Mothers Out Front member Bonnie Cohen made an impassioned plea to the Somerville City Council last week asking for its support of legislation aimed at improving gas safety and promoting renewable energy.

By Jim Clark

The Somerville City Council, at its latest regular meeting last Thursday, voted on and approved two resolutions, one supporting House H.2848, an Act to Ensure Gas Safety and Consumer Fairness, and the other Supporting House H.2849 and Senate S.1940, an Act for Utility Transition to Using Renewable Energy (Future).

Councilor At-Large William A. White, who originally sponsored the resolutions, told those in attendance at the meeting, “As you know, we have a committed group in the city known as Mothers Out Front who have been working quite hard to address the health impacts from natural gas leakage. And both of these two items were actually submitted by them by means of a request asking that the City Council move forward a resolution supporting these two items. It was before my committee in Public Utilities and Public Works, and the administration actually sent these two resolutions to us. And then as a matter of basically a parliamentary slip-up on my part, it was not referred back to the Public Utilities and Public Works Committee, it was placed on file. So as a result I resubmitted these two resolutions.

White then sponsored a representative from Mothers Out Front, Bonnie Cohen, to address the Council on the resolutions.

“I’m a mom, a physician, and a member of Mothers Out Front,” Cohen said. “And I’m here to urge the Council to pass these two resolutions in support of the gas leaks bill and the future bill tonight.”

“In 11 days my son Shea will turn five,” Cohen continued. “A couple of months ago he accompanied me to an action calling out National Grid for failing to follow through on their agreement to find and fix the biggest leaks, seven percent of all the leaks around the state, that are spilling 50 percent of all the leaked methane.”

“I talked to Shea about the importance of keeping a promise, about our need to protect each other and the earth, and speak out about what we feel is right,” said Cohen. “He was excited to be carrying the big colorful sign, but it wasn’t obvious to me at the time what he as a four-year-old would take away from the experience. Then, a couple of days later when we were out driving, he called out urgently to me from his car seat ‘Mom!’ he said, pointing to a large dead tree, ‘Leaking gas killed that tree! That’s rude! Trees are important!'”

“So I share this story to remind us all what Greta Thunberg said so powerfully to the UN General Assembly on Monday. Our children are watching us. And without bold political action, what we are showing them is complicity in the climate disaster,” Cohen said. “Fracked gas is dangerous. Explosions like the one in the Merrimack Valley can happen in any town, with any gas company.” Cohen continued, “Leaking gas suffocates trees, and we towns pay to remove or replace them. Our aging infrastructure compounds the problem with tens of thousands of gas leaks. And every year there are as many new leaks found as repaired. We’ve really made no significant progress on the total number of leaks in the last half decade, and we rate payers are paying for the leaked gas.”

“These acts enable the city, and other cities like ours, to better manage road construction and public safety by working with gas companies more effectively in repairing and monitoring gas leaks,” said Cohen. “They strengthen the voice of cities and towns and the Department of Public Utilities, and provide the city with financial recourse for trees killed by gas. And they strengthen our economy and create jobs by incentivizing gas companies to invest in and provide renewable and affordable thermal energy and improve energy efficiency.”

“Back to my son, Shea,” Cohen continued, “There are things I wish he would never have to learn about. Like war, for example. When I talk to him about things like this I tell him it’s wrong. It hurts a lot of people. But we’re working to end all war, so no one gets hurt anymore. And now when comes upon something that doesn’t seem right to him he asks me, ‘Are we working to end that?’ I love that he has that expectation. When it comes to flooding, sea level rise, mass extinction, devastation by storms, death by gas explosions, destruction by wild fires, and a continual prioritization of short term profits over all forms of life, we can bet our children will ask, ‘Are we working to end this?’ And I want to be able – I imagine we all want to be able – to look them in the eye and say emphatically, unequivocally, yes, we are doing everything we can to end this. So let’s do this together, unanimously.”

The Council subsequently voted to approve the two resolutions, unanimously.