Somerset, MA: Pauline vs. Dirty Coal

If you don't live in Massachusetts, you probably don't know how long residents have waited for the Filthy Five to be cleaned up while breathing the Dirty Air from Dirty Coal and suffering the consequences of Dirty Coal.

Pauline vs Dirty Coal
offers some local insight. Below, are additional links that provide some history.

Pauline lives in Somerset, Massachusetts, and she has one really dirty neighbor — an old coal-fired power plant.


Watch Pauline tell her story and to tell NRG — the New Jersey-based owner of this power plant — to keep its promise to Pauline and all citizens of the state by shutting down the Somerset Station (Montaup) plant, or repowering it with truly cleaner fuel. There are only four coal-burning plants left in Massachusetts. We can make it three.


Eight years ago, a broad coalition of activists and organizations across the state passed the "filthy five regulations" that would clean up the five dirtiest plants in the state, including Somerset Station (Montaup). Instead of modernizing the plant, NRG promised to shut it down or repower it with clean fuel by 2010.

Now NRG wants to break that promise it made to Pauline and the other residents of Somerset by repowering the plant with so-called "clean coal."

To make matters worse, NRG could potentially feed the plant with construction debris that contains toxic chemicals — further exposing residents to harm.


SourceWatch offers the statistics on NRG Energy --
NRG Energy, based in Princeton, NJ, is a wholesale power generation company with ownership in 47 coal, oil, and natural gas plants worldwide.

In May 2007, Forbes listed NRG CEO David W. Crane as receiving $12.29 million in total compensation for the latest fiscal year, with a three-year total compensation of $18.49 million.

NRG sought to circumvent the Filthy Five regulations with a gasification process that will allow it to burn additional "waste."

On January 24, 2008, the final air permit for the Somerset plant was granted by the MA DEP. The DEP also told NRG that the station could continue to operate the plant as is for as long as it needs to; this counteracts the condition in the “Filthy Five” regulations that Somerset shut down or convert to a cleaner fuel by 2010.



Additional information --

MassPirg

EnvironmentMassachusetts provides a history, as well as this explanation --
The first-in-the-nation limits on global warming pollution from power plants were unfortunately weakened in 2005 by former Gov. Mitt Romney, soon after he backed out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). His changes opened new loopholes for plant owners to avoid actually reducing global warming emissions. Environment Massachusetts is working to make sure that, as he guides Massachusetts back into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Gov. Patrick undoes the damage done by former Gov. Romney.
HeraldNews

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