Decision looms for Bridgeport fuel cell plant project facing opposition in South End
BRIDGEPORT — A previously rejected proposal to build a
hydrogen fuel cell plant off Iranistan Avenue is back on the table and facing
stiff neighborhood opposition.
Easton-based NuPower is asking the Connecticut Siting
Council for permission to build a 70 foot high, 9.6-megawatt power plant and
thermal heating loop at 600 Iranistan Ave. on a triangular half acre lot below
Interstate-95.
The $80 million plant would extract hydrogen from natural
gas — the gas is not burned — and convert it into electricity. A thermal loop
of heated water would provide heating and cooling for buildings up to a mile
away.
“We are proud of [the plant] and excited about it and hope
we can help Connecticut,” said Dan Donovan, president of NuPower. The company
operates a similar fuel cell plant at the nearby Cherry Street lofts.
That enthusiasm, however, is not shared by over 200
neighbors of the proposed plant who have signed petitions and written letters
in opposition.
“This is a textbook case of environmental injustice,” Tanner
Burgdorf, a resident of the nearby Seaside Village condo complex, said in a
letter to the Siting Council.
“[The proposal] is shameful, shocking, and disrespectful to
every member of the Bridgeport community that would suffer from such a
short-sighted and inhumane decision,” Burgdorf said.
Opponents claim carbon dioxide and other emissions from the
plant will lead to higher rates of asthma in the South End neighborhood, which
is already within a “red” zone for asthma related hospitalizations.
“We are home to I-95, a gas plant, 2 other fuel cells,
severe flooding, United Illuminating, a garbage dump, a nearby trash burning
plant, a solar panel park and until last week a coal plant,” Kate Rivera, a
South End resident, said in a letter to the siting council.
“This is environmental racism and classism,” Rivera said.
NuPower last year failed to gain Siting Council approval for
a similar proposal and earlier this year submitted a revised plan that it
believes satisfies previous objections.
One of the concerns expressed by the council was formation
of a vapor plume around the plant due to condensation. Donovan said that plume,
which would have occurred only once a year, was eliminated by a new design that
passes exhaust water lines underneath a series of coolers.
Other Siting Council questions over emergency shut off
procedures, the types of valves to be used and noise produced by the plant were
also addressed, Donovan said.
Hydrogen chemistry
Fuel
cell technology is a form of renewable energy that uses hydrogen to
produce electricity and hot water to heat and cool nearby structures. The plant
extracts hydrogen from natural gas and converts it into protons and electrons.
Those electrons are then passed through a circuit that creates electricity.
Fuel cells are generally promoted as much cleaner than coal
or oil-fired electric plants and even gas-fired plants such as Bridgeport’s
Harbor Station that overlooks Long Island Sound.
Although the natural gas is not burned, some carbon dioxide
— a major cause of global warming and climate change — is released by a fuel
cell plant. NuPower projects the plant would emit 45,465 tons of carbon per
year.
“This results in [a] fossil fuel power plant like Harbor
Station releasing 789 tons more CO2 per [megawatt] annually than the
apportioned electricity production from the fuel cell system,” according to
NuPower.
Other notable emissions include .45 tons of methane a year
and .2 tons of nitrous oxide — amounts far below levels that trigger the need
for regulatory review and permits, NuPower said in filings with the Siting
Council.
“The project will provide the state’s electrical system with
additional generating capacity that will meet demand using renewable energy,
upgrade grid infrastructure, contribute to grid stability and foster the
redevelopment and reuse of an underutilized,” NuPower told the council.
During deliberations last year over the failed NuPower
proposal, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection stopped
short of opposing the project but pointed out that fuel cell plants work
against the state’s goal of carbon free electricity.
“Such projects hinder our ability to achieve our climate
goals, including a 100 percent zero carbon electric supply sector as charged by
Governor [Ned] Lamont,” DEEP said.
Not in my backyard
Thomas Melone, president of Allco Renewable Energy, told the
siting council the proposed NuPower plant will result in “serious adverse
health effects” for the South End neighborhood.
“The area for the proposed project is an environmental
justice community,” said Melone, whose company sells power from large solar
arrays and says its “corporate mission is to combat climate change.”
“The project area has by far one of the highest incidents of
emergency room hospital visit rates for asthma in Connecticut,” Melone said.
Melone added the NuPower plan would also displace “true
renewable energy projects” in Connecticut and across New England.
