PATRICIA HADDAD
State Representative in the 5th District, Massachusetts House of Representatives
Pat loves the irony. Today she is known as the person who brought offshore wind to Massachusetts. For years she fought to keep two coal-powered electrical plants operating in Somerset. She lived less than a mile from one of the plants. She experienced “inconveniences” like never hanging her clothes out to dry because they would be covered in soot. But she focused on the money that the plants brought to the region. Those funds built the town and provided new schools and a full-time fire department.
“[The chairman of energy and utilities] would lovingly call me the queen of coal because I was doing everything in my power to keep those power plants open.”
Environmentalists targeted Brayton Point Power Plant. The water the plant dumped into the bay was killing marine life. The owners of the plant had to spend a fortune to comply with EPA regulations. They spent $600 million to build two 500-foot cooling towers and another $600 million on other upgrades. But just a few years after spending that money, the low cost of natural gas put the coal plant out of business.
Pat was desperate to find something to replace the Brayton Point Power Plant. Not only the bread and butter for her town, but the plant had also been the largest energy generator in the state. Massachusetts was considering purchasing hydropower from Canada to meet its energy needs and greenhouse gas reduction goals. Pat wanted energy production to remain in her district. Offshore wind was the perfect fit. She wrote a bill that demanded a set amount of energy from wind and other renewables. Once signed, the bill opened up incentives for wind development. Then Pat focused on bringing large international offshore wind development companies to Brayton Point.
“The opportunity to revitalize and to grow an area of our commonwealth had to be paramount for me. If you live here you see that we still have a higher unemployment rate than many places. You still see that the college attainment is not what it is in other places.”
“So what the wind industry is for me is a renaissance, an opportunity.”
Pat shows us how policy can drive the changes that will give us a green economy, and how accepting change can open the door to vast, new opportunities.
“As I went forward on my journey to diversify our power sources I think there came a time when it was so clear that change not only was inevitable but could be good.”