Harvard Ecologists Attack Boston Edison at Hearings

The Harvard Ecology Coalition participated in a Department of Public Utilities hearing yesterday in an attempt to prevent Boston Edison from raising its rates to pay for less polluting fuel.

Boston Edison wants a rate increase in the event that the Department of Public Health requires full-time use of less polluting one per cent sulphurfuel. Present fuel is 2.3 per cent sulphur and considerably cheaper.

Double Hurt

"The consumer is hurt by pollution," Francis H. Cummings Jr. '72 said, "and we are not going to have him hurt again by paying to clean it up. The extra cost should be taken out of the advertising budget and paid for by large consumers. The domestic consumer should not suffer."

The Boston Industrial Mission, another anti-pollution group testifying at the hearing, suggested a variable rate structure. "We propose that a discount be given to domestic users who consume little power and rate increases be graduated so steeply that big users would pay the incremental cost for low sulphur fuels and other pollution control measures," the group said yesterday.

Solidarity Forever

"It might also inhibit waste and profligate use of electric power and thereby deal with the cause rather than the symptoms of environmental deterioration. In such a priciple we see the union of environmental responsibilities and social justice," the group said.