70-mile walk backs clean energy
Energy Exodus participants march down Route 132 in Hyannis for their rally to cap a 70-mile walk from Somerset to Hyannis.Cape Cod Times/Christine Hochkeppel
By K.C. MYERS
September 03, 2013
HYANNIS — Dr. Turner Bledsoe, 79, said walking 70 miles over the past six days hurt.
"Every step was painful," said the Hingham resident.
But, he added, "It's the most important hike of my life."
Bledsoe was the oldest member of a core group of around 50 hikers who participated in the Energy Exodus, walking from the Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset and arriving in Hyannis on Monday.
"The idea of the Energy Exodus march was to show a departure from fossil fuel addiction," explained Varshini Prakash, a student organizer and staff member of the Better Future Project, a nonprofit group supporting grass-roots efforts to address climate change.
The march began at Brayton, described on the power plant's website as "one of New England's largest fossil-fueled generating facilities."
It ended at the steps of Barnstable Town Hall, where the organizers protested the Barnstable Town Council's lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration for issuing a permit to Cape Wind to construct 130 440-foot-tall wind turbines in Nantucket Sound.
"There are 58 offshore wind projects in Europe and none in the United States," Prakash said. "Cape Wind has received 17 federal and state permits. We are convinced that it needs to be built."
Town Council President Debra Dagwan did not return a call for comment Monday.
About two weeks ago, the Better Future Project also staged the "Follow the Money Bike Ride," which highlighted the town of Barnstable's establishment of a special fund to accept donations to pay for anti-Cape Wind legal services.
Cyclists started their journey at Town Hall, where the council established the fund. Then they headed over to the anti-wind farm group, the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound in Hyannis, said Joshua Jackson, a member of the Better Future Project who attended the bike ride and the Energy Exodus.
"The point is, the Town Council is doing an incredible disservice to the nation by holding up the Cape Wind project with this frivolous lawsuit," Jackson said.
The Dirty Energy Koch Roaches have generously funded the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound, as well as Barnstable's lawsuit.
The Energy Exodus participants came from all over New England.
Billy Rixon, a marcher from Freeport, Maine, arrived in Fall River to start his walk after a five- or six-hour bus ride, he said.
He made the trip because too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could mean "the extinction of the human race," he said.
The hike wasn't easy. The first day the group walked 13 miles; the next, 17 miles, Prakash said.
The marchers slept in churches or camped outside. On Saturday, the youngest member of the walking team, 8-year-old Justin Phillips, was startled by a loud thunder and lightning storm while sleeping with protesters in a tent in Sandwich, said his father, Nathan Phillips, a Boston University professor of earth and environment.
"The issue of climate change is huge for my sons and for myself," said John Paul DeMilio, of Marstons Mills, who attended a rally at the end of the Energy Exodus but did not march. "I'd love to see Cape Wind built."
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