During a late-night legislative session last week, Senator Anthony Petruccelli, alongside Chelsea Senator Sal DiDomenico and Senator Patricia Jehlen, secured an amendment to the state’s Chapter 91 law. This amendment would prevent Global Oil from executing its plan to transport 1.8 million gallons of ethanol by train twice weekly through Chelsea and store the fuel at their facility on the East Boston/Revere border.
Since the facility sits along the Chelsea Creek, Global requires a Chapter 91 license to modify the site for ethanol storage along the waterway’s banks.
The amendment passed and now moves to Conference Committee for further deliberation.
The language added to Chapter 91 specifies that “an ethanol storage or blending facility that stores or blends or is intended to store or blend more than an average of 5,000 gallons of ethanol per day and is located within one mile of a census block that has a population density of greater than 4,000 people per square mile shall not be granted a license under this chapter. For the purposes of this section, ethanol shall be defined as any mixture composed of not less than 30 percent ethanol”.
Petruccelli characterized the amendment’s passage as a ‘huge win’ for environmental advocates in Chelsea, Revere, and Eastie who have fought to prevent ethanol trains from reaching the region.
“Senators DiDomenico, Jehlen and I drafted the ethanol amendment with the belief that public safety is among our top priorities,” Petruccelli stated. “I worked tirelessly on this amendment in order to protect the residents of the First Suffolk and Middlesex from the dangers of such a volatile substance. I am enthusiastic at the adoption of our amendment and the prospect of working with the Senate and House leadership and the bill’s conference committee to ensure its final passage.”
For years, residents across Chelsea, Eastie, and Revere have raised alarm about Global’s proposal to run 60-car trains carrying 1.8 million gallons of ethanol—a highly flammable substance—two or more times weekly along commuter rail tracks to its terminal on the East Boston/Revere line.
Last year, Petruccelli and DiDomenico introduced legislation that slowed Global’s progress at the state level. As the first elected officials to file substantial legislation addressing Global’s ethanol shipping plan through densely populated Chelsea, Everett, and Revere, they added an amendment to a state transportation bond bill. Their amendment barred the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from granting Global a Chapter 91 license for the ethanol storage facility on the Eastie/Revere line until a comprehensive safety study was finished.
Ned Cod from MassDOT presented the study’s findings to residents after its completion in winter.
Yet the study left numerous questions unanswered—concerns that residents raised at multiple community meetings.
Once the study concluded, activists appeared to have exhausted their options for blocking Global’s Chapter 91 license approval—until last week’s amendment was enacted.