Marchers want to prevent construction of a 431 mega-watt, gas-fired power plant.
Mary Ann Babinski, of Westfield Concerned Citizens, delivers a speech Saturday morning before embarking on a 100-mile walk from Westfield to Boston in opposition to the construction of a proposed 431 mega-watt power plant on Ampad Road, where she began her walk. WESTFIELD – The head of a grass roots group opposing cembarked Saturday on a 100-mile walk from Westfield to Boston in an effort to persuade Energy Management executive James Gordon to “Walk the talk.”
Mary Ann Babinski gathered with other members of Westfield Concerned Citizens at the site of the proposed power plant on Ampad Road Saturday morning and vowed to continue the fight against the facility until the company abandons its plan for the plant.
“For almost five years now,” Babinski said, “Westfield Concerned Citizens have been working to stop the construction of a dirty, gas-fired plant in our city,” she said before beginning her 100-mile walk. We are here today because we still believe, as we did five years ago, that this proposed power plant, if built, will unnecessarily put public health and the environment at risk.”
The six-day walk began Saturday morning on Ampad Road, followed Routes 10 and 202 and stopped for the day in Ludlow. Day two will take Babinski from Ludlow to West Brookfield along Route 9, and on days three, four, five and six she will continue along Route 9 from West Brookfield to Worcester, Worcester to Framingham, Framingham to Newton, and Newton to Boston Commons and Park Plaza in Boston.
The walk in protest of the power plant, Babinski said, signifies the need to continue moving forward in the fight against the plant and an effort to find clean sources of energy that will not endanger the environment.
“We need to continue moving forward in a direction that will promote green energy solutions, energy efficiency, energy conservation and environmental justice,” she said. “Fossil fuel plants are a giant step backward.”
While in Boston, members of the group plan to deliver more petitions and endorsements to Gordon, the chief executive officer of Energy Management, Inc. and Cape Wind, urging him once again to abandon his plan to build the power plant in Westfield.