Bristol District Attorney Sam Sutter
The Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Mass., is shown in this Wednesday, Oct. 23, 1996 file photo. National Energy & Gas Transmission Inc., the company that owns the Brayton Point power plant, is appealing an order from the Environmental Protection Agency on water the plant takes in and releases back into Mount Hope Bay. “We regret that there is no choice but to challenge some of the conclusions and requirements of the EPA permit for Brayton Point,” the company’s spokeswoman, Natalie Wymer, said Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2003. (AP)
Let’s take a closer look now at a very unusual turn of events that happened just yesterday in Bristol County Court. Defendants John O’Hara and Ken Ward were scheduled to go on trial for using a lobster boat to block freighter loaded with 40,000 tons of coal that was bound for the Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, MA. It’s a charge the climate activists do not deny. They would argue that the threat of global warming is so great, the two men had to act.
That’s unusual enough. But then the bigger surprise. Bristol County District Attorney Sam Sutter dropped the most serious charges against O’Hara and Ward…and in front of a cheering crowd, Sutter declared that he agreed with the protesters.
Guest
Samuel Sutter, Bristol County District Attorney.GMO, Food & American Healthcare Debate
Dirty Power Plants, Overfishing, Offshore Wind on the Agenda!
The End of Dirty Coal!
The end of coal power in Massachusetts
Brayton Point only operates when power demands are greatest, according to grid-operator ISO-New England.Brayton Point is one of the biggest polluters for all of New England. According to the U.S. EPA in 2008, Brayton Point emitted more than 37,000 tons of toxic chemicals into the air Studies show this pollution doesn’t only affect Somerset: the majority spreads and settles in cities and towns across a 30-mile radius from the power plant. Mercury has always been a major concern because it is a neurotoxin, with no safe levels of exposure, and in 2010, Brayton Point was responsible for nearly half of all mercury emissions for the state of Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Dirty Coal Plant, Brayton Point, to Close
The announcement came just months after the plant was sold by Virginia-based Dominion to Energy Capital Partners, a private equity firm with offices in New Jersey and California. Dominion bought the plant in 2005.
Power Plant Carbon Emissions revealed
“Replacing these power plants with zero-emission energy sources such as wind and solar power, or eliminating the need for the power they produce through energy efficiency and conservation, would reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to 11 percent below 1990 levels, even in the absence of other efforts to reduce emissions.”
The Bay State's worst
offenders
In Massachusetts, the biggest carbon-polluting
power plant is the Mystic Generating Station, a natural gas plant across the
Mystic River from Charlestown, followed by Brayton Point, a coal plant on the
shores of Mount Hope Bay across the water from Fall River.
Bravo! 70-mile walk backs clean energy
Bravo: Energy Exodus
Protesters target Dirty Somerset/Brayton Point power plant
Dirty Coal is LosingCode Orange Alert Day for Southeastern counties
Welcome to "Cape Koch"
Ending Brayton Point's PollutionActivists call on gov to close Somerset's Brayton Point plant, transition state away from coal
Brayton Point Station, the largest power station in New England, was purchased in 2005 by Dominion, a national company that produces gas, nuclear, LNG and coal power along the eastern seaboard.In 2010, the power station was deemed by the EPA as the largest polluter in New England and responsible for nearly half of all mercury emissions in the state.
Westport resident David Dionne, of the Coalition for Clean Air, told about 25 supporters the state has one of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the country.
Group rallies against Fall River coal plant
Three reasons Cape Cod (and Middleboro) air sucks
As Ben Wright, an advocate at Environment Massachusetts said:
“The least polluting, cheapest energy is the energy we never have to produce in the first place”
Dominion owns Brayton Point and the Salem Harbor power station, also one of the top 10 sources of greenhouse gases in the state. The Salem plant is set to close in 2014.
The Massachusetts Coal Ash Myth
Chance that people who live near coal ash impoundments and drink from wells will get cancer due to water contamination: 1 in 50
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