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IERRAN Volume 11 Number 4
Winter 200506
IERRAN
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IERRAN
www.sierraclubmass.org
I N S I D E :
Explore, enjoy and protect the planet
Reaching More Than
26,000 Sierra Club Members
in Massachusetts
2
Directors Letter
Liquified Natural Gold: The Rush
for LNG in New England
3
Safe? Or Not?
David Dow Asks Questions
about PAVE PAWS
4
Forest Reserves
Elisa Campbell Reports on
Heartening Meetings
4
Ware River Needs Us
Elisa Campbell is
Recruiting Volunteers
5
Cambridge Takes on
Global Warming
Rosalie Anders Describes
the Citys Efforts
7
Chapter and Group Elections
11
Two Views from the Summit
Phil Dowds and Blossom Hoag
Tell Us about the Sierra Summit
12
A Long Strange Story
John Kyper Summarizes
the Silver Line Saga
13
Generating Your Own Energy
Linda Raven Recommends
Energy Independence
14
Follow the Leaders
Blossom Hoag Advocates
for Cutting Emissions
15
Outings
15
Conscientious Holiday
Shopping
Kristine Zeigler on
Sierra Club Merchandise
16
Meetings & Holiday Parties
Volume 11 Number 4
Winter 200506 2
Massachusetts Sierran
WINTER 200506
Massachusetts Sierra Club
CHAPTER EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2005
Mary Ann Nelson, Chair
chapter-chair@sierraclubmass.org
617-442-0123
Blossom Hoag, Vice Chair
vice-chair@sierraclubmass.org
Phillip Sego
phil@sierraclubmass.org
Alexandra Dawson
adawson@sierraclubmass.org
John Deacon
jdeacon@sierraclubmass.org
John Kyper
jkyper@sierraclubmass.org
Gilbert Woolley
gwoolley@sierraclubmass.org
John Lewis
jlewis@sierraclubmass.org
CHAPTER STAFF
James McCaffrey, Director
Jeremy Marin, Associate Regional Representative
Yi Ching Fedkenheuer, Administrative Assistant
office@sierraclubmass.org
LEADERS LIST
For information on local environmental issues, membership,
meetings, outings, and any other Sierra Club events,
call or write the group or issue leaders listed below.
Annual dues in the Sierra
Club are $39, of which $1
is for a subscription to the
Massachusetts Sierran.
GROUP LEADERS
Cape Cod Group
David Dow, Acting Chair
ddow@sierraclubmass.org
Greater Boston Group
John Lewis, Chair
jlewis@sierraclubmass.org
Pioneer Valley Group
Elisa Campbell, Acting Chair
ecampbell@sierraclubmass.org
Blackstone Valley Group
Wendy Rowland, Acting Chair
wrowland@sierraclubmass.org
Essex County Group
Mike Dorsey, Chair
ddorsey@sierraclubmass.org
CHAPTER ISSUE LEADERS
Conservation Chair
Gilbert Woolley
gwoolley@sierraclubmass.org
Energy Chair
David Heimann
dheimann@sierraclubmass.org
Outings
Deborah Holt
holtd@verizon.net
Public Lands &
Open Spaces Chair
Elisa Campbell
ecampbell@sierraclubmass.org
Transportation Chair
John Kyper
jkyper@sierraclubmass.org
Population Chair
Anita King
413-268-9212
REGIONAL CONTACTS
Maine Sierra Club
One Pleasant Street
Portland, ME 04101-3936
207-761-5616
New Hampshire Sierra Club
40 North Main Street
Concord, NH 03301
603-224-8222
Vermont Sierra Club
73 Center Street
Rutland, VT 05701
802-651-0169
Rhode Island Sierra Club
298 West Exchange Street
Providence, RI 02903
401-521-4734
Connecticut Sierra Club
118 Oak Street
Hartford, CT 06106
860-525-2500
LIQUIFIED NATURAL GOLD:
The Rush for LNG in New England
Letter from the desk of James McCaffrey, Director
Elisa Campbell
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Editor
Ricki Pappo
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Designer
The Massachusetts Sierran is published quarterly:
March, June, September, and December.
The deadline for copy is normally eight weeks
before publication. The deadline for meetings and
announcements is four weeks before publication.
Please submit all copy to Elisa Campbell
at editor@sierraclubmass.org. Please submit
all announcements and meetings information
to announce@sierraclubmass.org.
Opinions, unless otherwise stated, are of
the author only; positions adopted by the
Sierra Club are identified as such.
Circulation of the Massachusetts Sierran
is over 26,000 outdoor-minded,
environmentally aware readers.
