To: Secretary Richard K. Sullivan; Assistant Secretary Alicia B. McDevitt; and Ms. Deirdre Buckley
I understand that you are in receipt of a “fail-safe” petition asking for additional MEPA review of the PRE biomass incinerator. Although PRE lawyers seek to imply (fraudulently, I believe) that we no longer oppose this project, we most emphatically do express our opposition and support this petition as one that asks for a review that the special situation in the Springfield region demands.
The American Friends Service Committee sent in the attached letter, and sent a follow-up email asking why it had not shown up on the list of comments – and I was informed that I had missed a deadline, and therefore my comments would not be posted. To now have that be interpreted as an implicit endorsement of the project is a perversion of our position and a demonstrable deception on the part of the PRE legal team, as I have since been quoted in a press release as being opposed to the project, and have recently publically spoken out against the project and the PRE chief lawyer in particular at a hearing – and was then quoted in the newspaper the following day. There can be no doubt that the legal team was aware of this, as I spoke quite fervently in opposition to his and PRE’s continued pursuit of the project.
Furthermore, when I spoke out in opposition to this project, I pointed out that I live less than 4 miles away from this plant, in the town of Springfield. The quote “very few [commenters] live near the project site” is an inappropriate characterization of the opposition to this project.
Lest there be any confusion, the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, and I personally, oppose the PRE incineration project as a threat to our community (on environmental, health, and economic grounds). Please feel free to forward these comments to the folks at Mackie, Shea, and O’Brien, though it is likely unnecessary, because I think it’s clear they were aware of AFSC’s continued opposition, despite their claims otherwise.
Sincerely,
Jeff Napolitano
Western Massachusetts Program