For too long, power plants have been polluting our air by burning fossil fuels. Peaking power plants are some of the worst offenders, relying on the dirtiest fuels that produce tremendous amounts of pollution when burned. This pollution is released directly into our air and has been shown to cause serious respiratory issues and has been clearly linked to coronavirus mortality rates. These plants are commonly located in communities of color and low-income communities. Thus, already vulnerable populations are unjustly forced to breathe dirtier, more dangerous air.

But these plants do not only adversely impact nearby communities: they affect every person who pays for electricity. Peaking power plants generate the most expensive electricity, the cost of which falls directly on ratepayers. Consumers pay millions of dollars every year in order to keep these plants, which run only a few days a year, online.

These health and economic impacts don’t even account for these plants’ contribution to the climate crisis. As these plants run on fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases, their continued operation runs directly counter to our state’s climate commitments in the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Clean alternatives already exist to conventional peaking power plants: reducing peak electric demand and replacing facilities with solar + storage where necessary. With the falling cost of solar + storage, and Massachusetts’s goal to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, shutting down these plants now makes both economic and environmental sense.

We believe that clean air is a right. No one should have to live in a community where their health is at risk simply from the air that they breathe. Therefore, we are demanding that peaking power plants be shut down and replaced with only renewable and clean alternatives.