Turning up the heat: Biden talks climate emergency in a politically divided Somerset

SOMERSET — A strange man was riding a bicycle in the Brayton Point neighborhood. He was seen from the back only and was far in the distance, too far to make out any features — yet something about him suggested the Secret Service.

A few hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit on Wednesday to discuss climate policy, the Brayton Point neighborhood was eerily quiet, or maybe it was just this quiet all the time. The houses here are small and built close together, the short roads ending in frequent dead ends that offer breathtaking views of the Taunton River, sweeping vistas of the Braga Bridge stretching to the Fall River skyline beyond.

One home had a table out front selling bundles of firewood for $5, on the honor system. "Wildflowers for wild women” read a sign above a door where the owners apparently love to garden. A human figure made of plant pots sat in another front yard. A mailman walked his beat, and somehow he seemed like he might be Secret Service too.

For years, the people here have lived in the shadow of one of the filthiest power plants in the country, a behemoth that sent 40,000 tons of coal up the chimney stacks every week, that pumped 1.5 billion gallons of overheated water back into the bay and killed much of the wildlife. The power plant is gone now. The residents here are wary of letting their quaint neighborhood be a pollution center again. The road leading to their neighborhood is lined with signs thanking the land court judge who halted a scrap metal operation on the site and saying “wind only.”

The fight over Brayton Point’s future has divided Somerset politically and socially, and led to ugly local electoral battles in recent years, with traded accusations of intimidation, harassment and even a bomb threat. Biden was there to deliver a simple speech promoting federal efforts to support wind power initiatives planned for Brayton Point. He was entering territory perhaps more divided than he knew.

Somerset and the nation divided

Less than 2 miles down the road from where Biden was scheduled to speak, there was once a New England for Trump store. It sold Trump flags, banners, signs, shirts – some profane, others patriotic. The intersection of Route 6 and Brayton Point Road became, in the store’s heyday around the 2020 election, a kind of Speaker’s Corner where people held impromptu Trump rallies.

The store is closed now, but its customers are still around. Up and down Brayton Point Road on Wednesday, people prepared to welcome Biden by telling him to get lost. One woman held a pink “Women For Trump” flag. A man decked head to toe in the colors of Old Glory waved flags that read “Impeach Biden” and “Donald Trump for Congress Speaker of the House.”

“Finish the wall” read one sign. Another: “The Green New Deal is the green new steal.” Someone held a homemade sign calling the president a pedophile. On Twitter, someone posted video of himself giving Biden’s passing motorcade the middle finger. Another sign: “Climate change is a fraud just like the 2020 election.” Three teenage boys walked along Brayton Point Road, one of them holding a sign over his head. It read, “If you can’t ride a bike you can’t run a country.”

One person held a flag with the logo of Extinction Rebellion, a group that advocates the use of nonviolent civil disobedience to force government action to fight climate change. Meanwhile, another sign read “Falmouth says no to Mayflower Wind,” the offshore wind farm planned in the ocean past Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

Two young men, Evan and Jay, were parked by the entrance to Brayton Point Commerce Center, unfurling a large American flag to attach to the back of a truck. Evan said he's an intern with the Rhode Island Republican Party, and said he doesn’t agree with Green New Deal-type proposals. Still, he found this day thrilling.

“I think it’s exciting because the last president that came to Massachusetts was Bill Clinton in Fall River, so it’s been over 15 years since a president came down this way,” Evan said. “You don’t really see presidents come to these small neighborhoods at all.”

A resident of the Brayton Point neighborhood rolled up on a bicycle. He had seen that other cyclist, and he believed it was a Secret Service agent too. He knows people in the neighborhood, he said, and there’s something off with this guy. Everyone seems suspicious.

Climate change talk in sweltering heat

The Secret Service established several checkpoint layers at Brayton Point. At the first one, a woman with a lanyard around her neck flashed some kind of card quickly at an agent, who asked to see it more closely. She said she’s a teacher and wanted to see Biden speak. He turned her away.

