Many, many thanks to all of you who contacted your representative regarding Amendment #52--Environmental Justice--and the 2050 Roadmap Bill. The EJ amendment passed UNANIMOUSLY! The Roadmap Bill passed 142-17. Amazing work done by so many in the Mass Power Forward coalition. And congratulations to our own Rep. Meschino on passage of the Roadmap!

RED ALERT: We need everyone to contact their legislator in the House by 1:00 today to weigh in on the climate bill that came out just today. Time is of the essence as the session ends on Friday and there are amendments that we MUST get into the bill. Please see the email below to cut and paste. You can also refer to this helpful action guide from Mass Power Forward.

For day 4 of our week of action, we have a quick and easy ask: Register for the upcoming PIP meeting and invite 2 friends to register.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, July 29 at 6:30pm on Zoom. TRC will be hosting the meeting. Register here and we will send you an email reminder before the meeting, as well as sample comments for the public comment portion.

Welcome to our third day of action for the No Compressor week of action! We’re so grateful for all of your support. Today we are asking you to submit letters in support of two Environmental Justice bills in the House and Senate.

Today we are asking you to contact MassDOT to demand that they perform a a much-needed risk assessment. The MassDOT and MBTA Board will be having a meeting on July 27, so we are asking people to submit written comments and voicemails ahead of the meeting. See complete details below.

To kick off our week of action, we are asking you to contact Attorney General Maura Healey in regards to the DPU’s recent approval of National Grid’s 14-year contract with Enbridge. As part of this contract, National Grid wants all gas rate payers to pay an extra fee to pay for the construction costs of the compressor station. This is simply unacceptable. Please email and call Maura Healey today and urge her to advocate for the people of Mass by saying #NoCompressorTax.

Today we are launching a week of action. We hope you will join us! Each day will focus on a different issue related to the compressor station and will culminate with a socially-distant vigil on the Fore River Bridge Friday evening. For a full list of this week's actions, go to tinyurl.com/NoCompressorWOA. We will send a reminder to our email list every morning this week. Thank you for your ongoing support!

It is probable that you did not receive the late notice from Enbridge on last Thursday that stated they would be venting gas directly into the Basin as part of the hook up of the compressor station to the metering and regulating station. We wanted to let you know about this in case you did not see it on our Facebook page as we are deeply concerned about the health and safety of our community. These releases can be from Monday 7/6 through Monday 7/13. Enbridge is only allowed to work Monday through Saturday.

Enbridge’s safety lapses on their Line 5 are endangering the Great Lakes, after permits were granted despite legal challenges. This is yet another example of Enbridge’s pitiful safety record. You can read more about the story here.

On June 3, the first circuit court vacated the air quality permit for the Weymouth compressor station, and yet, construction has continued. Senator Markey and Senator Warren sent a letter to FERC, urging them to stop construction citing the lack of a necessary permit.

Thank you, Senators Warren and Markey! Will FERC follow its own rules? That remains to be seen.

Mothers Out Front, a longtime ally in this fight, submitted a letter to FERC, urging them to shut down construction citing the lack of Enbridge’s air quality permit. We thank Mothers Out Front for their continued advocacy on this issue.

The link below has a list of Juneteenth actions happening all over. Find an action near you. You can participate in person or digitally.

https://map.sixnineteen.com/?akid=343.128195.2THOL7&rd=1&t=1

During Governor Baker’s daily briefing today, a reporter asked him about the recent vacated air quality permit for the compressor station, and how his administration plans to respond. Gov. Baker completely dismissed the issue and referred to us as the “locals”, while stating that we “didn’t want a substation” (the first circuit made their decision to vacate the permit because Enbridge neglected to do an analysis for the use of an electric motor vs. a gas turbine for the compressor). You can watch a video of Baker’s response here.

A new audit from by by State Auditor Suzanne M. Bump shows that MassDEP has not been releasing reports REQUIRED by the Clean Water Act for the last five years? Doesn't that coincide with the election of Gov. Baker? How ironic. Wonder if they have failed to do any required reporting on Clean Air?

We say it again and again....a fish rots from the head down.

You can read the full press release from the State Auditor here.

On June 3, the first circuit court vacated the air quality permit for the Weymouth compressor station, and yet, construction has continued. Senator Markey and Senator Warren sent a letter to FERC, urging them to stop construction citing the lack of a necessary permit.

Thank you, Senators Warren and Markey! Will FERC follow its own rules? That remains to be seen.

Today sent it to Gov. Baker through his constituent services site. You can read the full letter here.

We are tired of a Governor who does not care for ALL of his constituents. We are tired of agencies that are so deeply in regulatory capture (i.e., the industry runs the agency) that they fail, again and again, to do their job and uphold their mission. We know that you share our exhaustion.

Tennessee Gas wants to starting trenching through the wetlands of Agawam, MA. NoFrackedGasInMass has more info on this project here.

Thank you to Representative Stephen F. Lynch for writing to FERC and reminding them that Enbridge no longer has all of their required permits, so construction should not be allowed to continue.

FRRACS stands against police brutality and demands justice for black lives everywhere.

The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are another reminder of the racism that is still deeply embedded in our society. We must work collectively to dismantle systemic racism. As part of this work, we must also recognize the white privilege that many of us carry and how to confront this privilege.

Last week, over 2,000 signatures were collected from across the state requesting Governor Baker to shut down construction at the Weymouth Compressor station during the Pandemic. In an effort led by Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station and the Sierra Club, the comments detailed the environmental injustice that will bring more particulate and toxic pollution into a community already overburdened by toxic waste contamination.