August FRRACS Meeting Recap

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If you couldn't make it to this month's meeting, no worries, read below for a recap!

Coastal Zone Management (CZM) Stay

  • Guardedly wonderful news. CZM has asked for a one year stay under AB, would go until Aug 2017.  It buys us time; we need to utilize it.
  • What we need to be doing in the meantime: Call DEP and reinforce what we've been saying--> the compressor is a bad idea
  • Spectra is waiting for Ch. 91 approval and if they get it, it could change the stay timeline

DEP ConCom Timeline

  • Dan Gilmore is reviewing comments submitted by the July 29th deadline. He has 30 days to issue a response, this brings us to the end of August. He could either: override the ConCom's decision; override it with some stipulations; or side with the ConCom. At that point, Spectra or the town has 30 days to appeal the decision, bringing us to mid to late September. Spectra then has two weeks to respond to that appeal. So this process is providing more delay, if nothing else.

CALPINE AGREEMENT W/SPECTRA

  • A letter was published on the docket stating that Calpine entered in agreement w/ spectra on the north parcel. We don't actually know what the "agreement" is; have not heard anything from Calpine about this.
  •  Placed on hold w/ CZM stay
  • But still important to email the Mayor's office and urge him to take a serious look at what Calpine is doing.

LEGAL

  • FRRACS  is part of a much larger coalition that is involved with a lawyer in DC, who filed two briefs on AB. The lawyer is working on the segmentation issue and says that AB/ANE in Weymouth is the worst case of segmentation that she has seen.
  • Our portion of the lawyer fees is being footed by bigger groups, so we will be trying to raise money ($10,000) through a crowdfunding site (more to come on this).

 

OMNIBUS ENERGY BILL

  • Came out of committee; signed by Baker this week.
  • Unfortunately, it wasn't as strong as the senate bill. The final bill says nothing about the pipeline tax; Baker is still pushing for it.
  • The SJC and will rule on whether the pipeline tax is constitutional. Their decision is expected to come out mid-August.
  • This Thursday, August 11, there will be an action at the DPU (at South Station) from 1230pm-130pm with 350Mass.

ORDINANCES

  • Only 3 acts that can trump FERC - Clean air act; Clean water act; and CZM.
  • Councilor Haugh is still looking into passing an ordinance in Weymouth that won't be able to stop the compressor, but may be able to delay it (since FERC could trump a local ordinance).

AIR QUALITY MONITORS

  • Dr. Nordgaard has been monitoring air quality for the past year, but his testers just recently broke.
  • FRRACS applied for a grant last year that would cover the costs of producing and distributing a newspaper to residents to help spread the word. With permission from the grant foundation, we decided to use the money to purchase a new air quality monitor that meets EPA certification.

CANVASSING

  • We will be running two canvasses after Labor Day to help activate South Weymouth and Braintree (neighborhoods near Access NE).
  • They will be the weekends of September 10 and 17th - more info to come!

SPECIAL SEPTEMBER MEETING

UPCOMING EVENTS

  • OCT 18 - Merchants of Doubt movie screening. Thomas Crane Library, 7-8:30PM
  • We're still collecting postcards, too. We will deliver them to Gov. Baker soon. Let us know if you need postcards or have signed ones that we can collect.

ACTION ITEMS

Contact agencies who are reviewing permits for Spectra. Event though there is a stay, that doesn't mean our work is done. More details here.

Thanks for all that you do!