It was late fall, 2017, when some of us concerned about climate change got wind of a plan by Columbia Gas (CGMA) to build new pipelines to the lower Valley. Many of us had fought hard to stop a huge transport pipe, the North East Direct, proposed by Tennessee Gas, to take gas from fracking wells in Pennsylvania to the Massachusetts coast for export to Europe. TG pitched it under cover of delivering gas to communities in Massachusetts along the route, though that was never its purpose. CGMA and Berkshire Gas pressed TG’s point (some called it blackmail) by imposing a moratorium on new gas hookups in Northampton, Easthampton and Amherst until the NED was built. After massive resistance – marches, standouts and the packing of auditoriums on hot summer days to demand state officials deny permits for the boondoggle – Tennessee Gas finally gave up on the project. It was a major victory for rural communities and the environment.
But the Columbia Gas moratorium on gas expansion remained. Meanwhile, others in Springfield, Northampton and Amherst won their demand of CGMA to plug leaks in crumbling pipelines. Some of them are a hundred years old and many had been shown to be spewing the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, killing trees and threatening explosions. After protesting CGMA’s inaction on the problem, we came to agreement that the company would identify the “super-emitting” leaks, the 8% responsible for 50% of leaked methane, and plug them. Another victory.
But we were (and are) in the midst of a climate emergency and in 2017 were coming face-to-face with the reality that we as a country should be building no more new fossil fuel infrastructure; that to save the planet from run-away climate change which would threaten the existence of life on earth, we must keep the fossil fuels in the ground and invest all resources in conservation and building renewable energy production. What was being proposed by CGMA that fall was a relatively small system for local gas delivery, supposedly shoring up “reliability” in gas home and building heating for customers. This wasn’t the white elephant NED. We knew of few examples where enhanced local gas delivery had been fought and some were saying we shouldn’t bother to try.
But these were our communities, plagued by respiratory disease. Springfield is the asthma capital of the country and Latino children at my clinic, Brightwood in the North End, are particularly afflicted. Their health is directly affected by air polluted by the burning of fossil fuels. For their sake we should not be burning more gas to poison their lungs.
So concerned residents of seven of the eight affected communities – Holyoke, Northampton, Easthampton, West Springfield, Westfield, Longmeadow and Springfield – began to organize. We started in Northampton which already had a commitment to 100% renewable energy and had officially opposed the NED pipeline. Columbia was continuing to pressure the City, saying this time that it would lift the moratorium if it could build a series of new and larger capacity pipelines from the major, east-west trunk (the “261”) up to Holyoke. Northampton, Easthampton, Westfield and Holyoke have always gotten their gas off a single northbound pipe, the Northampton Lateral. CGMA complained that on the very coldest 2-3 days of the year, capacity on the Northampton Lateral was insufficient because everybody was using gas to heat their homes. The company had to buy gas off the open market and pump it into the system causing prices to rise. The proposed new pipeline system from Agawam to Holyoke would literally take pressure off the Northampton Lateral for those few days and there would be sufficient gas for Westfield, Northampton and Easthampton.
The newly-formed Columbia Gas Resistance Coalition (CGRC) said it was too expensive ($27 million), too environmentally damaging (through wetlands and sites of threatened species), too disruptive to local roads and businesses in West Springfield and it would mean the burning of more gas to pollute the air and warm the globe.
We said there was a cheaper, less polluting alternative: conserve gas in the affected communities through weatherization and insulation of homes and convert to energy-efficient air source heat pump furnaces. We held mass meetings and campaigned to increase building energy efficiency in the city to support a resolution presented to City Council opposing the pipeline to Holyoke and accepting the moratorium. Our campaign was abetted by a searing object lesson, the massive explosions in Lawrence involving CGMA pipeline, that reminded everyone that gas is not a benign substance. In fall, 2018, the City Council passed the resolution unanimously.
Meanwhile, CGRC member Neighbor to Neighbor Holyoke and their allies were working to convince the divided City Council in Holyoke to reject the pipeline as well. Holyoke Gas and Electric, the municipally-owned gas distributor, had itself imposed a moratorium on new and expanded hook-ups and was pushing for the pipeline, though Mayor Alex Morse had aggressively pursued renewable sources of energy for electricity. N2N presented petitions from hundreds of residents opposing the pipeline. Before the City Council voted, the Mayor made an Earth Day 2019 announcement rejecting the Agawam-Holyoke Pipeline on behalf of his City.
It was an astounding victory and meant the death of that 6-mile, 12-inch “alternate backfeed” line bringing more polluting fracked gas from Agawam to Holyoke. Columbia withdrew that plan, and the Columbia Gas Resistance Coalition turned our focus east and south, to Longmeadow, Springfield and Agawam.
Marty Nathan is a retired physician, mother, grandmother and social justice and climate organizer.