Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Time to Protest is NOW!

Are you planning on drinking Cape Cod water? Don't let NStar contaminate it.

The CEO of NSTAR, Thomas May, has said in a televised interview 11/08/10 that he listens to customers and responds to e-mails. (Watch him say these words in this NECN video clip.)
Here's his phone number and e-mail: 617-424-2527, thomas.may@nstar.com. Let him know Cape Codders are aware of the damage herbicidal spraying can do to the environment.

Anyone who purchased the Cape Cod Times yesterday was able to read a My View column from Rep. Cleon Turner, as well as three letters to the editor, including one I wrote. The newspaper has a new policy for online viewing, so no more links from the Cape Cod Times on this blog, until that policy changes. In the meantime, here's what I wrote:

"It has come to my attention that the Barnstable County Ad Hoc Committee on Risk Analysis Vegetation Management has concluded NStar can proceed with herbicidal spraying along the power lines of Cape Cod. With all due respect, I would like to point out that those in favor and those opposed at inception were not of equal number. And, there were more voting members representing NStar’s opinion. How can anyone take these conclusions seriously? From my recent reading of Poisoned for Profit: How Toxins are Making Our Children Chronically Ill, 2010, by Philip and Alice Shabecoff, it is clear that the warnings of scientists and health experts are not being heeded nation-wide. Emerging science indicates traces of pesticides in food and water do affect the developing fetus. ADHD, autism, asthma, and cancer are four modern diseases dramatically on the rise. Two weeks ago USA Today reported on the percentage of toxic chemicals discovered in the blood of pregnant women. We need to try to reduce these numbers, not add to them. NStar has safer methods of vegetation management available. I hope the electric company will set an example for other corporations and choose to apply the precautionary principle."