Monthly Archives: March 2014

Another company in contempt–Gov. Patrick’s letter to the NRC

Numerous Cape Codders went to the trouble of bussing to Boston recently to urge Gov. Patrick to write a letter to the NRC requesting the closing of Pilgrim nuclear power plant. The Governor complied and sent that letter. The response of Entergy, the company that owns the plant: essentially, yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. Water off […]

Pete Seeger and the contradictions of American heroism

Pete Seeger, as you are probably aware, died recently at 94. If you haven’t already, you should see the movie about his life, “The Power of song.” It’s good to be reminded of a time–mid-20th century, the most active years of Seeger’s life—when there w as real hope in music, in that music called “folk […]

Pilgrim: Close it now

  Fukushima three years out and the news just keeps getting worse. In Japan, the newsstories about extent of radiation pollution of air and water and exposure of plant workers make one grateful not to live on that island. But the evidence mounts of a disaster with worldwide implications. The usually conservative AMA is calling […]

Company in contempt: NStar spraying an aquifer near you

NStar, the so-called public utility, has become a public menace. In contempt of the resolutions of all Cape and Vineyard towns, the company is targetting in 2014 the following: Falmouth, Bourne, Sandwich; Barnstable, Dennis, Yarmouth; Harwich, Wellfleet and Truro. On Martha’s Vineyard: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury.   Two citizens who have worked hard trying to […]

PAYT in Wellfleet: Are older citizens insensitive to young families? [18 March 2014]

The otherwise civilized debate at the recent pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) hearing was marred by a distinctly ageist theme reiterated by opponents that the selectmen and board of health, in sponsoring this program, are insensitive to the plight of the young. The burdensome cost of the required purple bags —$300. a year is one figure bandied about—is […]

Battle of the beach: the Harwich Port access dispute

The attempt of Bay View Road owners to band together to curtail traditional use of the beach in front of their properties (limiting everyone else to a six-foot postage stamp at the end of the right-of-way) is clearly headed for trouble. You can’t legislate the feelings of people about traditional usage, about the logic of […]

Plymouth’s responsibility to the Cape

While the movement to close down Pilgrim is making headlines, according to a March 11 story in this paper Plymouth selectmen recently signed a deal for $28 million for continuing to host the plant for another three years. “The lucrative arrangement has some thinking it wouldn’t be easy to get Plymouth to back a plant […]