Getting publicity

[Charlene Smith]

This is a national issue and the reason this is not getting publicity is because everyone is talking on email.

Is it possible to have some sort of demonstration at the Democratic Convention tomorrow? That would definitely get the sort of media publicity needed (my background is as a journalist, so I know what we look for) and apply pressure to the Governor. It's a hot topic at the moment with the Quebec disaster.

I unfortunately am a delegate tomorrow so can't demonstrate, although I will raise it at the convention.

[Alexandra Kepner]

Hi, Charlene--

Actually, the Chelsea Creek Action Committee has been doing much more that talking on e-mail.  They've been working extremely hard for the past two years drafting and lobbying for the amendment that Gov. Patrick just vetoed.  They have actively reached out to all sorts of media over this period of time, and there's been some very good local coverage (e.g., Saul Tannenbaum at CCTV, Marc Levy at CambridgeDay.com, Jeremy Fox at the Boston Globe, Steve Annear at Boston Magazine, and Erin Baldasari at the Cambridge Chronicle).  This Google group was set up very late in the game, mainly as a way for us to share this information with each other and organize ourselves for actions that could help get the ethanol amendment passed into law.

If you have good contacts on the national media stage, I'm sure we'd all greatly appreciate any outreach you could make on behalf of this issue.  If people are able to go demonstrate at tomorrow's convention in Lowell, it sounds like it would be a productive thing to do.

Thanks,

--Alix

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[John Walkey]

Hey there,

Ditto all that Alix said and a few things more.  You are correct, this IS a national issue.  For us in the Chelsea Creek Action Group, we are focused on the immediate task of stopping this project, but ultimately things have to change further up the food chain.  In the most macro sense "disincentivizing" petroleum use is important in order to squash things like the increased use of fracking, rail transport of petroleum and exploitation of tar sands, etc...  This entails changing a lot of our economy and society, so a real macro- kind of struggle, but one that is obviously very active right now across North America.

At a very large, national scale, but not un-doable is the issue of the ethanol mandate.  There is growing opposition to the use of food for fuel (biofuels) from not only environmentalists but industry as well.  Removing the completely unneeded federal mandate to have ethanol in our gasoline would get rid of this project that we are currently fighting. 

So I'd say there is a concentrated local struggle that is quite active at the moment and definitely on the politicians' radar screen.  But there is also a larger struggle that might be a bit beyond what the Chelsea Creek Action Group or indeed any one coalition of community groups can really tackle alone and that's the ethanol issue.  It would be great to see some folks who have the capacity come together and push on our Federal delegation to speak out on this.  It's happening around the country and Massachusetts ought to start playing a role in that.  Groups like 350.org, the Sierra Club and even some unusual bedfellows (marine boating industry hates having ethanol in gas as it fouls their motors, ranchers and hog farmers hate it as it drives up the cost of feed. etc.) are all prime candidates to get behind this rock and push. 

I can only speak for myself but the effort to get rid of the ethanol mandate is one on which I wouldn't mind seeing more activity.  I think it's something that more folks who might not be directly affected by this particular rail project might be interested in as well.  If we can link our current, local fight to the larger battle going on nationally we might be able to leverage a bit more muscle.  What do people think?

~John Walkey

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Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 16:13:00 -0400
From: alix....@gmail.com
To: charlenes...@gmail.com
CC: eth...@chelseacreekaction.org; stop-ethanol-train...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [Ethanol] [stop-ethanol-trains-in-greater-boston] Getting publicity

_______________________________________________ Ethanol mailing list Eth...@chelseacreekaction.org http://chelseacreekaction.org/mailman/listinfo/ethanol_chelseacreekaction.org 

[Ellin Reisner]

I agree with John about this being a much larger issue that could attract diverse interests.  Right now we must focus on the local situation because the larger issues are going to require strategic focus and coalition building and that will take much longer.

Ellin

--
Ellin Reisner, Ph.D.
reisn...@gmail.com

[Charlene Smith]

Yes, but I do PR & I am prepared to help, but it seems there is a focus on being needlessly defensive - because I am on your side! -  instead of addressing the suggestions.

No matter.

Charlene Smith 

Cambridge, MA - United States of America

Landline  (00-1) 617-714-3414

 

 

On Fri, Jul 12, 2013 at 4:36 PM, John Walkey <jawa...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Alexandra Kepner]

Yes, Anjie--we were all hoping for that outcome.  Today is a frustrating day, seeing the Governor veto the legislation that CCAC, NOAH & Staci worked so hard to create and support.  We are all feeling disappointed in the outcome, and nerves are somewhat raw.  Sorry if that comes off as sounding defensive.

--Alix

On Friday, July 12, 2013, Anjie wrote:

again, i agree with john/alix/et al.

personally, i was hoping our amendment would be turned into law & be an asset for any community nationwide to use as a model, or in any capacity to further their own community's fight vs ethanol.

tt4n-anjie