((PKG)) COAL TO SOLAR
((Banner: Coal to Solar))
((Reporter/Camera: Steve Baragona))
((Map: Holyoke, Massachusetts))
((NATS))
((Rosa Gonzalez, Neighbor to Neighbor))
My name is Rosa Gonzalez. I’ve been living here for 16 years. One year I was hospitalized four or five times and this affected me a lot and it’s not just me. The children of the community have a lot of asthma.
((Pop-Up Banner: Asthma rates in Holyoke are twice the national average. Gonzales joined advocates fighting to close the Mount Tom coal-fired power plant to clean the air and fight climate change))
((NATS))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
I used to come here in the middle of the night, two in the morning, three in the morning, whenever it was deemed necessary to come here and maintain the plant.
((NATS))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
My name is Clancy Kaye. I worked previously at the Mount Tom power plant. Coal and our station has not been very popular for a long period of time. From the mid-90s on, we’ve been, kind of, dealing with that sort of resistance and people trying to get the plant to close and shut down.
((Rosa Gonzalez, Neighbor to Neighbor))
We had been fighting to shut down the coal plant for a long time but we also worried a lot for the workers. It worried me a lot because I had been through the same thing myself. It’s not easy to have a firm job and then suddenly be up in the air. It’s not good. That’s why we fought for the (generous severance) package.
((NATS))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
They want you to have a soft landing and a just transition, but yet, they have the saw in their hand that is cutting the branch you’re sitting on.
((NATS))
((Pop-Up Banner: Expensive environmental upgrades, plunging natural gas prices and neighborhood opposition doomed Mount Tom….November 2018))
((NATS))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
There’s the group that just said, OK, I’m retiring, I’m not dong anything else. And, I guess, you know for the most part they’re doing OK. Anybody who has gone out into the workforce again is not doing nearly as well as they used to. It’s been really a very rude awakening for many people who used to make some very good money, and some very highly skilled people.
((NATS))
((Rosa Gonzalez, Neighbor to Neighbor))
When I found out about the solar panels, I was surprised, but really happy.
((Pop-Up Banner: As Massachusetts moves away from coal, jobs in clean energy are growing fast))
((NATS))
((Ed Martell, Licensed Electrician))
I thought it was going to be a flash in the pan a couple years ago. I’ve seen solar just keep going and going and going, maybe six-seven years.
((NATS))
((Ed Martell, Licensed Electrician))
If it wasn’t for solar, there would have been a two-year period when I wouldn’t have worked at all. So yes, it’s very good for us.
((NATS))
How many of you have been on solar before? So, pretty much every single person in the room except for one has benefitted from solar.
((NATS))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
For me, I’ve always been a guy that has believed in having some sort of exit strategy. OK, I sometimes call it Plan B or Plan C.
((NATS))
((Pop-Up Banner: Clancy Kaye started a pool installation company))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
What we’re going to do is we’re going to actually have a pool park, offices and meeting areas, design showroom.
((NATS))
((Clancy Kaye, Former Mount Tom Worker))
Even when I worked here, I always knew that probably in some way, right, we were certainly not benefitting the environment. We used to say coal is king, King Coal, but, you know, it’s just not that way any more. And I think that, all in all, I think that is probably a good thing.
((NATS))
