Monday, February 8, 2010

Lesser Says Investigation Beginning as Search and Rescue Ends

State Representative Matt Lesser said Sunday night that "an alphabet soup" of federal agencies arrived on the scene of the Kleen Energy Plant explosion to begin work determining what went wrong.

Lesser mentioned ATF (Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms), OSHA, EPA and FEMA.

"There's still lots of activity at the site," Lesser said.  "Including the guys from the South Fire District who were first on the scene."

Lesser was at the site helping to deliver meals and water to first responders who were working into the night at the ruins of the nearly-completed power plant.

"The first thing we need to do is to make sure the families of those who didn't make it are all right, and to be sure we attend to the injured, and then there will be time for lots of questions," Lesser said.

Lesser, who sits on the Energy Committee in the legislature said that the loss, even temporary, of the energy that was to have been generated at the plant come this summer, will leave a large hole in electrical capacity on the grid for Southern New England.

"A 620 megawatt plant, is a huge, huge plant," Lesser said.  "I just attended a presentation of the Energy Advisory Board and the Kleen Energy plant coming on line played a major role in their projections for energy capacity.  Depending on what they find at the plant, this could be a major loss."

1 comment:

Madam Nirvana (Molly Salafia) said...

Not to say the police and fire workers, military do not put their lives on the line everyday; but I think this tragedy reminds us to include construction & trade workers in this idea as well.
Construction is a very,very dangerous profession and that is often over looked until a tragedy like this happens.
Accidents and deaths on worksites often times never make headlines. We should all remember that workers who put their lives on the line building & making safe for occupancy our hospitals, schools, and facilities we depend on, are heroes in their own right too.
Someone had to test that elevator you might ride in to get to your office everyday. Someone had to abate that building your children attend school in so it could stay in operation. And unfortunately for the families who lost people, someone had to test the lines at this plant to make sure it was safe for everyone in Middletown.