Episode 13: Alice Arena of FRRACS

Hi and welcome to Audible Café.


Today, I bring you my interview with Alice Arena, Executive
Director of the Fore River Residents Against the Compressor
Station, or FRRACS. Their website is
nocompressor.com.


The Weymouth Compressor Station is part of the
proposal for Atlantic Bridge, a SPECTRA Energy pipeline
project that pumps fracked gas from fracking fields in the
midwest through New England to…where? to whom? Well, that’s a
good question. The story has continued to change as the company
strives to build this monster. Initially, it was supposed to be
for residents in New England. Now, the gas will go to Canada, and
then for export. No local benefit at all.


Construction of the 7,700 hp compressor station is now underway,
and it is being protested and opposed, both at the site and in
the courts. It’s been a long, long fight, and the opposition is
NOT going away!


SPECTRA Energy is a Houston-based energy
conglomerate with a market capitalization of approximately $17
Billion dollars. They have since merged with
Enbridge, one of the largest oil and gas
companies in North America.


This is our money building these projects, friends. Without
federal and state subsidies, these companies would not exist.
According to
https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/enbridge “Since
FY2000 to the present, Enbridge, parent company now of Spectra
Energy, received are $152,103,978. 
Note: Dollar totals do not include awards for which no
subsidy value is disclosed.” What the heck does THAT mean?


I dug one page deeper into the above subsidy report to look at
one of the awards, just randomly, from the State of Louisiana
“Quality Jobs Program” administered by the Commerce and Industry
Board. The value of the subsidy was  $3,211,615 and it
created 10 jobs. That’s right, 10 jobs.   Seems
unbelievable, but check it out:
https://subsidytracker.goodjobsfirst.org/subsidy-tracker/la-spectra-energy-operating-company-llc.


Enbridge/Spectra was working in conjunction with
Eversource Energy and National
Grid on an ambitious expansion of the Natural Gas
infrastructure in the Northeast. Both Eversource and
National Grid stated that the compressor station is now
unnecessary to meet customer demand. So why are they still
building it?


The history of the application, permitting process, and
opposition to the project is long, since it all started in 2015.
You can read all about it at the nocompressor.com site — there
are excellent resources there, including a detailed timeline of
all that has transpired on this project, leading up to today.


Here are just a few of the THREATS that this
project poses:


This compressor would be built in the most densely populated
location ever for a compressor station built in the US.

Operations run counter to the state’s emissions reduction
goals.

The project will further devastate the coastal environment of
the Fore River Basin.

The herring run, already under siege, will be further
compromised. Each year, thousands of herring swim from Boston
Harbor to Whitman's Pond through the Weymouth Back River.

The Fore River hosts the largest Smelt Run in the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Is there no end to the destruction
of natural systems we will undertake for money?

This project is only one part of the immeasurable damage to
the environment from the fracked gas industry. The project serves
to prop up the fracked gas industry.

Residents in the area — who have faced pollution from
industrial sites for decades — have legitimate fears about
potential health impacts.

There is asbestos in the soil at this project site, and it’s
been documented by the state as a threat if soil is disturbed -
there are signs posted on the property that state this fact. It’s
hard to build something without disturbing the soil! So how is
that contamination going to be contained. They may be trying, but
it can’t be done.



Thank you, Alice, for being so generous with
your time, and for your dedication in working tirelessly to
protect the environment and the people of the Fore River Basin.


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Thanks again, and have a great week!
Judy


SHOW RESOURCES


Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station


No Fracked Gas in Mass


Good Jobs First / Subsidy Tracker