From: Jessica Garrett <jessicaegarrett@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2019 3:43 PM
To: RPS, DOER (ENE)
Cc: Ben Ligon
Subject: RPS Class I (225 CMR 14.00) and RPS Class II (225 CMR
15.00) Regulations Changes
July
25, 2019
TO: John
Wassam
Department
of Energy Resources
100
Cambridge Street, Suite 1020
Boston,
MA 02114
RE: RPS
Class I (225 CMR 14.00) and RPS Class II (225 CMR 15.00) Regulations Changes
We
are a family in Somerville, very concerned about what kind of a world our
eight-year-old son will inherit. We strive every day to have the least
carbon and environmental impact we can.
We
strongly oppose the proposed changes to RPS Class I and II regulations.
Regulatory
changes should be science-based, and the proposed changes are not. Increasing
the burning of biomass is not a transition to clean renewable energy and undermines
efforts to enact real clean energy policies. The recent Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change (IPCC) report says that we need to achieve net zero
greenhouse gas emissions in 30 years. Our son will be only 38 then.
These
proposed changes will not help us achieve that goal. In addition, the emissions
from biomass can increase rates of lung cancer, asthma, and heart disease, and
the likely siting of facilities in environmental justice communities will only
increase the burden on those communities.
Your
agency and the Baker Administration need to instead invest in a plan to stop
the expansion of dirty energy sources that pollute our air and warm our planet.
Please
do this for our children and the children of those you love too,
Jessica
Garrett and Ben Ligon, and Felix, age 8.
--