Protesters disrupt energy guru’s speech

Oppose diesel plant proposed for Chelsea

Protesters burst into the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall yesterday afternoon, interrupting a speech by Cape Wind President Jim Gordon outlining his company’s proposed project in Nantucket Sound, part of an international energy conference that began today at Boston University.

About 30 protesters, carrying homemade signs and shouting, “No power plant in Chelsea,” denounced a proposal by Gordon’s company, Energy Management, Inc., to build a diesel-burning power plant in Chelsea. Police officers and conference organizers escorted the protesters out of the GSU.

According to Gordon, the proposed plant would be located in a Massport-designated industrial area and would use ultra-low sulfur fuel, the cleanest distillate fuel available. He said the plant would operate 400 to 500 hours a year.

Gordon, a graduate of the former BU School of Public Communications, was at BU for the 2006 World Oil Conference, co-sponsored by BU’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.

Daily Free Press (Boston University)