We are simply not "out of time"
/Mayor Hedlund says that he is torn about making a decision about Spectra's deal because we are "out of time." We are most certainly not out of time. Spectra is concerned about our opposition and wants the town to sign the deal before the Environmental Assessment comes out.
"The compressor will be 10.5K horsepower" - Nope. By the time these carpetbaggers from Texas get through with us and Access Northeast, it will be at least 18K horsepower with space to put more in at a later date. (Source: Spectra).
The mayor wants this filthy money to improve the town? What's that going to look like when half of it, plus Quincy Point and East Braintree get blown to smithereens? What's that going to look like when people in those neighborhoods have to abandon their homes because they can't sell them and they can't live there? In the long run, Weymouth loses more money than it gains--leaving us right back where we started from and worse.
If the mayor was somehow unaware that FERC has for months said that this would be an Environmental Assessment (EA) and not an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), where exactly have he and the town solicitor been? Pluto? This has been public knowledge for months. It is disingenuous for the mayor to be using this as an EXCUSE to take the bribe that Spectra is offering. And if Spectra is playing the administration for fools, well shame on them. Oh, right, they know no shame.
Councilor Haugh, as usual, hits the nail on the head. Spectra is scared of something. We here at FRRACS believe they are running scared of two things. That the EA will end up becoming an EIS and that the segmentation issue hit upon by the administration has legs. In a recent court decision with the Delaware River Keepers, this type of segmentation was struck down in federal court. Two points: the timeline proximity of the two projects--Atlantic Bridge and Access Northeast--and that one project (Access Northeast) is entirely dependent on the other (Atlantic Bridge).
Kudos to Mayor Sullivan for pointing out that Spectra is offering money to Weymouth and not to the other towns directly affected by this mess. Quincy Point will take an enormous amount of the off-gassing and East Braintree is within the blast zone at the very least. Where are his and Mayor Koch's chances to weigh in on this? Oh, yeah, Specta is too busy paying it's fat cats $20M per year to kill the planet.
Stay strong, Weymouth, Quincy, and Braintree Campers. We shall overcome.