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     Mission Hill Power Plant, Sun Day Celebration, The Jazz Workshop And Paul?s
    Mall Closing, Louis Lyons
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Good Afternoon man. Welcome to GBH journal and to the month of May I go get me. On today's program we'll have a report on Iran's proposed power plant of Mission Hill. But here in his view with a coordinator of a day celebrating the sun. And a feature on the closing of one of the few remaining jazz clubs in Boston and the close their lives will comment on the news. One of the technological ironies of our era is that our need for energy is constantly growing. However our ability to develop power sources which do not have serious side effects seem almost not to exist at the present time. Harvard University is constructing a power plant in the Mission Hill section of Boston. The plant would use diesel fuel to produce electricity for the hospitals and housing development nearby. The problem is the high level of nitrogen dioxide is
produced at the same time. There is also an irony in that the lay person invariably gets buried under the facts and figures used to dispute either side of the situation. With more information about the hybrid situation is this report Alexandra. Seven years ago Harvard University decided to build a power plant to serve several hospitals in the Mission Hill section of Boston. The plan would rely on a novel energy technique known as code generation diesel fuel wood powered generators to produce electricity and part of the resulting heat would be used to make steam and chilled water. Harvard said then that the plant was needed to replace an existing 70 year old steam and chilled water plant. It still says that now the university also contends that it will save money by putting the plan into operation. Harvard chief of external projects and Lassman explains why the university wants to build the plant where it does. The real reason why you can't do this elsewhere is you can't put steam into a water plant elsewhere. You have to have us do you material water when it close to where the people are that you're
going to heat and cool because the inefficiencies and the line losses from steam into a water are such that if you go over any very great distance you are wasting fuel. The issue of electricity is a very simple issue and it's an economic issue and the economics of the plant says that the institutions can save about two million dollars a year somewhere between two and three dollars a day on the patient bed rate. If they make their own electricity instead of buying it there's another issue to consider namely pollution. The diesel engines from the medical area total energy plant as it is known or made tap would produce products amounts of one pollutant nitrogen dioxide by some accounts may tap would produce as much energy to in one year as is currently emitted by all the cars in Boston over the same time period. The short term nitrogen dioxide levels in the air with made up in operation would exceed safe levels set by the World Health Organization and by the state's Department of Public Health Concern over pollution has prompted some citizens into areas Mission Hill and Brookline to band together as the
know may tap coalition which seeks to stop the construction of the plant. DR JOHN her most a member of the coalition outlines the group's concerns. We wrote about is. It's not necessarily what the effects may be on a healthy 25 year old man without REM disease but what might be the effects on people who are more susceptible to respiratory illness particular children the elderly and those with with diseases similar to asthma. The thing that makes this plant so horrendous to us is that SEC seven hospitals that it's serving have these type of people coming to visit them all the time and wonder are there real health effects are there not. But I think like seniors rive the air quality in a hospital area should be above reproach her most cited a study showing adverse effects on people with asthma after they were exposed to levels of ano to comparable to those with may tap an operation.
And he also said that Brookline has large numbers of old people and children both of whom are particularly sensitive to airborne pollutants. Harvard's ed last many claims that the university has not neglected the citizens of the neighborhoods. Well my comment on the rights of the people of course is that all people are entitled to be protected from anything that is harmful. My comment is that nobody has shown that there is a harm here there is an assertion not a showing Lassman discounted the study cited by Dr Hermas and brought forth some evidence of his own which he said showed that pollutants from a tap were not a danger to public health. However the state's Department of Environmental Quality Engineering which has a say in the plant's approval recently disapprove the pollution causing diesel fortune of the plant on environmental grounds. William pope the chief legal counsel. We're going to be a number of. Experts in the fuel and solicited opinion. And they.
Said what they said at the level that. The level that would be created by the Maytag plant would be the decision leaves the future of made to happen question. If the state attorney general's office disapproves the DI Kuei decision Harvard has the green light to future construction the university can also get the go ahead if the Environmental Protection Agency sets an hourly standard high enough to allow me to have to operate. However the DE QUE we may try to supersede an unfavorable EPA decision and community groups have initiated lawsuits to block construction of the plant. Meanwhile Harvard is still building may tap without the generators. Let's go back now to those issues of cost savings and the need for power. There is a need for steam and chilled water in the medical area. However no Maytag says that that need to be filled with a smaller plant that would not use diesel engines. The group also disputes Harvard's cost savings claims.
