Clean-up the Filthy Five Mt. Tom coal plant....NOW !

We just got this alert from Virginia Schulman about the Mt. Tom coal-burning power plant, one of the Filthy Five in the Commonwealth. There's yet another hearing about this plant from hell and still, nothing's done. We'll be at the hearing. SEE YOU THERE! I posted my response to Virginia below her alert:

>>Some years ago a study was done, and the Pioneer
Valley was one of the Top Ten . . . in BAD AND DIRTY
AIR QUALITY!

There is a public hearing in our area on the
Massachusetts Filthy Five (most polluting power
plants):

Thursday, Feb. 16, at 6 p.m.
Holyoke Community College
Leslie Phillips Forum
303 Holmstead Ave., Bldg. C

This festering problem has been under "investigation"
for YEARS, perhaps DECADES. It's unconscionable that
it's still being "investigated"--this is what we of
Massachusetts get for continually electing Republican
governors. Yes, this is Romney's doing, this latest
stall.

Years ago, I took a camera and got five people to line
up and put mouth-and-nose masks on so I could say they
were worried about our air quality here in the Valley,
Happy Valley, and some other wonderful people with
toxic hazard suits came out with me and we all put
them on and someone photographed us in a row pointing
at the Holyoke plant. There was a public hearing that
year, too. I sent them to the Gazette, which didn't
publish them, but the Gazette did later publish a
great editorial saying that the proposed regulations
did not go far enough in protecting public health.

I can't remember all the facts, but the Filthy Five
have been studied like crazy, and they not only spread
dirty air in wide areas, they spread particularly
dirty and polluted air near the plants that emitted
them. Thus, if you live near the Holyoke plant, your
kids are more likely to have asthma, and more likely
to have MORE FREQUENT and MORE SEVERE asthma attacks,
than if you lived further away.

They were never intended to be allowed to go on and on
and on and on polluting. WHY IS THIS STILL HAPPENING?


Virginia Schulman, Northampton <<

Thanks for this alert, Virginia. I "remember the facts" 'cuz i was the one w/the bio-hazzard suits and the one who took some of the photos! :) As part of Mass Earth First! we also invaded a hearing on the Mt. Tom power plant held at the Bangs Center in Amherst. We wore those same white suits. We did it again on the shoulder of I-91 during the morning commute (not for long however, the state police kicked us off pronto).

It seems like nothing has changed and that's 'cuz IT HASN'T! The health and wellbeing of us, our children and grandchildren continues to compromised by that clunky old coal-burner that STILL does not comply with present clean air standards. I hope everyone reading your alert attends the hearing and that we all come together in one loud voice: ENOUGH! Clean it up, NOW!!

in solidarity,

d.o.

Adding insult to injury, last August it was reported that the Bush regime's cronies at the Environmental Protection Agency were preparing to issue a proposal that would allow coal-fired power plants across the country to increase their toxic emissions by crippling a key provision of the Clean Air Act. Where do we get these people?? From the indusrty, of course! See more here: http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/050831.asp

Also more on the emperor's dirty laundry here: http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/qbushplan.asp