© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

Baker Administration Would Block Renewable Energy Credits For Springfield Biomass Project

people rallying with protest signs
Paul Tuthill
/
WAMC

In another blow to a controversial wood-burning power plant proposed in Springfield, Massachusetts, the Baker administration Friday announced regulations that would deny the project financial subsidies.

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides said the proposed rule change would bar biomass projects located in an environmental justice community from qualifying for renewable energy credits.

"The update and the decision that you are seeing here is really based around insuring that communities that have a burden on them already are not continuing to face additional burdens," Theoharides said during a conference call with reporters.

Opponents of the biomass project, proposed more than a decade ago by Palmer Renewable Energy, have argued it would be detrimental to Springfield, where people already suffer from high rates of respiratory illness.

Massachusetts Energy Commissioner Patrick Woodcock said he met with Springfield residents and local elected officials who have fought the project.

"What we are really reflecting on is the enormous amount of public comment that we received to really integrate environmental justice in our regulations, which is a really profound step for the state," Woodcock said.

The new announcee regulations reverse a previous effort by the Baker administration to potentially give millions of dollars to the commercial biomass project proposed in Springfield.

City Councilor Jesse Lederman said people protested and an online petition he launched garnered more than 7,000 signatures opposing renewable energy credits for biomass.

"What we are talking about is an unprecedented movement -- a grassroots movement of residents, activisits and local and elected officials," Lederman said.     

Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection revoked the air permit for the project. 

       Palmer Renewable Energy has appealed that decision.

Company officials did not respond to a request for comment on the renewable portfolio standard regulations announced by the state officials.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.
Related Content