The December Node Meeting Will Be a

Join with the 350MA Berkshire Node for some relaxing social time!

December 20, 5:30-8:30
UU Church, 175 Wendell Avenue, Pittsfield

You can tell the world you're coming and share with your friends on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1620216968056301/

The Age of Consequences

350MA-Berkshires and Berkshire Citizens for Peace & Justice are co-sponsoring

The Age of Consequences 
http://theageofconsequences.com/
on Thursday, December 14, 2017
at  the UU Church 175 Wendell Ave. in Pittsfield, MA.
The event begins at 7:00 p.m. and is
free and open to the public.

Through the lens of national security and global stability, a look at the impacts of climate change on increased resource scarcity and migration. As part of a case-study analysis, admirals, generals and military veterans take viewers beyond the headlines of the conflict in Syria, the social unrest of the Arab Spring, the rise of groups like ISIS, and the European refugee crisis -- and lay bare how climate change stressors interact with societal tensions, sparking conflict.

350 MA-Berkshires will be co-facilitating this film and Al Blake of 350 MA will participate in leading the discussion.
 

Save our Forests… Continued!

Last month, Beth Adams from Mass Forest Rescue educated us about the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership Plan.

Berkshire and Franklin County forests are at risk of exploitation for industrial scale harvesting for wood pellets. The plan is to incentivize installing pellet boilers in schools and to ship pellets to Europe. Cutting forests for wood pellets is not carbon neutral and burning them creates pollution and promotes climate disruption. We need to stop the bill which would allocate $6 million in public funds to support and promote this biomass harvesting.

The MA Legislature’s Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy Committee recently gave a thumbs up to Dept of Energy Resources (DOER) regulations that include biomass in the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard. Pellet boilers are also being subsidized by the state HeatSmart program.  DOER’s push to use public funds to subsidize dirty biomass combustion is in direct opposition to statewide efforts to mitigate climate disruption.

Part two of this effort, under the guise of “forest management” is a bill to give $6 million in public funds to set up a control board which would enact and oversee the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership to increase commercial wood fuel energy in the 21 Town region of Franklin and Berkshire County.  H. 2932 “An Act establishing the Mohawk Trail Woodlands partnership” is now before the Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee, Chaired by State Sen. Anne Gobi and Rep. Smitty Pignatelli.  

Even if Smitty Pignatelli is not your State Representative, as Chair, he is accountable to you for bills in his committee.  Please take a couple minutes to call his office to let him know he should reject this bill.   rep.smitty@mahouse.gov    413-637-0631
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“Gas Summit” Spotlights an Unusual Collaboration
Special thanks to Frank Farkas for this special report

MIT's Sloan School was the setting for a “Gas Summit” on October 3rd, officially titled,"Common Goals, Uncommon Partners: Seeking Solutions to Reduce Methane Emissions.” The conference was essentially a report on an ongoing collaboration between a coalition of
environmental and environmental justice groups (including HEET, Clean Water Action, Mothers Out Front et al.) and both Eversource and Columbia Gas.

The conference takeaway and major surprise to those in the environmental community used to an adversarial relationship with the utilities, was that the coalition has gotten two large utilities to adopt the position that they share a common interest with the community in identifying and remedying all gas leaks emanating from their pipelines, and not just those with explosive potential.

Leveraged by recent state and municipal legislation that may force the companies to comply, the coalition partners seem to have convinced the two utilities of their responsibility for repairing their aging pipeline infrastructure so as to reduce methane emissions. What also appears to have motivated the companies to engage in the collaboration was the promise that, given the scientific/technical expertise the coalition brought to the table, the companies’ cooperation would accelerate the development of a cost effective method for pinpointing the source of Grade 3 gas leaks, something the utilities had previously considered pie in the sky.

These leaks, which are defined in state law as "non-hazardous to persons or property,”
nevertheless pose a grave threat to the environment, as more recent state legislation reflects. Studies over the past several years have shown that Grade 3’s spew large amounts of heat-trapping and plant-destroying methane into the atmosphere and into the soil. The worst of these leaks are the “gushers,” and the first target of the collaboration, which on average constitute 7% of leaks but cause 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions.

The conference was videotaped and is archived at the following location:
https://www.heetma.org/fixbiggasleaks/summit-videos/

You may have to copy and paste the link into your browser in order to make the connection. Please set aside a chunk of time to watch the entire video. We think you'll agree that it is well worth it.

Let us know, after you view the video, if you think this model of collaboration may have application to the Berkshires and if so, your interest in being involved in a group brainstorming how to put it to work locally.

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Great Barrington Awarded HeatSmart Grant

Great Barrington has been selected by the Mass Clean Energy Center (CEC) and Mass Dept. of Energy Resources (DOER) as one of only four communities in the Commonwealth awarded funding to implement the HeatSmart Mass Program Pilot.

HeatSmart Mass is a community-based education and group purchasing program for clean heating and cooling technologies, which, via a $9,000 grant, will enable Great Barrington to reduce its carbon emissions, lessen the environmental impact of energy usage for indoor heating, and help residents save on home heating costs.

Volunteer residents are teaming up with the Town of Great Barrington to enable town residents to acquire cold climate air source heat pumps (ASHPs) – also called "mini-splits" – a new, highly-efficient and clean technology that can heat and cool your home or business.

The grant application was written by 350Mass-Berkshire Node member and HeatSmart coach Michael Feldstein, assisted by fellow noders Kathy Kessler, Natalie Narotsky, Jovanina Pagano and Gary Stoller. The program is modeled on the very successful Solarize Mass initiative, which enabled many Great Barrington residents to purchase solar panels at a reduced rate. Since the town has recently instituted a municipal electricity aggregation program utilizing 100% wind power, the efficient, electricity-powered ASHPs are a perfect fit to reduce Great Barrington's carbon footprint.

The plan is to target the green community, folks who showed an interest in Solarize Mass, as well as lower-income folks who likely use carbon-intensive heat sources and are probably unaware of the financial aid that is available to them to help them permanently lower their heating costs.  Great Barrington will work with partner organizations, including the Great Barrington Senior Center, Construct, Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires, the Guthrie Center, the Berkshire Center for Justice, and Greenagers to educate lower-income residents on financial aid programs that would help defray the costs of switching to more environmentally friendly heating sources like heat pumps. Since a MassSave energy efficiency audit is required to participate in the program, the HeatSmart team plans to promote the free audits in conjunction with the outreach campaign to raise awareness and understanding of ASHPs.

The Great Barrington team and its lower-income partners hope to create a template for other towns in Berkshire County to use in the future. Of course, the team will need as many volunteers as possible to accomplish this worthwhile goal.

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WTF is...
ISO New England?

ISO-NE (Independent Systems Operator) manages our regional grid to ensure the availability of reliable electricity at competitive prices.  ISO oversees the markets where wholesale electricity is bought and sold, and performs analyses and planning for the next 10 years.  
Most members of ISO-NE came from the fossil fuel industry, so it's not surprising that ISO has continued to support expanding gas infrastructure in Massachusetts.


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Do Something!

When our governor, Charlie Baker, is asked to stop supporting new fracked gas infrastructure, he says he wants to “keep his options open.”  We know the only safe option is NO MORE FRACKED GAS INFRASTRUCTURE.  Decisions about powering our regional (New England) electric grid are highly influenced by the governors of the NE states. Massachusetts is a powerhouse in this group and Baker is helping to keep dirty fossil fuel in the mix.

Call Governor Baker’s office (617.725.4005) to let him know bad options should be taken off the table. If he is serious about addressing climate disruption, he needs to stand up for us and say “no more fracked gas infrastructure.”