Dr. John Hermanus those figures were proposed when this plant was to cost 30 to 40 million dollars. Now what it's cost is at least one hundred ten million maybe close to a hundred twenty hundred thirty million dollars. So Ron I personally very seriously doubt whether there will be this rate. Secondly even with the initial projections. Independent Consultants and did not agree with the Harvard economic projections and said that the savings would not be anywhere near that rate. It's been our contention and that of Boston Edison all along that electricity could very easily be provided by the present utility companies so we don't feel that there is either a desperate or critical need for electricity generated by Harvard themselves. With all these questions over the mission help plant you might expect that Harvard has had to face a great deal of
community opposition. How is the university handled community relations and Lassman. If you ask me subjectively we have met on every occasion we have been requested to with any and every community group that has asked us to meet with them. We have presented any community group that has asked us to with any factual information they have asked us to present. But Dr. her most and know me tap tell a very different story there and I am going to University of Oregon corporation. It's been I guess that's been the most disheartening thing we have attempted to make contacts through the dean's office. People in mission here have been trying to do this for years that they put towards the public in this issue. To me has been very bad. One of power one of money one of influence and what makes us very very angry.
To be sure there are some sizable benefits from a tap. Harvard will be giving the city of Boston a million and a half dollars on in lieu tax payments for the plan that may help will provide electricity to a nearby low and moderate income housing development. In addition the plant means several hundred construction jobs while it is being built. However there are still many unanswered questions around the medical area total energy plant and around Harvard's handling of those questions. The attorney general's adjudicatory hearing on the decision will be held in mid May. If you are interested in finding out more about may tap you were invited to attend that hearing. Local papers may carry the date and time. You could also call the groups involved in the May tap dispute for GBH Journal. This is Alex Eldridge. Now that the month of May has arrived many of us are hopeful that the sun is going to stay for a while.
In some ways we are a nation of sun worshippers but not sun appreciators and we enjoy a good sunny weather but too often we take the power of the sun for granted. Well a day has been set aside across the country to celebrate the sun this. Wednesday May 3rd has been designated as Sunday rather as sunny day here in Massachusetts cities and towns throughout the state have planned activities aimed at informing the public of the many uses of solar energy. John Quinlan is a coordinator of Sunday in the state. She recently spoke with reporter Lesley clever. Sunday is an international celebration of solar energy that we hope will raise the public's consciousness about solar energy. How did it get started. It's background. The idea for Sunday was conceived mise some of the some of the same people who organized Earth Day in 1970. They put together the idea nationally and in
Massachusetts a coalition of people decided to start getting things going here. So it's a very representative group in Massachusetts business labor community environmental and other groups. How are you funded. We are funded through the Ryan E of sources private contributions business foundation and individual contributions. Son do you some a third. What types of things do you have planned to celebrate Sunday. And thus far over 150 activities in 80 different cities and towns across Massachusetts plant as well as the activities in the 50 other states all over the country. In Boston probably our biggest activity will be a big summer festival on the Boston Common. And we will have exhibits solar products so someone can come up and say you know I want to Sauron collector works. We will have a performing artist there
all day and speakers including going to caucus Center broke when this who was the founder of Earth Day and the founder of Sunday. And others including Bill me from the Red Sox and Kate Taylor sing so it should be it should be fun and it should be educational. You mentioned something about solar products what type of products are you talking about. When the collectors that someone would buy to put on their home to heat their hot water were to heat their home. We want to show those types of things so that they're somewhat demystified for people so that people aren't saying oh well you know solar is OK for 50 years from now. We want people to see it's not such a big deal. So basically your function is to educate people as to the use of the solar energy. Right now that's the basic purpose of Sunday. To do that and to create
a political constituency for solar because first of all people have to be educated about solar energy. I realize some of it's advantages why it's important that we make those choices and then organize for it you know pressure and they are their representatives in the Congress to allocate more money in the solar budget to give tax breaks to people who install solar on their homes. So those are really the two basic functions. What's going to happen to Sunday after me very well. Officially as an office we will probably be around for a few weeks and close up. However that does not mean that after May 3rd Sundays over really May 3rd just beginning. We're just kicking things off on May 3rd and we hope that everyone who was involved in some sort of activity will think about things and get things going after that. How much governmental support are you getting. Well we have a small
grant from the Department of Energy which is less than one tenth of our total budget. And we are getting support in terms of services from the state Office of Consumer Affairs. Some states saw action office when the in the state Office of Consumer Affairs. So they are very interested in Sunday and really were in initial point in getting the thing going in Massachusetts. While those who like to hear music performed in the small intimate atmosphere of clubs they may