Postmaster:
Send all address changes
(PS form 3579) to:
Sierra Club Membership,
85 Second Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Moving?
Send change of address forms
to above address.
Prospective advertisers:
Contact the Editor to request
an advertising rate package.
Periodical Postage (air)
at Boston, MA
The Massachusetts Sierran
(USPS 059-370)
is published quarterly by
Massachusetts Chapter
Sierra Club
100 Boylston Street, Suite 760
Boston, MA 02116
(617) 423-5775
www.sierraclubmass.org
office@sierraclubmass.org
M A S S A C H U S E T T S
IERRAN
Vol. 11 No. 4 Winter 200506
On the cover: Snow begins to melt on the Mt. Holyoke Range
Photograph by Elisa Campbell
©2005 Massachusetts Sierra Club
No part of the contents of this newsletter may be reproduced by any means
without the written consent of the Massachusetts Sierran.
T
he entrepreneurial rush to build new Liquified Natural Gas
(LNG) facilities on all our countrys coasts has only been
encouraged by the logjams caused (or revealed) by the hurri-
canes in the Gulf of Mexico. At least 40 proposals have been
made by the energy industry throughout North America, and
all prior to a legitimate national and regional assessment of our
LNG needs. Yet the energy industry claims they may only need
twelve facilities. Four of these proposed facilities are along or
just off of the Massachusetts coastline.
This past summer, the Sierran explained our opposition to the
facility proposed for Fall River, and raised questions about anoth-
er one proposed offshore near Gloucester. The Fall River proposal
has already received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC), the federal agency responsible for siting
onshore LNG proposals. Large scale potentially dangerous indus-
trial facilities do not belong in the heart of economically chal-
lenged and densely populated urban areas. FERCs approval of
the Fall River project is an environmental injustice of the worst
kind, and the Sierra Club has joined the good citizens of Fall
River in opposing it.
We now know that there are two, not one, proposals for facil-
ities offshore near Gloucester. They include potential impacts
on some of the regions richest fishing grounds. Also, such facil-
ities will increase tanker traffic in the migratory habitat for endan-
gered Northern Right Whales. Finally, infrastructure such as
pipelines for either proposal may impact or even cross existing
marine sanctuaries.
The fourth proposal would take state and federal parklands
in Boston Harbor to build an LNG facility. This is only the latest
affront by the industry and would forever alter the character and
continued on page 12 F
or years there has been concern and con-
troversy about the possibility of cancer clus-
ters and elevated levels of other diseases and
conditions on Cape Cod. Specifically, people
have suspected that the PAVE PAWS Radar facil-
ity might be adversely affecting human health.
(PAVE PAWS is a military radar system designed
to detect incoming missiles; PAWS is an acronym
for Phased Array Warning System.)
This fall, the International Epidemiology
Institute (IEI) conducted an epidemiology
study of Cape disease rates and their associa-
tion, or lack thereof, with radiofrequency (Rf)
exposure. A second analysis was done by Dr.
Richard Albanese, an Air Force scientist act-
ing as a private citizen.
The IEI released a report: Descriptive
Studies of Disease Occurrence and PAVE PAWS
Radar on September 9, 2005. IEI will hold a
meeting for the general public in March 2006.
IEI's dose/response study showed no eleva-
tion in cancer mortality/incidence rates, neu-
rological and autoimmune disease, or low
birth weight with increasing PAVE PAWS Rf
exposure, while the secular trend study showed
no increases in cancer rates at the county level
after the system came online in 1978.
The other study, conducted by Dr. Albanese,
was a dose/response study of Rf exposures at
the town level. Dr. Albanese used a different
statistical analysis approach to compare dose
with response, measuring adverse health out-
comes. Unlike the IEI study, he found statistically
significant positive dose/response relationships
for female breast cancer and a statistically sig-
nificant negative relationship for colon cancer
in males and females. He also raised concerns
about the IEI secular trend study analysis and the
exposure levels employed in the IEI
dose/response study.
The IEI study
was paid for by the
Air Force. There has
been much contro-
versy on Cape Cod
regarding the scope
of the health study and whether it should have
been overseen by an independent entity with
minimal Air Force involvement. The safety stan-
dards for non-ionizing radiation, which
emanates from AM/FM radios, cell phones,
marine/airport radars, as well as military facil-
ities such as PAVE PAWS, have been promul-
gated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers (IEEE) and are based upon the average
and peak power density measured in microwatts
per square centimeter or its equivalents in
WINTER 200506
Massachusetts Sierran
3
A dialogue will be required to define
how safe is safe.
Safe? Or Not?
Studies Leave Questions about PAVE PAWS
by David Dow
continued on page 6 S
ierra Club members attending the meetings about the proposed