BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A few dozen environmental activists rallied in Boston Thursday, decrying recent high energy rates as a result of over-dependence on fossil fuels and demanding change.
In a 'Boston Fee Party' on a pier by the Boston Tea Party Museum, the ralliers balled up water-soluble slips of paper representing the high energy bills they've been paying this winter, and threw them into the harbor.
"We wanted to symbolize that we are now being forced to pay very high rates for electricity, because an agency that has no democratic accountability has invested in fossil fuels -- and as the shortage of fossil fuels has created price rises, we're now having to pay," said Monte Pearson with 350 Massachusetts, one of the speakers at the rally.
Photo: Madison Rogers for WBZ NewsRadio
The main target of the protest was ISO New England. "We'd like to see ISO begin a policy of rapidly adding solar and wind power to the New England Electric Grid," said Pearson.
ISO New England says it supports the region's goals of reaching nearly net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and is working with lawmakers to make it happen.
The environmentalists with Slingshot and Take Back the Grid argue there should be a larger public say in the decisions of utility companies and providers. Cambridge Representative Mike Connolly was in attendance Thursday, and agrees.
"When it comes to how our grid operates, you don't get a say," Connolly told the crowd. "I don't really get a meaningful say, and no elected representation or appointees in our commonwealth really get the level of say that they need."
The activists sang songs, played music, chanted, and listened to stories and speeches on the pier, promising to keep coming together and keep making their demands heard.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Madison Rogers (@MadisonWBZ) reports:
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