be numbered or those clubs cease to exist. The limited seating capacity as I said places coupled with the rising cost of hiring artists to perform has made the feasibility as art clubs virtually nonexistent. The situation in Boston has recently taken a turn for the worst. The Jazz Workshop complex shut its doors so weeks ago a victim of rising prices. It was close to Davis with this report. We have a place we have come and. That was jazz vibraphone Jackson one of the original members of the Modern Jazz Quartet before him. You heard the voice of B.B. King Blues singer and guitarist. Both
musicians were commenting on the closing of the Jazz Workshop and Pauls mall a two room club. It closed April 9th after 15 years of booking noted jazz and popular artists in Boston without the club and especially without the workshops. It's likely that the performers who play there will only be available in large concert performances. And since is not that much of a draw for some of the jazz artists many of them will have no outlet here and that means less jazz for Boston. Fred Taylor owner of the Jazz Workshop and Pauls mall thinks there are two reasons that club performances are special. It's more intimate. Second we in the club as a rule which means he doesn't have to be so uptight about his repertoire. He can afford to experiment with some new material. He can try things out. That's part of the fun of a much wider
experimentation off the way things happen. Guest communication with reaction. It's just a different experience and performance. For the most part preferred as a performer. Jackson feels it's important to play music everywhere but his preference is to play in a club better because to me people you can get. People because they don't want to get up. The.
Other clubs around the country are also in shock. Last month the show lounge in Baltimore closed. And there are other clubs feeling the pinch too. The reason the Jazz Workshop halls mall complex closed is money. Fred Taylor says it would take the club 600 for his operation to break even. 200 more than he had in the workshop and Paul's combined. And he's been unable to find space that's large enough elsewhere. It's escalating cost of talent to push up the cost of operating was record companies hyping artists to rise very quickly to the top of the pay scale.
There is no middle. It's either struggling or it's very high you know. So clubs have to operate you know all of a sudden have a lack of talent in the case of the jazz works take a few years ago was Herbie Hancock's career. George Burns you know Stanley turned these people suddenly. I mean congratulations to the financial recording so much so that the club world and we you know we were boys with rock. The concert. Coming and
they just don't have many more. They go all the way to the club that has the capability of producing a concert gross. So that was Fred Taylor owner of the recently closed jazz workshop in Boston. B.B. King Blues artist that he's part of the cycle of inflation in the cost of talent cost goes up. Well it's just like anything else. I work because just like anything else like we have to pay more. We have families. To get away.
That was B.B. King. M. Jackson Fred Taylor are both worried about what will happen to the jazz scene in Boston. The popular mainstream performers will probably not have trouble playing here in concert. The responsibility of the government to assure the Jazz survives in the audience said when asked how he felt about the club. Jazz will survive. With. May 1 may open feeling about as cold and windy as April it felt like. But the meteorologist says April wasn't as cold as people thought it was an average Jaipur for temperatures by his figures. But my has a lot of
catching up to do in rainfall for its Mayflowers paper produced only half the normal rainfall that came in. There's been no rain in the last 10 days without rain. Dandelions are opening their yellow heads in the grass but most flowers are waiting for a good. Supreme Court today gave a strong endorsement of First Amendment press freedom. You're not a mostly striking down conviction a genuine newspaper for reporting on secret investigation of a judge. Jenny is one of only two states with criminal penalties for disclosing such proceedings which alternative to impeachment. Israel's prime minister begging arrives as the Israeli protest against planes for Saudi Arabia becomes an issue between Congress and the president Secretary Vance and Israel's Diana failed to come to terms about it and yesterday made their disagreement public resistance in Congress to President Carter's package deal of planes
for Israel Saudi Arabia and Egypt has reportedly caused the administration to seek a compromise with more planes for Israel and fewer for the Saudis. Then the president submitted to Congress Friday. The issue with Congress has become serious enough that secretary of state appeared on television in debate with Diane over the plains yesterday. Events made the same point the president had last week. They object in linking the plane's sails is to assure the United States an effective role in the peace process we must have the confidence of each of the parties events said Diane flatly disagreed. The way we see it he said the Saudis and Egyptians one day might use the American weaponry against Israel. Now in came here I had a bag and set up a program to begin discussions in Washington. Now Yanna succeeded in voting the main issue from the Israeli settlements to the planes with the Saudis on the settlements again was in countering opposition in Israel and protest from
up from prominent American Jews who urged that the peace is more important to Israel than expanded territory. But on the plains question Meghan's American Jewish critics are equally opposed to plane sales to this Saudis. It's on the planes that the Congress has a veto division over the plains overshadows the settlements issue in Washington as begging arrives nominally for observance as of the 30th anniversary of Israeli independence. Skeptics about the Rhodesian settlement who include Secretary vents and Ambassador Young have their. I told you so innings now as Ian Smith's transition appears to have come unstuck in its first weeks. The black coal minister of justice was dismissed for pressing for more justice for blacks and now the leading black political organization in Rhodesia demands his reinstatement. I'm leaving his post minister Byron Hove also left the country with a final statement that the Ian Smith programme is a cheat on the black majority.