“But for the (NuPower) project and ones like it, Connecticut
would turn to solar electricity projects with storage, which create more of a
positive economic impact, and none of the adverse consequences of the (NuPower)
project,” Melone said.
In a letter to the Siting Council, Bridgeport City Council
members Denese Taylor-Moye and Jorge Cruz, Democrats who represent the city’s
South End, supported residents opposed to the plant.
“The plant will emit greenhouse gases in an area already
subject to high levels of ground-level ozone,” the council members wrote.
“Further, the site is at the entrance way to Seaside
Village, Seaside Park, the new Windward housing complex, as well as one
entrance way to The University of Bridgeport,” they added. “The residents are
worried about livability and health concerns which are overwhelming to the
residents in the South End community.”
Joe Provey, a neighborhood activist who told the Siting
Council he represents the Seaside Village Board of Directors, submitted nearly
200 petitions from residents opposed to the project.
The petitions note that the plant “would emit unacceptable
levels of noise, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and other pollutants, leading to
higher rates of asthma in our community” and pour “hundreds of thousands of
tons of greenhouse gases that cause global warning.”
State Rep. Joe Gresko, D-Stratford and Bridgeport’s Green
Initiatives Coordinator, told the Siting Council the city fully supports the
venture.
“The city is very comfortable in taking the position that
this project is in the best interests of the city and will provide significant
fiscal and conservation benefits,” Gresko said.
“We are keenly aware of the dangers associated with global warming
and especially with rising sea levels,” Gresko noted. “This is truly a unique
opportunity to bring all the environmental and financial benefits together
under one project.”
Using heat
If approved by the Siting Council, the Bridgeport plant is
expected to begin operations in the second half of 2022. No further regulatory
approvals are needed; emissions are well below levels that require an air
permit and there is no discharge from the plant.
The project is to be built by Doosan Fuel Cell America Inc.,
based in South Windsor.
United Illuminating has awarded a 20-year contract to
NuPower for electricity as part of a larger authorization by the state Public
Utilities Regulatory Authority for renewable energy.
NuPower estimates the plant will provide up to 20
construction jobs, generate over $5.5 billion in state tax revenue and $5
million in local taxes over 20 years.
The thermal loop is created by a closed water system that
flows through the 21 fuel cells that make up the plant. That water can be piped
to buildings for heating and cooling, providing a second revenue source for the
plant.
“We have quite a bit of heat that we can use, and we have
side contracts with an off taker and are in the process of signing up
additional takers,” Donovan said, adding NuPower has two years after commercial
operations commence to sign up users.
NuPower had planned to build a similar plant and thermal
loop in Bridgeport’s downtown but that effort failed to gain traction.
“We wanted to take the heat from various power plants, waste
to energy facilities and use it for downtown and various other areas,” Donovan
said.
“Downtown is very viable,” Donovan said. “It’s just a
question of how much heat we have. This is our first step. It’s sort of if you
build it, they will come.”
Ridgefield selects Schlumberger site for joint police, fire facility
Alyssa Seidman
RIDGEFIELD — After an extensive scouting process, town
officials have selected a location to erect a brand-new public safety building,
which will house Ridgefield’s police and fire departments.
The joint facility will be built at the former
Schulmerberger property on Old Quarry Road where the Sky Dome Building
currently resides. The site lies “substantially north” of A Contemporary
Theatre of Connecticut and BassamFellows, Inc., said Jacob Muller, director of
purchasing, facilities and safety.
While the topic has been discussed for years, interest for
the project renewed when
former state representative John Frey joined the Board of Police Commissioners.
Earlier this year he told Hearst Connecticut Media that he would speak with
fellow commissioners about plans to create a joint station for the police and
fire departments, which both exist “in cramped quarters,” he said.
The Ridgefield Fire Department has been headquartered at
Catoonah Street for more than 100 years, but its proximity to Main Street
limits any sort of physical expansion.
“We’re utterly landlocked,” Fire Chief Jerry Myers said.
Also limited is the space within the building itself — the
apparatus bay has engines “stacked up one behind the other,” Myers described.
In the middle of one hallway is a makeshift office that two people share, and a
classroom doubles as the department’s conference room.
The Ridgefield Police Department is housed in an antiquated
mansion that previously served as the governor’s residence and state police
barracks. Police Chief Jeffery Kreitz said the layout is “not indicative of a
modern-day police department,” and noted its lack of storage space and overall
functionality.
