No Science and No Conscience–message at DEP/DPH hearing

The verdict of the crowd of over 50 people in Lee on Tuesday night, February 28, 2012, was that the DEP/DPH panel did sloppy work in the service of big wind. And Commissioner Kimmell seemed, for the first time, inclined to disavow the panel’s findings. “This is not the DEP’s report. We’re taking recommendations.”

Thirty-two people from Lee, Lenox, Florida, Sheffield, West Stockbridge, Plainfield, Shelburne Falls, Buckland, Ashfield, Savoy, Hawley, Charlement, Brimfield, Falmouth, Bedford, and other communities testified to the need for a legitimate public health study.

Only a handful of people spoke in support of the study’s findings.

A scientist from the Cape she said she’d brought signs to characterize the study’s results not as “junk science” but as “no science” and “no conscience.”

Alicia McDevitt, Assistant Commissioner for the DEP, gave the summary of the panel’s work and said the DEP plans to have the recordings of the sessions available on their website.

Listen to Lucas Willard’s coverage on WAMC and read Preserve Lenox Mountain’s “Last Night’s DEP/DPH Smackdown” and Amanda Korman’s Berkshire Eagle article, quoting Lee resident Deidre Consolati, “‘I think it’s time we stopped putting human beings at risk for technology.'”