The “private benefits your decision confers on a few private developers dwarf any public benefits being provided,” wrote Heather Miller and Peter Shelley, attorneys for the group. “Critically and fatally to your decision, nowhere do you even articulate exactly how this project primarily serves a public purpose.”
“It’s essentially an admission on Shell’s part that the risks we’ve identified in our case are real and imminent,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the CLF, which filed the lawsuit against the oil giant last August.
The nonprofits say state water testing data proves Bethlehem’s landfill is illegally putting heavy metals, leachate and a suspected carcinogen called 1,4 dioxane into the Ammonoosuc River.
A pair of conservation groups on Monday sued the owners/operators of a Bethlehem landfill, alleging they violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants, including a “likely human carcinogen” known as 1,4 dioxane, into the Ammonoosuc River without a permit.
Two environmental groups have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a landfill in New Hampshire is leaking toxic chemicals into a nearby river.
“The Wheelabrator landfill is the most dangerous in Massachusetts, and it is putting the health of nearby residents at risk,” said Kirstie Pecci of the Conservation Law Foundation in a written statement announcing the appeal.
Conservation Law Foundation attorney David Ismay says ISO is basing those fears on overly pessimistic, even unrealistic assumptions. “There’s a bit of Chicken Little, ‘sky is falling,’ ” he says.
Jerry Elmer, senior attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, countered that energy efficiency is reducing demand for electricity in New England and that renewable energy is helping to fill what need there is. Prices in the annual energy auction held by ISO New England have dropped significantly in recent years, proving, he said, an excess of capacity.
Conservation Law Foundation official Melissa Birchard said the Senate’s defeat of the bill goes against Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s energy policy that prioritizes efficiency to help lower people’s bills. Opponents of the bill argue that giving the money to ratepayers helps keep energy prices lower and stimulates the economy.
Offshore wind power is on track to be a pillar of America’s energy future – and now is our moment to establish a clear leading role for the Commonwealth in making it happen.
