May 29, 2019

The Honorable Charlie Baker
Governor of Massachusetts
Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon Street
Office of the Governor, Room 280
Boston, MA 02133

Dear Governor Baker:

We write as faith leaders and scientists in urgent opposition to the proposed compressor station in Weymouth.  We are members of the Steering Committee of the Faith Science Alliance for Climate Leadership (http://faithsciencealliance.org/), an organization of over 600 supporters in Massachusetts.

As people of faith, we see climate change and environmental injustice as moral failure—past and present.  As scientists, we are keenly aware of the destructive health impacts of toxic air pollution, explosion, and fire.  In combination, these hazards disqualify the Weymouth compressor station.

Weymouth and adjacent towns are heavily populated, low-income communities that already bear an excessive burden of pollution.  Compressors and pipelines are prone to both chronic leakage and catastrophic explosion, with devastating consequences.  Within a mile of the proposed compressor site are a gas and oil depot, a chemical plant, two power plants, and a hazardous waste transfer and treatment facility.

Expanding infrastructure for fracked methane flies in the face of the Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act and flouts our responsibility to the world and to future generations.

Sadly, the last-minute release on May 16 of new, revised data by the Department of Environmental Protection raises substantial questions of the objectivity and perhaps even the integrity of the permit process to date.  We demand greater transparency in these regulatory review processes in the future and ask for a review of the process used by DEP in this case.

Given so many grave concerns, we urge you to use your authority to protect public health and safety and stop this ill-conceived project before any more resources are wasted or communities harmed.

Respectfully,

The Steering Committee of the Faith Science Alliance for Climate Leadership

  • Rabbi Alison Adler – Temple B’nai Abraham, Beverly
  • The Rev. Jeff Barz-Snell – First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, Weston
  • Gaurab Basu – Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School
  • Dorothy Boorse – Gordon College, Beverly
  • James F. Driscoll – Massachusetts Catholic Conference, Braintree
  • Peter Dunbeck – Environmental Stewardship Diocese of Worcester
  • Marcia N. Macedo – Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth
  • The Rev. Dr. Robert K. Massie, author and Episcopal priest, Boston
  • The Rev. Fred Small – Arlington Street Church, Unitarian Universalist, Boston
  • The Rev. Leslie K. Sterling – St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, Cambridge

cc:

Martin Suuberg, Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection
Kathleen Theoharides, Secretary, Energy and Environmental Affairs