Bedford, MA: Sign Our Letter

Dear Select Board:

This letter is submitted on behalf of the undersigned, members and allies of Mothers Out Front in Bedford. Mothers Out Front is an organization of mothers and others driven by our obligation to ensure a livable climate for all children.

We know that you will soon select the new options for residents for the next Community Choice Aggregation contract. We urge you to employ the powerful tool in Bedford’s climate tool box as noted in our Net Zero Plan: choosing 100% New England Class 1 renewable content as the default option.

The message in the 2018 IPCC Report on Global Warming was clear: “…limiting global warming to 1.5°C (above pre-industrial levels) will require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.” Our own state legislature just passed a landmark climate bill that recognizes this urgency by establishing new benchmarks for emission reductions across all sectors. We now have less than 8 years to reduce GHG emissions globally by at least 50% in order to have a chance to limit global warming to 1.5°C. Towns like ours, with the capacity to effect a transition, must do more and do it faster.

COVID-19 has resulted in financial hardship and uncertainty for some Bedford residents, but this is not a reason to weaken our commitment to a rapid transition to clean energy. The Bedford CCA program will give these and all residents the choice to opt down or opt out for economic or other reasons. Clear messaging from Bedford about fuel assistance programs can also help address economic hardship concerns. Furthermore, the modest increase in cost of 100% renewable electricity can frequently be mitigated through reducing electricity use and by updating and insulating homes through MassSave programs. This, too, is an important part of the implementation of our Net Zero Plan.

We are a privileged community. The damage caused by our continued reliance on fossil fuels will have costs that far outweigh the added cost that 100% renewable electricity will cost us each month. The money we might spend on a movie or a pizza each month, can instead be used to make the promise of climate action a reality, before it is too late.

Our continued use of fossil fuels has implications not only for the citizens of Bedford and our children, but for other communities as well. The greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, compressor stations and leaky pipelines are hazardous to the health of the people in environmental justice communities where these facilities are often located. In addition, the fracked gas that provides much of our electricity is polluting the water and air of fellow Americans in Pennsylvania and other states, ruining their health and often destroying their lives.

Bedford’s new CCA contract offers us an excellent opportunity to heed the message of the IPCC and the recently enacted Climate Bill. It builds upon our own Net Zero plan. Using our Community Choice Aggregation tool to maximum effect now will help to make the “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” a reality. We hope that you, the Bedford Select Board, will fulfill the promise of the town’s Net Zero Plan by negotiating a 100% renewable default in the next Bedford CCA contract. Future generations are depending upon us…and we in turn are depending upon you to help us do the right thing.

On behalf of the signers below, we thank you for your careful consideration of our request.

Respectfully,

Bedford Mothers Out Front