strategies, if instituted by the United States, would not put us at an economic disadvantage, but would have immediate economic benefits.

20,000 people die every year as a result of air pollution in the form of particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and benzene. The health impacts include asthma, impeded brain development, stroke and cardio-vascular disease, among many more. Treating these diseases costs money. Add to that the value of a statistical life, that grubby little number insurance companies have determined we are each worth, (about $7 million,) and therefore the costs to society of preventible death, diseases and conditions due to fossil fuel emissions is vast.

Another aspect of Boyce’s talk concerned the placement of fossil fuel burning plants. It is not true that carbon is carbon and that it doesn’t matter where in the world they are eliminated. “Co-pollutants are localized and specific communities are influenced by these pollutants.”

Again, this can be applied to Burrillville and the proposed fracked gas plant. Before the new fracked gas plant was proposed, Burrillville was facing a huge expansion of the natural gas pipeline. Back in February I listened to Kathy Martley from BASE (Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion) say, “Burrillville is Rhode Island’s sacrifice zone.”

Martley is also concerned about the chemicals the pumping station is using. Fracked gas is dirtier, she says, and requires an additional 25 chemical additives to make it run smoothly through the pipeline. Many of these chemicals are industrial secrets, meaning there is no information available to the public as to what they are. In the event of a leak, Martley and her family and neighbors may be exposed to an unknown toxic brew. These concerns are no doubt exasperated with the addition of a new fracked gas burning plant.

This is no idle concern of a local resident crying NIMBY. Ted Nesi reports that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is undecided on the matter. Hisspokesman Seth Larson said, “The senator has significant concerns about methane leaks during natural gas production and elsewhere in the supply chain and has been urging EPA to pin down the size of the problem and take action to address it.”

This jibes with a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) that conludes that while “the global warming emissions from [fracked gas] combustion are much lower than those from coal or oil… Emissions from smokestacks and tailpipes… do not tell the full story.”

“The drilling and extraction of natural gas from wells and its transportation in pipelines,” says the UCS, “results in the leakage of methane, a far more potent global warming gas than CO2.” And though fracked gas burning plants yield lower emissions than coal or oil, “Some areas where drilling occurs have experienced increases in concentrations of hazardous air pollutants and two of the six “criteria pollutants” — particulate matter and ozone plus its precursors — regulated by the EPA because of their harmful effects on health and the environment.”

Rhode Island has to decide if it is moral, given that there are clean energy solution available that do not rely on fossil fuels, to outsource our pollution and attendant health risks to those distant fields where desperate communities allow fracking. We have to decide if it is moral to make Burrillville, RI into a sacrifice zone, where, long after natural gas has gone away and the Earth endures a 4 or 5 degree temperature increase due to our continued reliance on apocalyptic technology, we will be leaving a toxic Superfund site to the next generation.

In the video below you can watch nearly the entirety of Boyce’s talk, where besides speaking about the health risks of fossil fuels and the economic advantages of avoiding them, he also outlines his “cap and dividend” approach to carbon reduction.

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