Communities Press City Council on Biomass Incinerator

On Wednesday, August 11, 2010, community groups from Springfield, Massachusetts came together to ask the City Council to revoke the siting permit for Palmer Renewable Energy, which would use demolition waste streams as an energy source. As previously showcased by The Springfield Institute, neighborhoods in the City have two primary concerns about using this technology: […]

WRSI/WHMP & Ch40 cover policy course and biomass

Monte Belmonte from 93.9 The River (WRSI) ran a great interview (listen here) with me and two students discussing our course and biomass in Springfield. And Channel 40 (WGGB) joined us at our final class trip (Human Service Forum Legislative Breakfast), and provided another opportunity to reference biomass in Springfield (watch here).

Residents & experts: biomass plant will increase health disparities [video x3]

The biomass power plant proposed for Springfield (where 291 meets Page Blvd) does not appear to be very popular among residents, nor the experts they persuaded to come share their perspective on the issue. And as a result, the Springfield Public Health Commission and Health and Human Services Director Helen Caulton-Harris seem to be motivated […]

Public Hearings set on Springfield Biomass Plant

  The word “biomass” sounds green, doesn’t it?  Well, it isn’t.  It’s about as far away from green as you can imagine.  The three incinerators that are planned for Western Mass. won’t only burn wood  from our forests but will also burn demolition wood treated with chemicals.  These chemicals include mercury, lead, arsenic and dioxin.   […]

Springfield biomass: some facts and references

Palmer Renewable Energy has proposed to build a 38 Megawatt biomass power plant at 1000 Page Boulevard in the East Springfield neighborhood, just north of Palmer Paving Company. The project is one of several from Caletta Renewable Energy, a partnership of Palmer Paving Corporation and Barletta Engineering of Canton, MA. If it receives final regulatory […]

Springfield Biomass: new front for environmental justice

Check out this post from Michaelann Bewsee’s blog, Michaelann Land: On Tuesday, June 16, I and my sister Liz, Arise’s Economic Justice organizer, went to a public forum by the Springfield Area Sustainable Energy Association (SASEA) on the problems with a biomass plant proposed for Springfield by Palmer Paving. Only 30 people or so attended […]

Students take on 4 local and timely policy topics [video]

Have the posts on this site seemed a little sparse lately? I haven’t been slacking off. In fact, I’ve been busier than ever working with twenty-one students from Amherst College, UMass, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Oberlin in the context of a January term course on applied public policy. The group split into four policy teams, […]