Both chiefs said their departments would benefit from moving
into a new facility that could adequately accommodate their first responders.
“We train together, work together, obviously go on calls
together ... we’re closer than ever,” Kreitz said. “(So) when we started
speaking about a combined facility … it just seemed to work.”
Due diligence
A working group comprising the Board of Selectmen and the
Board of Police Commissioners retained Kaestle Boos Associates (KBA) to conduct
a feasibility study at a cost of $65,000 to assess the state of the town’s
police and fire buildings. The New Britain-based architecture firm specializes
in the planning and design of police, fire and public safety facilities.
The study sought to answer if the existing buildings — on
East Ridge Road and Catoonah Street, respectively — should be modified, or if a
new, joint facility should be established. It ultimately landed on the latter.
Officials considered multiple sites that could support the
project before settling on the Schlumberger property, which is owned by the
town. The Sky Dome Building, which is currently being used for storage, will be
demolished prior to construction of the new facility.
Muller said KBA will provide proposals to take the project
“beyond a conceptual design” and will soon launch a public relations campaign
to provide residents full transparency in relation to the project.
In with the new
The chiefs had “extensive discussions” with KBA to ensure
the new facility would fulfill public safety and daily administration
requirements, Muller said.
Myers envisions a dedicated training space that would enable
the department to host training events and better prepare for day-to-day
missions. Kreitz discussed a community room for the design, but is mostly
looking forward to the “extra square footage,” he said.
The new building will also include a centralized dispatch
facility for trained staff to field 911, routine and non-emergency calls, which
is expected to increase communication efficiencies, Myers said. Multiple access
points for both visiting and emergency vehicles are planned for the property.
The project does not have a set price tag, with crews years
away from breaking ground. First Selectman Rudy Marconi explained that the town
would not move forward on constructing the joint facility until 2023, when a
debt service from prior school improvements “comes to an end,” he said.
Approved in this year’s capital budget was a $360,000
expenditure to begin architectural work at the site. As with normal budgetary
proceedings, the project would have to be approved via public hearings, town
meetings or a natural referendum, but Marconi expects it will be welcomed with
support.
“The people of Ridgefield ... appreciate the level of
service that both the P.D. and the F.D. deliver to our residents,” he said.
“These men and women … deliver ... the best possible service they can, and they
do, and now we need to get a building that’s reflective of that level of
service.”
Myers agreed. “This is a physical reflection of the esteem
that the community holds our responders in, and that is important for the
morale of our department,” he said.
Developer, town officials debut Avon Village Center
Terry Corcoran
Developers and town officials cut the ribbon on the first
phase of the Avon Village Center, a sprawling office, retail and residential
development in the heart of Avon.
The Sept. 1 ceremony marked the opening of a
44,000-square-foot Whole Foods at 50 Climax Road plus four other buildings
totaling 57,000 square feet.
Other announced tenants are two national companies, AT&T
and Ivy Rehab, and the local Whole Animal Grocery Store, which moved from
another Avon location while doubling its size, said Kelly Coates, president and
CEO the Carpionato Group of Rhode Island, the project developer.
Coates and Joe Pierik, Carpionato’s vice president for
retail leasing and acquisitions, said they are negotiating with other potential
tenants and expect a mix of national and local businesses.
“It’s definitely a fabulous site and Whole Foods is killing
it,” Pierik said. “Their opening was phenomenal.”
The Avon Village Center occupies the space of the former
Ensign-Bickford Corp., a long-time Avon employer that sold the property to
Carpionato in 2011.
The project is in prime space—near Town Hall off Route 44 at
Route 10.
The afternoon ribbon cutting was done inside the store due
to heavy rain but earlier in the morning, Carpionato Group officials and Avon
Town Manager Brandon Robertson joined Whole Foods employees as they broke
freshly baked bread.
The project’s next phase will be primarily residential with
mixed use, Coates said.
That work will involve the design and permitting of 150
residential units this fall and next spring with the project slated for full
completion over the next five to seven years, he said.
Whole Foods said in a release that the new store will
provide support to several local organizations including Forge City Works, the
Children’s Museum of Connecticut, Simsbury Meadows Performing Arts Center, the
Boys & Girls Club of Hartford, the Hartford Yard Goats Foundation and
FoodShare. The Whole Kids Foundation will also grant $3,000 to the Talcott
Mountain Academy to support its hydroponics enrichment class on growing garden
vegetables.
