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Pittsfield Generating, on Merrill Road, runs primarily on natural gas. In 2019, it emitted 39,176.89 metric tons of carbon dioxide and 6.65 metric tons of nitrous oxide while operating just under 6 percent of the time, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Though they run just a small fraction of the time, âpeakerâ power plants often fire up on the hottest days of summer or the coldest days of winter. And when they are on, they typically are among the worst polluters.
Local climate advocates have started a push to convert three Berkshire peakers to cleaner alternatives.
The Berkshire Environmental Action Team wants the plants to switch to using renewable energy and battery storage. To make that pitch, itâs seeking to build a coalition that already includes the Berkshire NAACP branchâs environmental justice committee, Masspirg Students, Indivisible Pittsfield and a number of local climate action groups.
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Berkshire County activists and politicians are expressing dismay at Governor Charlie Baker’s veto of a climate bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature last week.
The Republican struck down the extensive climate policy measure from the Democrat-controlled House and Senate on Thursday, prompting criticism from environmentalists across the state.
“One of the things we were most pleased about was it really included environmental justice, and it set a net zero limit for 2050, with interim limits for our carbon emissions, so that we really had a solid roadmap that was in legislation, so, had regulatory authority if this bill had not been vetoed by Governor Baker, said Jane Wynn, co-founder and Executive Director of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team. “I m frustrated with him. He s all talk, no action. He talks as if he s doing great things for the climate. I do not believe we met our 2020 climate goals. And there s just not data available yet to prove one way or
Despite some strong opposition to a low-level PCB landfill in Lee, the Environmental Protection Agency is sticking with the current plan on the table for a robust remediation of the Housatonic River â the right move for those concerned with the riverâs well-being who want to see it cleaned up in their lifetimes.
A grand bargain struck earlier this year between the EPA, General Electric Co. and the six affected Berkshire municipalities â Pittsfield, Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, Great Barrington and Sheffield â would see GE pony up more than half a billion dollars for an extensive cleanup of the river it spent years polluting. That plan, for which the EPA has finalized its permit, would entail not just removing tons of toxic mire from the affected Housatonic watershed but also multimillion-dollar payouts to the affected local governments. The cleanup effort would see the most-concentrated PCB materials shipped to an out-of-state facility, while GE would build and maint
EPA Finalizes Landmark Cleanup Plan For Housatonic River
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a Revised Final Permit for the
Rest of River cleanup plan of the Housatonic River. The Revised Final Permit, issued under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), spells out the required cleanup measures to be followed by General Electric Company (GE) to remove contamination caused by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The Revised Final RCRA Permit Modification (Revised Final Permit) updates EPA s 2016 cleanup plan for the river, its floodplains and other surrounding areas.
EPA s remedy as outlined in the Revised Final Permit is protective of human health and the environment and will result in more contaminated sediment removed from the river and surrounding areas than EPA s previous 2016 decision. The cleanup plan has specific provisions to expedite cleanup, significantly enhance the PCB removal in the cleanup, and provide for safe, effective disposal of th
LENOX â It appears to be the final answer: The Environmental Protection Agency is going ahead with the Rest of River settlement requiring General Electric to clean up the Housatonic River from the toxic PCB pollution it deposited there over four decades ending in the late 1970s.
The EPA unveiled the plan last February, at an event in the Lenox railroad station. A hue and cry followed when some, probably many, Lee and Lenox Dale residents saw that the less-toxic sediment would be stored in the grandly titled Upland Disposal Facility, aka The Dump, as opponents called it.
Despite months of meetings and public comment, the final revised plan is basically the same as the cleanup permit released then. The Housatonic River Initiative, led by Tim Gray, plans an appeal to an EPA review board in Washington, D.C., with the help of attorneys working pro bono, seeking a better deal that takes more PCBs out of the river and ships all the toxins out of Massachusetts. The opposition is also