NoSAG to celebrate and plan

North Springfield Action Group will hold a public "Thank You" this evening February 19th.
http://rutlandherald.com/article/20140219/NEWS02/702199917

Published February 19, 2014 in the Rutland Herald NoSAG to celebrate and plan By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD — The price of success is often a lawyer’s bill, activist groups learn. North Springfield Action Group will hold a celebration this evening at 7 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Fairground Road. The event will also include a briefing on last week’s Public Service Board decision to turn down the proposed 37-megawatt biomass plant. The gathering, at the Springfield Unitarian Universalist Church, will be a public “thank you,” said Robert Kischko, chairman of NoSAG, which fought the North Springfield Sustainable Energy Project. Kischko said he and others would give an analysis of the decision, but he said the group also needed to brainstorm about fundraising efforts to pay off its legal bill, which included hiring experts to evaluate and testify against the project. “The average citizen can’t fight the big company,” said Kischko, who said the group had several successful fundraising events in the past couple of years of fighting the biomass plant. NoSAG would not disclose the amount of the legal bill. The Public Service Board, in a unanimous decision, said the project did not warrant a state certificate of public good — since it ran counter to the state’s goals of reducing greenhouse gases — and said the plant’s projected efficiency rating was not high enough. The board said the amount of electricity generated by the project could be made up by increased conservation efforts. The board also noted that the impact of increased truck traffic on the transportation network could be counter to “orderly development,” a key requirement of Section 248 in the state’s utility law. The main developer behind the project, Adam Winstanley of Winstanley Enterprises LLC of Concord, Mass., said last week immediately after the decision was made public that he would abandon the project after two strong rejections by the Public Service Board and its hearing officer. Kischko said Monday there was no reason to doubt Winstanley’s announcement that he wouldn’t appeal the decision. “We’re very pleased and very encouraged by what Adam said,” said Kischko. Kischko, himself an engineer, said the group hoped to stay in existence and organized, and to remain vigilant about any proposed projects that raise pollution-related concerns in the Springfield area. “I’ve done a tremendous amount of reading and research on power plants,” said Kischko, who said that the impact on neighborhoods and towns is long-lasting and far-reaching.