The event was limited to about 50 people, mostly media, an agent said — and with a slight grin he added, “For a 16-minute speech.”

Biden was widely expected to stop just short of declaring a climate change emergency, on a day when the temperature was in the mid-90s and the state Department of Environmental Protection issued a warning that the air was unhealthy to breathe. Media from dozens of outlets both elite and small descended upon Somerset to get in. A line of cars stretched hundreds of feet, engines idling.

The sun was unbearably hot, and Brayton Point’s 306 acres are a desert of broken concrete and tar, loose rocks, and weeds — there is little shade. A journalist from a Fox TV affiliate stood near the trunk of a car passing an electric razor over his cheeks. After passing through a third security check, journalists were herded into shuttle vans that drove them to a spot elsewhere on the Brayton Point property where the president’s speech will be held. This van trip was about 1,500 feet long.

Before a gorgeous panorama of Mount Hope Bay and Fall River, skies clear and blue, Biden’s presidential lectern was covered in plastic wrap. A handful of chairs were set up for dignitaries, with a tent for press being the only shade from the brutal heat. One of the staff members quickly assigned places to chairs under the tent for Bloomberg reporters, Fox, Politico, TV news — The Herald News and other smaller media outlets were asked to sit in the sun.

Somerset Fire Chief Jamison Barros described his day in "two words: very busy."

He’d been told only at the last moment that Biden would be in town, and was helped out by the state's Department of Fire Services with an incident command unit, a rehab unit, a hazmat unit and a Gator Emergency Medical Response Unit, each on stand-by in case anything happened. Past the tents, EMTs and rescue vehicles were on hand, presumably in case of heatstroke, which was a distinct possibility when sitting in the sun for several hours in weather this hot.

But there was complimentary lemon-water, and a man who identified himself as Bob came by periodically to distribute cold, wet paper towels to press on your temples and the back of your neck. Bob is a great man.

'Our children and our grandchildren are counting on us'

A fleet of GMC Suburban SUVs kicked up thick clouds of dust on the shimmering horizon, a half-hour past Biden's scheduled arrival time. They parked near the podium where the president would speak. Their cargo: the president himself, along with visiting dignitaries, both of Massachusetts' current senators, former senators, aides, and media who have traveled with the president aboard Air Force One from Washington to T.F. Green Airport.

The president, in a jacket but no tie, walked briskly to the lectern and delivered his speech, saying climate change is a “clear and present danger."

“The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake,” Biden said, citing the stark economic cost of extreme weather events. He said twice America is facing a "climate emergency," and pledged to use his executive powers “in the coming weeks” to push initiatives aimed at combating the man-made warming of the planet due to the consumption of fossil fuels. Of most keen interest locally, Biden referenced the work being done to bring clean energy manufacturing jobs to this Somerset neighborhood, and expressed a promise to invest in industries that can replicate that success nationally.

"Our children and our grandchildren are counting on us," Biden said.

Biden spoke for 18 and a half minutes, slightly longer than the Secret Service agent had predicted — then returned to his vehicle without taking questions. The senators and dignitaries returned to their SUVs, which pulled away. Their motorcade was bound for T.F. Green again, where the president was due to fly back to Washington in the next hour.

The media were offered van rides for the 1,500-foot journey back to the parking lot, but many chose to walk. Along Brayton Point Road, protesters sweating in the heat ambled back to their cars, holding signs for whoever was left to see them.

Traffic heading back to Fall River was backed up. The westbound lanes of the Braga Bridge — headed toward Providence — were choked with cars bumper-to-bumper along the onramps. All three lanes were full, stretching underneath Government Center and beyond, engines idling.

Herald News reporter Audrey Cooney contributed material to this story.

Dan Medeiros may be reached at dmedeiros@gannett.com. Support local journalism and subscribe today!

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: President Biden delivers speech to Somerset, US divided on climate