A new report released today indicates that a proposed Clean Fuels Standard could significantly strengthen the economy and boost energy self-sufficiency in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic by saving Americans billions in personal disposable income, bringing in billions more for participating states, and creating up to 50,000 jobs per year.

The analysis, conducted by the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management (NESCAUM) on behalf of 11 northeast and mid-Atlantic states, shows that creating a Clean Fuels Standard would help strengthen the region’s economy while reducing America’s reliance on oil and our exposure to volatile oil prices by supporting a clean energy economy here at home.

It enumerates multiple economic and environmental benefits the standard could deliver in the next 10 years, including:

• Creating up to 50,000 jobs annually
• Increasing personal disposable income in the region by up to $3.2 billion
• Growing our state economies by up to nearly $30 billion dollars
• Reducing our region’s dependence on oil by as much as 29 percent
• Reducing harmful air pollution that causes climate change up to 9 percent

Under a Clean Fuels Standard being considered, oil companies would make their fuels 10 percent cleaner on average when it comes to carbon pollution, allowing them to do this any way they choose (such as boosting sales of electricity for electric vehicles, advanced biofuels or natural gas). This means billions of dollars would be reinvested in the states to develop clean, local alternatives to gasoline and diesel – rather than sending them overseas.

CLF is encouraged by the report’s positive findings. Sue Reid, director of CLF Massachusetts, said, “The status quo of continuing to burn billions of gallons of gasoline and diesel fuels year after year is unsustainable on every level. With gas prices a dollar higher than this time last year, our region should seize on this good news that cleaner alternatives present real economic opportunity for the region. A Clean Fuels Standard provides a viable path to meeting our greenhouse gas reduction targets, and a way off of the fossil fuel roller coaster.”

Read reaction from other leading environmental and science organizations who support the Clean Fuels Standard here.

Ocean photographer Brian Skerry

Ever wonder what really lives on the ocean floor? CLF has partnered with renowned National Geographic underwater photographer Brian Skerry to show you just that. An Uxbridge, MA resident, Skerry will return to his native New England to photograph the abundant ocean life and unique topography of the region’s special underwater places, including Cashes Ledge, Stellwagen Bank and more in conjunction with CLF’s Gulf of Maine campaign to raise awareness of the fragility of New England’s ocean life.

Skerry will conduct a series of dives for CLF, exploring both coastal areas and deep sea habitats far offshore. CLF’s Gulf of Maine campaign is dedicated to the protection of special places in New England’s ocean, including: Cashes Ledge, Jeffreys Ledge, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Jordan Basin, Deep Sea Canyons and Seamounts.

“Coming home to New England to undertake this project has special meaning for me,” said Skerry. “While I have dived here all my life, this is an opportunity to bring my fellow New Englanders along with me and show them that our ocean is every bit as thrilling and surprising and beautiful as seemingly more exotic locales. I am excited to be working with CLF to help raise awareness of both the amazing riches of New England’s ocean and the very real issues facing it, and advance their efforts to sustain it for future generations.”

CLF intends to mount a multi-media campaign showcasing Skerry’s work beginning this Fall. His first dive will take place at Cashes Ledge, 80 miles off the coast of Gloucester, MA in late August. Read more >

In partnership with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), CLF Ventures recently released Land-based Wind Energy: A Guide to Understanding the Issues and Making Informed Decisions. (PDF, 1.6MB)

Wind energy has the potential to play a significant and beneficial role in an energy economy that seeks to rely less heavily on fossil-fuel based electricity production. For this reason, many communities are currently trying to learn more about wind energy development and determine whether it makes sense in their city or town.  Land-based Wind Energy provides municipal officials and other local decision-makers with clear overviews of wind energy siting issues as well as best practices for community engagement.

Specifically, the guide includes:

• Guidelines for how to assess the quality of available information and how to resolve conflicting points;
• Overviews, contextual information, and recommended reading on important topics like wind turbine sound, shadow flicker, health, property values, and energy project economics; and
• Recommendations on how to structure a robust local review process when siting wind energy projects. By this we mean a process with full participation by relevant stakeholders, transparent decision-making, and durable outcomes with public support.

Download the guide, and learn more about CLF Ventures.

If you needed one more indication that summer in New England has arrived, we have one – the arrival of our Summer 2011 edition of Conservation Matters, CLF’s quarterly newsletter! This issue features one of our favorite parts of a summer outdoors- water. So, grab a spot in the shade (or on the beach) and crack open the latest issue of CM.

Here’s what’s in store for you:

• Read about how CLF is leading the charge for a cohesive, coordinated approach to ocean management planning that balances the need to protect fragile ocean creatures and habitats while maximizing the ocean’s economic development potential, such as offshore wind development;
• Catch up on how CLF has finally gotten MassHighway to curb toxic stormwater runoff from its roads that was contributing to hazardous water pollution problems in nearby waterways;
• Learn how CLF New Hampshire Advocates Society member Honor Passow and her husband and sons carry on the family tradition of environmental conservation
• Meet CLF Maine Staff Attorney Jane West and find out why she traded her Florida air-conditioning for the changing seasons and unspoiled landscapes of New England – and how CLF Maine is tackling the state’s biggest environmental challenges.
• Hear from CLF President John Kassel on why New England’s oceans, and the folks who look forward to who enjoying them every summer  – are worth protecting.

Download the latest issue of Conservation Matters now!

Want to get Conservation Matters delivered right to your door? Become a member today.

