Author: CTRiverdefenders

MY TURN, Greenfield Recorder, March 12, 2025 By PRISCILLA LYNCH On Feb. 19, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection held a hybrid public hearing at Greenfield Community College for the public to provide comments on Mass-DEP’s Draft 401 Water Quality Certificate. The 401 Water Quality Certificate would allow FirstLight continued operation of its Northfield Mountain …

Read more “MassDEP: Do your duty for the environment and the people”

By Michael Carolan | Special to The Republican Updated: Apr. 30, 2025, 5:02 p.m.|Published: Apr. 30, 2025, 5:01 p.m. Members of the Chaubunagungamaug tribe of the Nipmuc Nation performed drumming and singing last Friday at Unity Park in Turners Falls, a village of the town of Montague. (Michael Carolan) TURNERS FALLS — Opponents of the …

Read more “Tribe members, allies protest hydro utility relicensing along Connecticut River”

Connecticut River Defenders Present:  A Public HearingSaturday November 18, 2023, 3:00-5:00 pmShea Theater, 71 Avenue A, Great Falls MA 01376 Join with others from our community to hear testimony about the way the rights of nature with respect to the Connecticut River are being violated. We will hear from some of those most knowledgeable about …

Read more “A Peoples’ Hearing”

By SUSAN OLMSTED Published: 4/29/2021 1:17:13 PM After reading Alicia Barton’s (CEO of FirstLight Power Resources) My Turn column (April 23) promoting the Northfield Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage (NMPHS) Station as “an asset in fight against climate change” and “… the largest clean power producer in New England …” I felt compelled to write. NMPHS …

Read more “My Turn: Time to retire the Northfield Mountain Pumped Hydro Storage Station”

The Connecticut River Defenders Rally to Stop the Destruction by First Light EnergyOn a beautiful warm and sunny day, some 60 people gathered at a rally called by the Connecticut River Defenders at Northfield Mountain Park adjacent to the First Light Energy Corporation Pump Station to learn about the destruction of the River and its …

Read more “Read about our actions”

3/10/23  Karl Meyer  Opinion, Commonwealth Magazine ON FEBRUARY 11, CommonWealth published a commentary by FirstLight Power CEO Alicia Barton bragging of the Christmas Eve grid-rescuing heroics of her company’s Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station. She went on to describe Northfield as a “zero-emissions” power plant that helped save New England from a natural gas energy squeeze. There were holes …

Read more “The dirty truth of Northfield Mountain’s ‘clean’ energy”

4/12/23  Karl Meyer, Letter to the Editor –  Vermont Digger In 2016,Canadian capital giant PSP Investments bought three FirstLight Power-branded properties on the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, two years before their federal licenses would expire. They quickly transferred them into Delaware tax shelters.  Facing no pressure, they dragged out relicensing procedures five more years, knowing …

Read more “Letter to the editor: Do rivers matter?”

Published in the Greenfield Recorder on November 9, 2022.  Living rivers flow downstream, but not the Connecticut River in Franklin County where FirstLight’s 50-year-old Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station reverses miles of flow at times. NMPS is the deadliest machine ever installed on New England’s Great River. It sucks in endless streams of the Connecticut’s …

Read more “Karl Meyer: Living rivers flow downstream”