UConn drops lawsuit against Storrs proposed apartment development
The University of Connecticut has withdrawn its opposition
to a proposed 358-unit multifamily housing development in Storrs, following
backlash from Mansfield town officials.
UConn officials said they will also work with Mansfield on
local housing and economic development initiatives, following a meeting this
week between UConn Interim President Dr. Andrew Agwunobi and Mansfield
Mayor Toni Moran and other town officials.
“UConn deeply values our partnership with the Town of
Mansfield, and we believe that whenever possible a collaborative approach to
local residential and commercial development will yield the best results,”
Agwunobi said.
The detente between the university and town came after Moran
publicly blasted UConn in July for "blindsiding" the town by
purchasing a parcel of land on which the town was expecting an affordable
housing project that could have added $2 million per year to the municipality's
tax rolls.
UConn's Board of Trustees on June 30 approved the
university's $4.2 million purchase of a 19.4-acre parcel in Mansfield’s Four
Corners section, adjacent to the UConn Innovation Partnership Building — known
colloquially as the UConn Tech Park.
Alabama-based developer Capstone Collegiate Communities was
in the advanced design stages on a proposed 358-unit multifamily housing
development on that land, which would have included 30 units for
low-to-moderate income residents, Moran said. UConn last year filed suit
against Capstone and the town, arguing the project would interfere with plans
to fully develop the Tech Park.
Moran said in addition to the lawsuit, UConn threatened it
would block the development from access to the new $9 million Four Corners
sewer and water system, $3 million of which was paid through state funds. The
mayor said UConn's actions could have a chilling effect on the town's ability
to attract developers for housing projects.
However, following the meeting with Agwunobi and UConn
withdrawing its lawsuit, Moran said the mixed-use development plan could get
back on track, and the town's relationship with Connecticut's flagship
university is in a better place.
“With UConn dropping the opposition to the Haven mixed-use
housing and development proposal, our process of review can continue on its
course,” she said. “We are eager to focus on this joint approach to development
with UConn that serves the best interest of our town and its future.”
Would Hartford gain from a Boston train? Advocates are all aboard
Tom Condon
Advocates say a passenger train route from New Haven to
Boston through Hartford, Springfield and Worcester would invigorate the
regional economy.
When Gov. Ned Lamont announced in
June that the state would spend $8 billion to $10 billion to (modestly) improve
travel times on the busy (if pokey) New Haven Line, the reaction was generally
favorable. Most understand that the rail connection to New York City is vital
to Connecticut’s economy and quality of life, and the faster the better.
But if the state benefits from commuter rail to the Big
Apple, as it clearly does, would it not also benefit from similar service to
Boston, the Hub of the Universe?
A study released
in April answered with a resounding yes. Fast and reliable passenger service
from New Haven to Boston via Hartford, Springfield and Worcester would have a
“transformative effect” on the Hartford-Springfield regional economy. The
report said an investment of $6 billion to $9 billion could yield between $47
billion and $84 billion in new and direct gross domestic product over 30 years
in the Hartford-Springfield metro area, and another $15 billion to $21 billion
in indirect or induced growth.
The study, along with the growing prospect of a major
federal infrastructure bill, has bolstered efforts to restore full passenger
service on what was once called the “Inland Route” from New York to Boston.
“I cannot think of a better time to invest in rail, “ said
U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., whose sprawling district covers most of
Western Massachusetts. Neal has long supported improved rail service in his
part of the state, and as chair of the influential House Ways and Means
Committee, he is a formidable proponent of better rail service.
He said in a statement to The Connecticut Mirror that the
new study is “welcome news and echoes what we already know – improved rail
along the inland route … is good for the entire region. Economic growth, jobs,
and unparalleled opportunity are waiting. It is simply too costly not to act at
this moment.”
But despite the strong support of Neal and other members of
Congress, including Connecticut’s John Larson and Rosa DeLauro, getting regular
commuter rail service on the inland route remains a challenge.
For openers, a project that involves two states is almost
invariably more complicated than one that can be done in a single state.
Also, while the Commonwealth of Massachusetts owns the
tracks from Boston to Worcester, now part of the MBTA commuter rail system,
CSX, the freight carrier, owns the tracks from Worcester to Springfield and
would have to be accommodated. Also, as is typical of rights-of-way laid out in
the 19th century, the route does not describe a straight line.
