In June, I wrote about the paradox playing out in the Coastal Resources Management Council hearing room, where longtime environmental advocates found themselves justifying the mechanical destruction of the Sakonnet River’s benthic habitat in the name of environmental protection.
That piece focused on what was directly in front of us: a seafloor about to be torn up, no remediation bond, no meaningful accountability, and a project that delivers not a single watt of power to the state absorbing all the risk.
Since then, I went back and did something CRMC’s four-hour hearing didn’t leave room for. I spent time in the actual scientific literature on electromagnetic field effects from submarine cables — the hazard buried in stipulation after stipulation of the assent, promised away with a line item labeled “EMF monitoring.”…