Action Alert: Make a Call to Stop the Pipeline Tax

ACTION ALERT--ACTION ALERT

From our friends in Metro West 350MA :

Dear pipeline fighters,

You know, guys, I'll be frank with you. It's not entirely clear the energy omnibus bill coming out of the conference committee will ban the pipeline tax. This is our earliest and best hope to potentially kill Spectra Access Northeast, so we need to bombard the conferees as well as Speaker DeLeo.

We have to act as if our lives depend on banning the pipeline tax----because they do. This is where the rubber meets the road, folks. If we are going to stop this pipeline, it's up to us. We are the ones who would be directly affected by this project and we all would pay for it.

The Energy Omnibus bill will be finished by Friday and the vote is on Saturday, so calling Wednesday (TODAY) is critical. LEAVE A MESSAGE, IF IT'S AFTER HOURS.

So, if you can, one more time, make the calls to the conferees AND Speaker DeLeo:

Speaker Robert DeLeo, 617-722-2500
If you can only make one phone call, call Speaker DeLeo.

Rep. Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill), 617-722-2990
Rep. Thomas Golden (D-Lowell), 617-722-2263
Rep. Bradley Jones (R-North Reading), 617-722-2100
Senator Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), 617-722-1600
If you can make additional calls, call these four.

Senator Benjamin Downing (D-Pittsfield), 617-722-1625
Senator Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton), 617-722-1551
If you must limit your calls, don't call Downing or Pacheco.

Speak with passion. They need to hear how crucial this issue is to us. The direction of all our lives has been radically changed to fight against this project, and the legislators need to understand how hard we're fighting to project our homes, our communities, our planet and our children's futures. There are people in the 23 towns in the Spectra Access Northeast project who are fighting it tooth and nail. AS OUR LEGISLATORS, THEY SHOULD BE, TOO, BY BANNING THE PIPELINE TAX. THE LEGISLATORS NEED TO HEAR ABOUT OUR STRUGGLE, WORRY AND NEED TO HAVE THEM STEP UP.

Spectra is essentially waiting to hear what comes out of the conference committee!

BAN THE PIPELINE TAX talking points. Use as you see fit:

1. Here's the latest poll that shows how forward-thinking Massachusetts voters are. The legislature needs to reflect that reality with the Energy Omnibus bill. NOW.

Mass Energy Consumers Alliance poll:
66% of respondents opposed to the proposed pipeline tax and only 8% in favor.
70% respondents prefer alternatives to building natural gas pipelines.
75% of respondents choose energy efficiency and renewable energy resources.

2. The pipeline tax would be "taxation without representation" because most people in the Commonwealth don't know about it.

3. Attorney General Maura Healey's reliability study, among other studies, says we don't need the unnecessary, cost-inefficient pipeline; instead, we need energy efficiency, demand response and renewables. The pipeline would prohibit our ever meeting the Global Warming Solutions Act goals, and we would pay the pipeline tax for twenty years, WHETHER OR NOT the pipeline is used.

4. Corporations usually pay for their investment ventures, but Spectra wants us to pay for Access Northeast. We would get all the risk--financial, safety, property, climate--and a private corporation in the powerful fossil fuel industry--gets all the profits.

5. Legislators are supposed to protect us by using the power to create laws. They should not expect the Supreme Judicial Court to do that for them with a yet-to-be-determined ruling.

6. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's main reason for approving gas infrastructure projects is if there are enough customers for the project. If the pipeline tax gets banned, then National Grid and Eversource, which are in a business partnership with Spectra, cannot be automatic customers, which puts the whole project on shaky footing.

RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD talking point:
What's the point of pushing for more renewables if we are not going to require the utilities to purchase more of their energy?

Remember: share your passion! And PLEASE let me know what you've done so we can keep tabs. Thank you for whatever you can do!!!

Feel free to share this post with others!