Oakham Select Board Hears Strategy from Westfield Officials Who Drove Battery Company Out

OAKHAM — May 12, 2025 — Oakham Select Board hosts Westfield officials who drove a lithium battery company out of their city. The board convened a special May 12 session for more than 100 residents to hear from Westfield City Councilor Dan Alley and West Springfield City Councilor Fred Connor, who organized a successful campaign that forced Jupiter Power — backed by BlackRock's roughly $15 trillion investment portfolio — to withdraw a 200-megawatt battery storage application in April 2025, at a total campaign cost of approximately $3,000. Oakham is fighting a similar proposal: Rhineland Energy Morega Storage filed April 1 with the state Energy Facility Siting Board to build a 180-megawatt facility of 296 battery units at 358 Colebrook Road, in a valley draining to the Ware River watershed and the Quabbin and Wachusett reservoirs. Alley urged Oakham to immediately form a 10-member-minimum citizen intervener group, saturate high-traffic corridors with yard signs, and pressure state legislators to sign onto three pending House bills calling for a statewide siting moratorium, buffer zones, and mandatory local engagement. Environmental scientist Mark Maribel, Common City Road, told the crowd: "We sit direct center or equidistant between the Quabbin Reservoir and the Wachusett Reservoir, and we're a mile to the Ware River" — arguing the watershed connection to Boston's drinking supply is Oakham's strongest legal and political argument.