by Robert Malin
Climate Change is accelerating at a rapid rate and we cannot afford to foolishly challenge nature by making it worse. It is already devastating our shoreline, threatening our shellfish with ocean acidification and our salt ponds are trapped in between pressured by inundation. There is a better way and I believe that Charlestown should lead the way by "walking the walk."
One of the things that inspired me to run for Town Council was our Council's reaction to the proposal to build a Power Plant in Burrillville to exploit fracked gas from Pennsylvania and export the electricity to Massachusetts and Connecticut. The President of the Burrillville Land Trust, Paul Roselli, asked me to present a request for Charlestown to support the wishes of the majority of residents who opposed the power plant.
On July 21st I invited the council to attend after representing the Burrillville Land Trust, asking the Town Council to oppose the Invenergy Power Plant. Council President Tom Gentz said that first the Town of Burrillville would have officially oppose it (which just happened) and they would need to learn more as they did not know about the proposal.
Myself and several others testified but the council was not inclined to consider it stating that they didn't know anything about the proposal, one of the biggest environmental issues and a political hot potato in the state for 2 years, which I thought was odd for a council that regularly touted themselves as "environmentalists." I then invited them to the Office of Energy Resources public hearing at URI.
No one attended.Only Gentz replied. It was sent to the Charlestown Town Council for the OCT 11 meeting agenda.
The matter has been requested to be put on the agenda for the next town council meeting.