Finally, despite Congressional and public support, neither
state is exactly fired up about restoring the inland route, though for
different reasons.
Connecticut took the initiative, opening The Hartford Line,
regular rail service between New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, in 2018.
Though some infrastructure work remains — for example, the line north of
Hartford to the Massachusetts state line must be double-tracked to support more
frequent commuter rail — the state is in no hurry to get to it unless
Massachusetts shows some interest in upgrading its east-west line, particularly
the critical 48-mile Springfield to Worcester section.
“Connecticut has done its part by investing in the Hartford
Line. It’s really Massachusetts that has been slow-walking it,” said
Massachusetts State Sen. Eric Lesser, D-Longmeadow, an ardent supporter of
“East-West Rail,” as it is known in the Bay State.
Critics blame Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. “When it comes
to the east-west rail link, to date he has been passionately uninterested in
it,” wrote Boston
Globe columnist Joan Vennochi on March 31. She also cited Baker’s “historic
lack of enthusiasm for public transit.”
Two ways to Boston
In the heyday of mid-century rail travel, trains regularly
plied the Inland Route from New York to Boston. But it dwindled in the 1960s
and ’70s as the nation took to the new interstate highways. Amtrak ran
self-propelled Budd cars, and not new ones, on the Springfield line for more
than a decade.
There was a citizen effort to revive the Inland Route in the
early 1980s, led by Meriden lawyer and rail enthusiast James M. S. Ullman.
Ullman argued that
the Inland Route actually served a larger population base than the Shoreline
Route and was only two miles longer. He urged Amtrak to provide good service on
both routes.
Ullman got people thinking. Gov. Lowell Weicker urged Amtrak
to restore the Inland Route. But Ullman’s untimely death in 1994 following
serious personal difficulties pretty much ended the effort to restore the
route, at least for the moment.
Two decades later, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy actually got the
work started. A former mayor of Stamford who understood the value of commuter
rail, Malloy, in partnership with Amtrak and Massachusetts officials,
redeveloped the New Haven-Hartford-Springfield line, known now as The Hartford
Line.
It opened in 2018 and offers 17 northbound trains from New
Haven to Hartford, all but four continuing to Springfield, and 16 southbound
trains, all but four starting in Springfield. It got off to a strong start,
carrying more than 1.4 million riders in 2019, though COVID caused a
significant drop in 2020.
In 2017, as the work was progressing, Malloy wrote to Baker,
his Massachusetts counterpart, “strongly encouraging” him to begin work on the
Inland Route section from Worcester through Springfield to the Connecticut
border.
Baker didn’t bite, despite considerable public support for
the project. Polls in 2018 and 2019 by MassInc, a nonpartisan think tank, found
support for east-west rail expansion at 67 and 76 percent, respectively. They
are left with one slow and unreliable train a day between Springfield and
Boston. It takes two and a half hours, about an hour longer than it takes to
drive in midday traffic.
In January, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation
released a major feasibility study of east-west rail expansion. That study
initially looked at six ways to improve service, including the intriguing idea
of running a rail line in the Massachusetts Turnpike corridor.
Alas, the consultants believed it too expensive and too far
from some of the cities it would serve, so it was dropped. In the end, the
study offered three options for improved east-west service. The first would use
the existing CSX tracks; the other two call for building new stretches of track
alongside the existing track. The estimated costs range from $2.41 billion to
$4.63 billion, which includes the option of extending the service west to
Pittsfield.
The state’s study cites the costs but not the potential
economic benefit. That was the point of the study released in April, which
projected a major return on investment if the Inland Route is revived.
The report, commissioned by the Capitol Region Council of
Governments and the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and prepared by the
infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, makes a case that commuter rail service
would greatly benefit the Hartford-Springfield metro area.
The Hartford-Springfield metro — defined as Hartford County,
Conn., and Hampshire and Hampden counties, Mass. — is a “distinct and
consequential economic location in the Northeast Corridor,” the study says,
with a combined population of 1.6 million, a gross domestic product of $120
billion, 20 colleges and universities and New England’s second-largest
international airport.
Nonetheless, the region is somewhat isolated economically
and has not kept pace with the rest of the Northeast Corridor, the report
states. Since 1990, job growth in the Northeast Corridor as a whole has been
1.1% annually, but in Hartford-Springfield, only 0.6%.
