Boston Pipeline Rally a Huge Success!

Photo copyright Rene Theberge 2014

So, About Yesterday
A Synopsis of a Long and Wonderful Day

Rose Wessel, No Fracked Gas in Mass
July 31, 2014

Wednesday’s Rally in Boston was a great success. The crowd of at least 500, full of familiar faces from all across the state, was passionate, charged and vocal. Under the guidance of Claire Miller from Toxics Action and Joel Wool from Clean Water Action, citizens participated in lobbying sessions at the State House – going directly to our elected officials to make sure our voices were heard. Flanked by the rousing music of the Fracked Gas Bomb Jazz Band, the rally was packed with key speakers from all areas of the movement, including land owners, activists, legislators, legal watchdogs, land conservation and more. Read more.

And some good news from CLF:

NESCOE Suspends Votes on Tariff Proposals

Shanna Cleveland, Conservation Law Foundation
August 1, 2014

The New England States Committee on Electricity (“NESCOE”), an entity created to carry out the policy directives of the New England governors, had been hurtling down the track towards forcing electric customers to pay for a massive, new natural gas pipeline as well as new transmission projects to import large-scale Canadian hydropower. This morning at the monthly meeting of the voting participants in the New England Power Pool (“NEPOOL”), NESCOE signaled that the train is going to slow down. Read more.

Here’s a roundup of the media coverage from Wednesday’s events:

Rally reaches Statehouse
Gas protestors meet with Gov. Patrick

The Recorder
July 30, 2014

BOSTON — An estimated 400 to 500 people rallied on the Boston Common Wednesday, bringing their “Stop the Pipeline” message to the Statehouse.

Speakers included local legislators, Reps. Stephen Kulik, and Denise Andrews, all opposing Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.’s proposal for a nearly 300-mile pipeline that would cut across nine Franklin County towns on its way to Dracut, north of Lowell. Read more.

Hundreds of opponents rally in Boston against Kinder Morgan Tennessee Gas pipeline expansion

The Republican
July 30, 2014

BOSTON — Several hundred people protested on Boston Common on Wednesday against the proposed expansion of a gas pipeline through Western Massachusetts.

“We’re using too much power and being overpowered by the oil and gas industry,” said Martin Schotz, a 71-year-old doctor from Cummington. “We’re all personally affected by global warming and the use of fossil fuel.” Read more.

Natural gas: Massachusetts is ground zero for Northeast’s pipeline fight

Christian Science Monitor
August 4, 2014

BOSTON — Tom Clark, whose family has battled bugs, hungry deer, and early frosts for nearly a century in their peach and apple orchards in the rural western Massachusetts town of Deerfield, now faces a new foe in this area: the natural gas industry.

The Clarkdale Farm sits on terraced hillsides on the route of a proposed 180-mile pipeline to be constructed as early as 2018, running from eastern New York to a transmission hub in the Bay State’s northeastern corner. The pipeline, which will carry fracked gas from Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Fields across the seam of northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, is drawing intense fire from local landowners, environmental activists, and concerned citizens across the region. Read more.

People’s Climate March

Appeal to the Peace and Climate Movements
Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming

The signs of climate change are all around us.  They include—increasingly severe weather everywhere (floods, heat waves, droughts, cyclones and wildfires), as well as melting polar ice and glaciers, rising acidic oceans, and thawing of Siberian permafrost, which threatens release of huge, devastating, methane gas emissions.

…

But the developing climate emergency does not exist in isolation. And we must understand and confront the social and economic context that produced and accompanies it: war and unlimited military expenditures, corporate globalization, vast social inequality and racism. Read more.

Transportation

A group of organizers from the Pioneer Valley is working very hard to get buses set up to go to the People’s Climate March. We know we can get record numbers of people to NYC! Right now we are working on finding people who are willing to be bus captains in Greenfield, Amherst, Northampton, Holyoke, and Springfield. Bus captains will be responsible for helping to recruit people to go on the buses, but will not be on the hook for the finances. There will be lots of support for anyone who wants to do this! If you want to help out, email us at climatemarch-pv@googlegroups.com. 

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