Welcome Newly Elected Green-Rainbow Officers

Mike Pascucci, Male Co-Chair
Maureen Doyle, Secretary
Brian Cady, Treasurer

Zachary Kontra, Membership Director
Eileen Wheeler Sheehan, Communications Director
Maureen Doyle, Female GPUS Delegate
Danny Factor and Mike Pascucci, Male or Nonbinary GPUS Delegate

Note: All votes were cast and counted under the Ranked Choice Voting rules. The 2023 Green-Rainbow annual state convention election results can be viewed here.

Opportunities to Serve

If you are interested in making a real contribution to our Party in the upcoming election year, please click on the link to our bylaws where you will find descriptions of the duties of the open GRP offices that are listed below. Then, please join us at the next State Committee meeting on July 8th to run for office or to nominate a fellow Green-Rainbow Party member.

Available Offices

Female Co-Chair
Fundraising Director
Female GPUS Delegate
Female GPUS Alternate
Non-Binary or Male GPUS Alternate (2)

The Greens are Baaack

We never went away, but for the first time in three years, we held a face-to-face annual convention. It was gratifying to be back at the First Unitarian Church in Worcester, MA, where Dr. Jill Stein inspired us with a Keynote address. We were further inspired by labor and healthcare activists, and by environmental workshops. Then we conducted our annual party business. Due to time restraints, a full report will be included in our July newsletter. Stay tuned.

Show your colors in June! Support Gay Pride Month

Pride Month is here!  It began June first.  The GRP is proud to be an ally of the LGBTQ+ community and a strong advocate for gay rights here in Massachusetts. In honor of this commitment, the GRP will be tabling at several Pride events across the state to show our support for the community, especially at a time when anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is spreading and becoming mainstream by Republican Lawmakers giving the green light for other bigoted groups around the country to be open with their hate.

Join us at:

Fall River June 4th-- noon to 4 PM
Gates of the City, Ponta Delgado BLVD, Fall River MA
For details, contact Eileen at [email protected]

Berkshire Pride Sat Jun 3rd--11:00 am
The Common Park, 100 First Street, Pittsfield MA
For details, contact Mike Lavery at [email protected]

Greens Fight Dangerous Power Plants

Lexington's Tracer Lane Solar Project

Two prominent Lexington Greens joined forces with the group Healthy Lexington, Healthy Planet in My to publicly oppose the environmentally destructive Tracer Lane Solar Project. The plan of a private developer would remove trees to create a massive array of solar panels, just 400 feet from the Cambridge Reservoir., a major drinking water supply. Residents would be exposed to polluting runoff commonly associated with deforestation and large solar installations. Jill Stein and John Andrews wrote in the Lexington Sun that "solar" belongs "on roofs and in parking lots – not in scarce forests and open space."

The Dark Side of First Light's Dam Proposal

Rick Purcell and I attended a rally opposing the 50-year extension of the operating license of the First Light energy-pumped storage facility in Northfield on the Connecticut River.

The environmental impacts of the power station remain inadequate. While there I readily detected an additional environmental issue so far not accounted for, but which is only now being added to the review process for licensing dams.

First Light fills a mountaintop reservoir with water pumped from the Connecticut River by electricity generated from fossil fuels, and they do this every day. Then they produce electricity when the price is high in the evening hours by letting the water run down again through energy-generating turbines and they do this every day. The sheer size of their reservoir means that under low flow conditions under cover of darkness, they may suck dry a three-mile stretch of the river and then refill it the next evening. They suck up all the biomass, algae, leaves, fish, and poop from upstream cattle with the water, killing every organism with the turbine blades and pressure changes in their plumbing. This stews for 18 hours in their upper pool where the mud must be putrid indeed. Then the dead water rushes downhill to generate electricity before exiting back into the Connecticut River.

The Connecticut River Conservancy offers a clear and compelling analysis of the environmental harm this power station has caused, so far, and will only accelerate the harm in the future.

Many of the people at the Rally on the 28th were Nipmuc Native Americans. The Nipmuc is the only Massachusetts-recognized Indian tribe, although they don't have federal tribal status. They operate as a 501c3. They gave a good speech about their past history with Connecticut and what the land means to them, and how the First Light facility is a desecration of their values. Those values are similar to the Shintoism of Japan and indigenous peoples around the world who respect what supports human life.

In my experience pumped storage is a bogus approach to de-carbonizing electricity which can be applied only on a minor scale in Massachusetts topography and which consumes energy produced by carbon-intensive means (in inevitable mechanical losses.) The company is owned by Canadian pension funds and is registered in the State of Delaware. They make money by playing price differentials in the Massachusetts energy markets, then send your money and mine to Canada.

This is a clear and obvious violation of the environmental stance of the Green Party. It deserves far more attention than we've been giving it.

Frank Jeffers

Letter from our Secretary, Maureen E. Doyle

Thank you for electing me your Secretary at our May 6th Green-Rainbow convention. I would like to expand a bit on my acceptance remarks.

After thanking John Andrews and MK Merelice (now deceased) for their GRP Secretary's handbook and for the help and advice given to me by John Andrews and Josh Gerloff (both past secretaries) and oodles of help from Brian, Lois, and Eileen, I want to build on the foundation of record-keeping that has happened as the GRP has evolved (since the early 2000s). When I worked on my town's bicentennial, I realized how important it is to keep accurate and well-maintained documents for the future.

Having a "10-key Value" plank against corporations, I am encouraging the GRP to use software such as Etherpad (which is independent and open source). I like how the previous secretary John Andrews did his minutes on one link that was added to each State Committee meeting. It was accessible to anyone with an email address. This leads to minimal time searching for minutes to approve, post, or for reference.

As a member of the National Committee, I like to bring information from the national GPUS to our state affiliate GRP. My other MA National Committee members can contribute info as well, to make us all better informed about the Green Party.

I would love to begin a book club. One emerged out of the GPUS Annual National Meeting last year and I think that is a great way to share ideas/thoughts.

If you have suggestions for me (or voted NOTA or for another person), please tell me what I can do better or differently. (doylemaureen3@gmail or 508-764-8042). Or, let me know if you share an interest in a book or media club.

Looking forward to a peaceful, ecologically sound 2023-2024!
Maureen E. Doyle