On March 10^th, a large contingent of Cape Codders gathered at the State House to provide testimony to Governor Patrick and to urge him to support the recent Cape-wide referendum campaign spearheaded by the Cape Downwinders (CDW).

Last year, all 15 towns on the Cape voted to support a nonbinding ballot question or a town meeting warrant article that gave citizens the opportunity to vote yes on a statement asking Governor Patrick to call upon the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to shut down Pilgrim based on safety concerns. The people had spoken.

In the months following the final vote in Barnstable, Governor Patrick had yet to respond to the Cape-wide request, despite multiple appeals by CDW.

So the group headed to the State House earlier this month to “Wake up the Governor” and finally get the response they deserved. After 2.5 hours of providing testimony in the morning (which the Governor did not attend), the group headed to his office to request a response. The group occupied his office for a few hours, until they finally got a brief meeting and the response they were looking for. Governor Patrick agreed to ask the NRC to shut down Pilgrim!

Diane Turco, co-founder of CDW, briefly met with the Governor and later told the Boston Globe, “He’s going to call for the NRC to shut down the reactor because public safety cannot be assured. That’s what this says and that’s what he said he would send to the NRC.”

One week later, on March 17^th, the Governor followed through on his promise and sent a letter to the NRC Chairman on behalf of Cape Cod residents, expressing concern about the Pilgrim plant. In his letter the Governor states, “I urge you to require that the plant be decommissioned should Pilgrim not comply with all health, safety and environmental regulations.”

Read the full letter →

Watch this fantastic 8 min. video of the day’s events – including a portion of the testimonies and CDW”s time spent in the Governor’s office. Great job CDW!