SBAS has been coming to the rescue of Southern Berkshire County since 1968. It is now part of a study aimed at evaluating the critical challenges facing EMS providers across the district.
“Through our presence, we will bear witness to the beauty of Spectacle Pond, protest its despoilment, and resist the fossil fuel industry’s continued degradation of our precious collective resources for private profit.”
-- Sugar Shack Alliance
When hauled off in a sheriff’s cruiser for trespassing
she was asked how many times she’s been arrested,
“Not enough” she boomed to the forest and the birds.
"The Sierra Club is opposed to additional fossil fuel infrastructure out of the widely held scientific view that we must move as rapidly as possible away from fossil fuel energy, and that if we don't, human society will face cataclysmic impacts."
-- Emily Norton, chapter director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission not only failed to engage in meaningful consultations with the Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office, it also delayed studying the cultural resources until it was too late to protect them.
So where were the Massachusetts officials who could have negotiated with Connecticut to save Otis State Forest because the gas wasn’t really needed after all?
Congressman Richard Neal has demanded that decisions made by FERC regarding the Connecticut Expansion Project be deferred until a quorum of FERC commissioners is reached and all vacant FERC commissioner seats are filled: “It is my belief that the rehearing [on the permit] should occur before a single tree is cleared and construction on this project commences.”
While the broadband ball is now rolling, resident Jean Atwater-Williams said she wants to make sure everyone knows where that ball is headed and, in an article in the Sandisfield Times, called for a revote on the new route the town is pursuing.
That sacred Native American sites are along the path is just the latest controversy over the pipeline in Otis State Forest. Tennessee Gas is still tied up in court with environmental groups over potential harm to water and animal habitats; the company reneged on a deal to give the town of Sandisfield $1 million for wear and tear to its roads and reimburse legal fees.
The Kinder Morgan subsidiary had negotiated with Sandisfield town officials, drafting a contract that said it would give the town $1 million to fix roads and other town infrastructure damaged by company equipment. The company walked away when it was time to sign that contract.
The company has reneged on promises to compensate Sandisfield — population around 800 -- for wear and tear on roads and bridges, as well as $30,000 in legal fees.
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, after battling Tennessee Gas in court over the speed at which it wanted to begin clearing the land, is mum on any plans that might include an appeal.
The Berkshire Court’s order granting the easement and injunction was arguably premature and, in legal parlance, unripe. An appellate court could overturn the injunction on this basis alone.