We’ve had a great year at No Fracked Gas in Mass. Our ongoing work continues to inform communities facing fossil fuel and other polluting infrastructure, and advocating for more comprehensive and equitable energy efficiency and energy policy at the state level. This year, we’ve expanded to working to accelerate the transition off fossil fuels.
Our
Put Peakers in the Past campaign has been focused on removing peaker power plants in Berkshire County. These power plants put out the most pollution per MW of electricity produced and are the most easily replaced with renewables and grid-scale storage.
Having
built a coalition of over two dozen organizations and businesses and local administrations, collected hundreds of petition signatures, and convinced multiple local boards of health to press for change, we’ve convinced the owner of two peakers in Berkshire Co., and one in West Springfield to make the transition to clean alternatives. They are now actively working on it and on track to have all three plants change to solar and battery by the end of 2023.
We’re still in conversation with the owners of Pittsfield Generating and have multiple legislators working to remove obstacles - both for plant owners wanting to transition, and to press regulatory agencies to adhere to our new climate laws that make phasing out fossil fuels a mandate.
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In the coming year, we’re partnering with our friends at the Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) to take the Peaker campaign statewide. MCAN’s expertise lies with Municipal Light Plants (MLPs) and they have been a driving force in the
fight against the proposed new fossil fuel peaker in Peabody, MA. Between their MLP work and our work with investor-owned facilities, we’re developing models for communities across the state to take on their own peaker plants.
Look for a joint forum coming up early next year!
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As always, we’ve been so fortunate to work with many experts in energy, legislation, regulation and clean energy transitions as well as help making sure our community outreach materials are available in both English and Spanish. Your help lets us build our campaigns on a solid knowledge base to get real, tangible results. You have helped us thrive, win many battles, reach more and more people, and grow as an organization.
We invite you, if you haven’t already, to help keep us going by
donating as generously as you are able—but only if you are able. So many people support No Fracked Gas in Mass and BEAT in so many ways, and we are so grateful to you all!
Making a donation is a way of reaching out a helping hand, even a small year-end contribution goes a long way. Help us to continue protecting the environment and educating the community!
We Couldn't Do This Without YOU!