This translates to about 130,000 jobs not created, notably
in the “key sectors of … information, finance, and professional services
(including insurance, in which employment has actually declined),” the report
states. Transportation isn’t the only reason for the job lag, but it is one reason.
“Hartford-Springfield is seeing a decreasing share in an
otherwise growing market because it is not connected to it,” said Chris Brewer,
an AECOM economist who worked on the economic impact study.
Hartford-Springfield is about equidistant from Boston and
New York. Fast and reliable commuter rail could, over time, regain
20,000-40,000 of the lost jobs, the report estimates. Brewer said a 90-minute
commute to both big cities would put Hartford-Springfield in play (in 2019,
Lamont announced a goal of
90 minutes from Hartford to Manhattan).
With a 90-minute ride to both major cities, Brewer said,
Hartford-Springfield would become attractive to workers on a hybrid schedule,
who only need to travel to the Big Apple or the Athens of America two
or three times a week. And, as James Ullman observed 40 years ago, commuter
rail doesn’t serve only the big cities at the end of the line but the smaller
cities along the line as well.
Brewer’s study said if any of the options Massachusetts put
forth is chosen, “an investment in the $4 billion range would cut nearly an
hour off the Springfield-Boston trip” and enable at least 10 round trips per
day.
New England’s second-largest city offers an example of what
might happen. Worcester was connected to Boston via the MBTA commuter rail
system nearly a decade ago. Good things have happened since: a number of new
residential and commercial projects; the arrival of the Boston Red Sox Triple A
farm team, the WooSox; and the announcement that
a major Chinese biotech firm, Hong Kong-based WuXi Biologics, would locate its
first U.S. facility in Worcester. The $60 million facility is expected to
employ 150 people when it opens next year.
Perhaps most remarkably, recently released census figures
show Worcester’s population increased 14% from 2010 to 2020, to 206,518, more
than 25,000 new residents. By contrast, Springfield grew 1.9%, to 155, 929, and
Hartford lost 2.8% of its residents, dropping to 121,203.
“We’ve all seen what’s happened in Worcester. The same thing
can happen in Springfield and Hartford,” said Dana Roscoe, principal planner
and transportation manager for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission.
“If you are connected to Boston by commuter rail, your
economy is probably doing well,” said Lyle Wray, executive director of the
Capitol Regional Council of Governments.
Wray and other inland route proponents have met with
transportation officials as well as Congressional and gubernatorial staffers
over the summer to make the case for the inland route. “At least they are
listening,” he said. He said he’d like to see Connecticut commit to finishing
its part of the double-track work and eventually electrify the line.
State Department of Transportation spokesman Kevin Nursick
said electrification is a subject for future talks with Amtrak. He said while
double-tracking from Windsor to Enfield is “not required for near-term service”
and the work is not scheduled, it is in the department’s long range capital
program. He said the new Windsor Locks Station is being designed to accommodate
the second track.
But that second track is not likely to appear until there’s
progress on East-West Rail north of the border. Lesser believes there’s a
strong argument for it.
He said in state transportation spending, there is a “legacy
of bias toward Boston and the needs of the Boston core.” But he said East-West
Rail is “as good for Boston as it is for Springfield.”
Boston’s issues are congestion and housing prices. “Nobody
can afford to live in Eastern Mass, housing prices are out of control, and no
one can get around” because of the traffic and crowded transit, he said.
In Western Massachusetts, “we have the reverse — lower cost
of housing and good quality of life” — but the region has seen a loss of jobs
and population. East-West Rail would solve problems, if not overnight, giving
people in Eastern Massachusetts access to lower-cost housing and a calmer
quality of life, while giving folks in Western Massachusetts access to jobs to
the east.
He said connecting Western New England, including the
Pioneer Valley towns north of Springfield, to Hartford and Boston by rail will
have a major environment benefit, taking thousands of cars off the road and
helping clean the air, noting that the valley area has a high rate of asthma.
Also, as Wray noted, climate resilience may well favor a route away from the
shoreline.
“We need the governor of Massachusetts to make this a top
priority,” Lesser said. Gov. Baker’s office did not respond to several requests
for comment, though MassDOT spokeswoman Judith Reardon Riley forwarded a press
release citing the need for more study, coordination with CSX, identification
of funding sources and creation of a governing structure to move the East-West
rail project off the drawing board and onto the tracks. .
Lesser believes the challenge is not insurmountable. “We
built a railroad through the Rocky Mountains during the Civil War. We can do
this.”