To the editor:
At our May, 2024 Town Meeting in Stockbridge, we voted $50,000 for a study of the "safe yield" of our Stockbridge water supply. Why?
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection wrote a letter stating that our Town water supply lacked the capacity for our 740 "connects" in a drought. So, Stockbridge began a "Safe Yield Study" at Lake Averic in September 2024, to be completed this November.
Curiously, before our $50,000 water capacity study reaches conclusion, members of our Select Board rush to approval of a "35-37 Interlaken" schematic presentation,...
The $3.2 billion pipeline construction cost, cited frequently by the proponents, excludes other significant costs such as operations, maintenance, depreciation and return on equity, making the full cost $6.6 billion.
"I can confidently say that the pace of renewable energy technology adoption is increasing, and the very certain progress in electricity storage will allow residential and utility scale solar to offset demand for those peak winter hours in the years 2020-2030 that this study says can be fulfilled by new pipeline capacity."
-- Berkshire Photovoltaic Services’ Christopher Kilfoyle
The study did not consider the impact of pipeline investments on Massachusetts’s long-term reliance on natural gas, nor did it consider these investments’ potential displacement of alternative energy sources. Environmental impacts of pipeline siting and construction and of natural gas extraction were also not considered.
