SPRINGFIELD  – Sen. Edward Markey joined with local elected officials on April 7 to celebrate the decision by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to revoke the permitting for Palmer Renewable Energy (PRE) and its planned biomass facility.

The issue is not yet settled. PRE had 10 days in which to file an appeal and Climate Action Now Massachusetts has reported that “PRE is appealing DEP’s decision to revoke the permit and has filed an emergency motion to stay the implementation.”

The Springfield Climate Justice Coalition released a statement anticipating the appeal. The group noted its new agenda:

• “We are ready should Palmer try to again revive the proposal and will fight it in any available arena.

• “The danger to Springfield and other communities remains as long as Governor Baker’s Department Of Energy Resources dangles the promise of ratepayer subsidies for inefficient biomass burning. We urge everyone to go to our website, www.notoxicbiomass.org, and send a letter to Governor Baker demanding he withdraw the amendments to the Renewable Portfolio Standard that falsely claim biomass is clean and renewable.

• “We fully support and will work for passage of bills introduced by [state] Senators [Adam] Gomez and [Eric] Lesser and [state] Rep. [Orlando] Ramos to prevent ratepayer subsidies from making polluting biomass profitable.”

Markey thanked the gathered community activists from various organizations that have been fighting the proposed plant for more than a decade.

“You’ve saved lives because of your advocacy,” the senator said.

Markey said the plant, which was designed to burn scrap wood to generate electricity, would have contributed to the high rates of asthma and air pollution in the region.

Previous to his appearance, Markey participated in an online meeting about his Green New Deal legislation and visited the site of the former coal-burning power plant in Holyoke, now converted to a solar field. Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren had sent a letter to the DEP supporting the revocation of the permit.

City Councilor Jesse Lederman  made the issue one of his priorities as a community activist before being elected to the City Council. He said, “More than 10 years ago I stood at the same steps to raise concerns [about the biomass plant].”

Liz Bewsee of Arise for Social Justice, one of the groups that first opposed the plant, noted her late sister Michaelann Bewsee would have been pleased by the DEP decision.

“Public heath is a social justice issue,” Bewsee said.

In a statement read at the rally conducted on the steps of City Hall, The Springfield Climate Justice Coalition noted, “The DEP revoked the permit because Palmer had failed to begin construction in the time allotted under the permit and because the public health threat posed by the plant’s pollution would be devastating to the environmental justice community of East Springfield. We sincerely hope that this is the end of the story for the misbegotten proposal that would have sickened city residents and harmed the climate.

“It is a wonderful victory for the people of Springfield and the region. It is a reprieve for our forests made at risk for destruction for burning. We are grateful to DEP, to the City Council, to all our members who have worked so hard for this day, and particularly to Senators Markey and Warren whose letter to the DEP influenced its decision. We are lucky to have politicians who represent us in the face of injustice. We all breathe a sigh of relief, a breath that will be free of biomass pollutants.”