He returns to his London law practice sounding about like the guerrilla leader. Come on how was dismissed by the Executive Council for refusing to retract statements that the police and justice departments must have more blacks for a fair balance. Bishop Moser one of the Executive Council says he had no part in firing and calls it a breach of the agreement with Smith. He's called a meeting of his party executive to decide whether to continue its government participation. The whole case demonstrates the white dominance of key government departments that the American and British governments found unacceptable. The smith government has ordered the only black daily and not to print anything about the HOV affair. Misha faces the problem whether to patch things up with the Internet or pull out of the Executive Council and let the translation fall apart. Richard Nixon's memoirs commanded the top of the front page of The Boston Globe this morning
after starting yesterday with two thirds of the top of the page driving most top news inside the New York Times started them off with nearly as much front page space yesterday but drops them down to the lower left part of the page today. Both days they run over to an entire inside page in both papers. The Globe felt a need to explain under a headline Why is publishing Nixon's memoirs. We're doing this so that when ship because this newspaper is dedicated to the principle of offering readers diverse opinions balance in the news and access to the news columns right or wrong they are a major slice of history. Another reason I suppose is from a sense of old fashioned fair play that never endorsed Nixon for president and vigorously opposed his conduct of affairs almost from the day he took office. Good journalism does not mean publishing only those things you agree with. The Times has published no explanation but both yesterday and today the Times carried a story about the memoir summarizing their content. The Times today
also carries a story on the background of the memoirs. That publication is a book is scheduled for May 15 and Dunlap and 1995 with a deluxe edition at fifty dollars and one leather bound and autographed at 250 Doubleday turned it down as they did the Haldeman book and all the others by Watergate characters. The Times reports a bookstore proprietor in Westport Connecticut is quoted that not one copy will be audited sold in our store unless he's willing to sign a statement in advance giving all his proceeds to his victims or charity. But The Times says most bookstores would carry it. For 30 days in
a day.
Series
WGBH Journal
Episode
Mission Hill Power Plant, Sun Day Celebration, The Jazz Workshop And Paul?s Mall Closing, Louis Lyons
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-86nzsq1p
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Description
Series Description
WGBH Journal is a magazine featuring segments on local news and current events.
Description
Engineer: Moran
Broadcast Date
1978-05-01
Created Date
1978-05-01
Genres
News
Magazine
Topics
News
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:30:50
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Credits
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
Production Unit: Radio
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: 78-0160-05-01-001 (WGBH Item ID)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Generation: Master
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Citations
Chicago: “WGBH Journal; Mission Hill Power Plant, Sun Day Celebration, The Jazz Workshop And Paul?s Mall Closing, Louis Lyons ,” 1978-05-01, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-86nzsq1p.
MLA: “WGBH Journal; Mission Hill Power Plant, Sun Day Celebration, The Jazz Workshop And Paul?s Mall Closing, Louis Lyons .” 1978-05-01. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-86nzsq1p>.
APA: WGBH Journal; Mission Hill Power Plant, Sun Day Celebration, The Jazz Workshop And Paul?s Mall Closing, Louis Lyons . Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-86nzsq1p