Activists with the No Coal No Gas campaign blocked the entrance to Devon Station to raise the alarm that nine Connecticut power plants are pending takeover by AI-focused companies which are building hyperscale data centers across the country. They installed a spiderweb woven of old electrical cables across the bridge at the oil-burning plant’s entrance, decked with banners reading "AI is a trap" and "data centers = bridge to nowhere." Multiple vehicles were safely halted by the web.
Activists with the No Coal No Gas campaign blocked the entrance to Devon Station to raise the alarm that nine Connecticut power plants are pending takeover by AI-focused companies which are building hyperscale data centers across the country. They installed a spiderweb woven of old electrical cables across the bridge at the oil-burning plant’s entrance, decked with banners reading "AI is a trap" and "data centers = bridge to nowhere." Multiple vehicles were safely halted by the web.
If the board of ISO-NE thinks that it can hide from public engagement by hosting inaccessible meetings in boycotted locations, you are mistaken. While you hide in luxury hotels talking only to each other, we are taking action in our communities, building relationships and solidarity, making each other stronger, and continuing to organize in ways that will push for a swifter and more just grid transition.
Begin as you wish to continue, they say. We did. We started big! We showed up at 5 plants on the same day with the same message for each one: plant by plant we will end the practice of profiting from the fossil fuels that are causing such damage, plant by plant we will continue creating communities that care for one another and for our tender, beautiful earth. Join us as we climb on.
FERC’s response to our comments suggests that New England’s millions of residential ratepayers should have no effective way to participate in decisions about the billions of dollars taken from their utility bills every year to manage the grid and fund NEPOOL, a “stakeholder process” that keeps out the public. If the stakeholder process is the appropriate venue for comment, then we’ll need to create a stakeholder process that doesn’t lock us out.
As the lists of permit violations and indications of financial insolvency continue to grow, community pressure to shut down the coal plant also builds. The No Coal No Gas campaign has shown up at the plant, in the surrounding community, and at energy regulatory meetings, determined to shut down the polluting coal plant.