Our CLF Massachusetts-based intern contingent, posing on Boston Common in front of the State House. (Photo credit: CLF)

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Over the last few weeks, CLF has initiated a new group of interns working in our offices across five New England states. CLF’s summer internship program gives undergraduate and graduate students a unique real-world experience in the world of environmental law, as well as communications, development and other aspects of daily operations here at CLF. Please welcome:

Maine
Virginie Roviello, Cavers Legal Intern, Pace University School of Law
Lauren Parker, Cavers Legal Intern, University of Maine School of Law
Cory McKenna, Cavers Legal Intern, University of Maine School of Law

Massachusetts
Nicole Pepperl, Cavers Legal Intern, Harvard Law School
Jeffrey Auger, Cavers Legal Intern, Pace University School of Law
Danielle Changala, Cavers Legal Intern, Vermont Law School
Ronak Davé, Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice Intern, Tufts University
Douglas Hastings, Cavers Legal Intern, Harvard Law School
Kathleen B. Kim, Cavers Legal Intern, Boston University School of Law
Jorge Mendieta, Posse Scholar and Development Intern, Hamilton College
Nancy Shrodes, Ocean Program Volunteer, Tufts University ’11
Chen Song, Cavers Legal Intern, University of Virginia School of Law

New Hampshire
Mike Racine, Cavers Legal Intern, Vermont Law School

Rhode Island
Michael Mahoney, Cavers Legal Intern, George Mason University School of Law
Nick Vaz, Intern, Providence College

Vermont
Erin LaVoie, Cavers Legal Intern, Vermont Law School (read her latest CLF blog post here)
Ben Mack, Intern, Vermont Law School
Elizabeth Spellman, Cavers Legal Intern, Vermont Law School

Stay tuned for more blog posts from our intern crew, coming later this summer!

Do you love the Earth? Fantastic concerts? Free stuff? Learning about the awesome work of your friendly neighborhood environmental non-profits? No matter what you and your family are into, celebrate it with CLF at EarthFest this Saturday, May 21, at the Hatch Shell in Boston. This annual event, presented courtesy of Radio 92.9, features hundreds of environmentally-friendly vendors and sponsors along with local non-profits doing green work in your community. And if that’s not enough rockstars for you, stick around for a stellar lineup featuring Atomic Tom, Sponge, LIVE’s Ed Kowalczyk and Ok Go, among other acts of musical greatness.

So tomorrow, come out and show your support for CLF and New England’s environment! Stop by our booth for environmentally-themed games, prizes and more. We’ll be strategically located between Lovin Spoonfuls and Boston Harbor Alliance in the non-profit exhibitor area between the Main Events area and the Vendor Cafe. We’ll see you there!

Let’s review:

Radio 92.9 EarthFest
Saturday, May 21
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Hatch Shell, Boston, MA

CLF's Peter Shelley accepts EPA's Environmental Merit Award on behalf of CLF and CRWA. (Photo credit: Emily Long)

Yesterday, CLF and the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA)  received an Environmental Merit Award from the New England office of the U.S. EPA in recognition of their exceptional work on reducing discharge of heated water from the GenOn Kendall Cogeneration Plant (formerly known as Mirant Kendall) in Cambridge, MA. The award was presented at a ceremony at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

Led by CLF Senior Counsel Peter Shelley, the two groups and other key stakeholders, undertook five years of negotiations to reduce the massive amounts of heated water that the plant was discharging into the Charles River, killing fish and destroying the river ecosystem. As a result, in February 2011, EPA issued a new water quality permit that requires the plant to reduce its heat discharge and water withdrawal by approximately 95 percent, and to ensure that any heated discharge does not warm the river enough to cause harm. In addition, the plant will capture most of the heat generated by the plant and distribute it as steam through a new pipeline to be built across the Longfellow Bridge over the next few years, at which point the excess steam will be used to heat buildings in Boston. More >

Recovered Oil Sample from Spill in Buzzard's Bay

CONGRESS VOTING TODAY ON BILL TO MANDATE OIL DRILLING ON EAST COAST

Congress will vote today on a highly flawed bill which will require oil and gas leasing to take place in New England’s ocean — including on Georges Bank or any other historic fishing grounds or important ocean wildlife areas.

The text of HR1231 actually requires the Department of Interior to “make available for leasing and conduct lease sales including at least 50 percent of the available unleased acreage within each Outer Continental Shelf planning area” or “any state subdivision of an Outer Continental Shelf planning area that the Governor of the state that represents that subdivision requests be made available for leasing.”

This bill would require oil and gas development in New England’s ocean despite test drilling in the 1970s and early 1980s that shows New England’s ocean has only 3 percent of US oil and gas deposits. The harmful effects of oil drilling on New England’s ocean wildlife and recovering fish populations would likely create more economic costs than gain. The industrial development that accompanies oil drilling such as onshore pipelines and infrastructure would irrevocably alter our coastal communities.

HR1231 would also require drilling along the rest of the east coast, the entire west coast, the Arctic and other places in Alaska. HR1231 would also require taxpayers to pay half of the costs of certain oil exploration. This is a bill we do not need and cannot afford.

Call today Thursday, May 12. Call early – the vote could happen as early as noon.

Please call your Representative through the Capitol Hill switchboard at 202-224-3121 and urge him or her to vote against HR1231.

We’re proud to announce that our annual “State of the Region” issue of Conservation Matters has arrived. Learn about four areas of advocacy in which CLF has experienced great success over the last year, from public transportation and fisheries management to kicking New England’s coal habit and tackling the nutrient pollution that is threatening some of our region’s most vital water bodies. Bonus feature: Get up to speed on the great work that our non-profit affiliate, CLF Ventures, is doing in the public sector.

Download the PDF.

Tell us what you think at e-info@clf.org.

Want to get a copy of Conservation Matters delivered right to your door? Become a member of CLF.

See more issues of CM >