Another radioactive fish was found near the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant in southern Vermont.

This is the second time a fish contaminated with Strontium-90 was found in the Connecticut River.

Vermont Yankee officials defy common sense.  They continue to claim there is no connection between the contaminated fish and the nuclear reactor on the banks of the river.

CLF refutes these silly claims.  In testimony CLF filed with the Vermont Public Service Board last Friday, CLF refutes claims that contamination is not moving with water through the ground.

CLF’s expert showed that radioactive isotopes are not limited to areas near the leak.  Instead, they migrated through the site with the release of tritium.  Hydrogeologist Stratton French testified:

“A more likely explanation for their occurence at these distant locations is that these radioisotopes migrated beyond the release point along groundwater flow pathways.  This conclusion is supported by Entergy VY’s own sampling data.”

COME TO THE PUBLIC SERVICE BOARD PUBLIC HEARING ON THURSDAY EVENING

AT 7:00 p.m. at the  BRATTLEBORO UNION HIGH SCHOOL.

Tell the Public Service Board whether you think.  Should the plant should be closed before 2012 in response to the continued leaks?  This is your chance for your voice to be heard.

What would make your neighborhood great? Is it more jobs, better transportation choices, diverse housing opportunities, improved access to open spaces like parks and playgrounds? The Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance (MSGA) Great Neighborhoods program wants to help turn your community’s dreams into reality. The MSGA is looking to partner with community groups to develop initiatives that will build better neighborhoods in the Greater Boston area.

The MSGA wants to hear from you. To put your ideas into action, submit a letter of interest explaining your proposed project and how it will benefit your community by July 15, 2010. The letter should be no more than 2-3 pages in length.

Click here to read more about the Great Neighborhoods program and view the MSGA’s official guidelines for writing and submitting your letter of interest.

Millions of music fans the world over cheered last year’s news that the band Phish was getting back together and heading on the road for another one of their epic tours.  CLF was cheering too.

For close to a decade, Phish’s charity–the Waterwheel Foundation (and check them out on Facebook)–has been a strong supporter of CLF’s work to clean up New England’s waters.  Phish has focused much of the giving on CLF’s Lake Champlain Lakekeeper initiative.  With strong Vermont roots, the band clearly understands how important protecting and restoring New England’s “Great Lake” is to the state’s overall environmental health.  And the band also understands how important a group like CLF is when it comes to championing that cause.

Waterwheel raises money to support groups like CLF in two ways.

• the band has donated royalties it gets from the sale of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food Ice Cream.  That’s right, “Phish Food” no longer needs to be a guilty pleasure for you.  Next time you house a whole pint in one sitting, just remember that you are doing your part to help the environment
• the band also invites groups like CLF to work its Waterwheel Merchandise tables at its different shows.  The proceeds from sales of exclusive Phish merchandise, including rare autographed posters, and organic tee shirts and hoodies, go to support the charities who work the tables.

CLF is honored to have been invited to work a table again on this year’s tour.  This Tuesday evening, we’ll be at the Comcast Center Show in Mansfield, MA. Happily for Phish, the show is sold out.  If you are one of the lucky ones with a ticket, please consider dropping by the Waterwheel table at the venue to say hi to me and the other CLF volunteers who are teaming up with Waterwheel to support CLF’s work on behalf of New England’s clean water, clean air, healthy forests, oceans, and communities.

CLF welcomes its brand new group of 2010 summer interns. 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. Some may even be posting to this very blog! They are:

Massachusetts
Stephanie Bair, Cavers Legal Intern, Harvard Law School
Tiffany Egbuono, Posse Scholar (Advocacy/Development), Undergrad Bryn Mawr College
Anthony Mathieu, Posse Scholar (Oceans), Undergrad Hamilton College
Megan Hodson, Cavers Legal Intern, U Baltimore School of Law
Zachary Moor, Cavers Legal Intern, Boston University
Caitlin Peale, Cavers Legal Intern, Columbia U Law School
Emily Migliaccio, Ocean Intern, Boston College

Maine
Caitlin Casey, Intern, Undergrad Colby College
Becky Lipson, Cavers Legal Intern, U Michigan Law School
Michael Knapp, Cavers Legal Intern, U Maine Law School
Lauren Parker, Intern, U Maine Law School

New Hampshire
Alan Panebaker, Cavers Legal Intern, Vermont Law School
Robert Barry, Cavers Legal Intern, Northeastern University

Rhode Island
Jenna Algee, Cavers Legal Intern, Roger Williams School of Law

Vermont
Nate Hausman, Cavers Legal Intern, Lewis & Clark Law School
Haley Peterson, Volunteer, Hamilton College
Susan Law, Cavers Legal Intern, Western New England College School of Law

Today, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter extended a moratorium on oil and gas drilling on Georges Bank for another three years, citing the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as a factor in his decision. Peter Shelley, CLF’s vice president and director of its Massachusetts Advocacy Center, responds:

“For decades, CLF has advocated for the full protection of Georges Bank from the hazards of oil and gas drilling. We are pleased that Nova Scotia Premier Dexter has decided to extend the moratorium on the Canadian side of the border and we applaud his decision. The need to protect the incredible richness of marine life and to make this area available to sustainable fishing far outweigh the risks of catastrophic pollution and habitat degradation caused by oil drilling.”

“CLF believes it is time for a permanent ban on oil and gas drilling on Georges Bank and urges both the Canadian and United States governments to act to do so. There is no more need for study and delay. Georges Bank is an area of international importance and deserves permanent protection from oil drilling now.”

In response to objections regarding the cost of Cape Wind, CLF and 12 other organizations issued the following statement:

The news this week that National Grid has officially filed its contract proposal with Cape Wind is great news for everyone in our state who breathes the air and believes we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels in general. Any estimate of the real costs of Cape Wind must factor in the economic, environmental and public health benefits to consumers and the Commonwealth over the long-term. In addition to knowing how much the power from Cape Wind will cost, the public should also know how much it will save them. To accurately estimate the value of our investment in Cape Wind, we can’t just focus on short-term increases to electric bills – pennies per day, on average – but must consider the savings over time.

By making a 15-year commitment to supply customers with clean wind power, National Grid and Cape Wind together are taking an essential step toward bringing the nation’s first offshore wind project to life while delivering substantial economic and environmental rewards. As the contract goes through rigorous public scrutiny, we call upon the public and state decision-makers alike to ensure that it is compared to other electric power agreements on an apples-to-apples basis that fully credits the expected benefits.  These include:

▪  Because Cape Wind’s fuel is free, the long-term power purchase agreement can – and will – ensure price predictability over the long term, moving consumers off the volatile fossil fuel price roller coaster.

▪  The project’s zero fuel cost means that when the wind blows, Cape Wind will be first in line to deliver power to consumers – forcing the most expensive polluting fossil fuel-fired power plants to run less, reducing the market price for electricity and saving customers millions of dollars.

▪  The contract price, initially set at 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour, is an “all-in” price that includes not just the price of the electricity but also the transmission, renewable energy incentives that are required by law, the project’s capacity to contribute to the regional electric supply, and other environmental benefits.  It is inaccurate to compare this price to the stand-alone price of traditional electricity.

▪  Any comparison of Cape Wind’s contract price to the price we currently pay for traditional power must take into account the extraordinary environmental and public health costs of ongoing reliance on fossil fuels – including the costs of addressing the growing oil drilling catastrophe in the Gulf, increasing climate change impacts, and air pollution from coal plants that worsens lung and heart conditions.

▪  By making long-term price commitments, Cape Wind and National Grid are placing the risk of any increased development cost squarely on the shoulders of Cape Wind, not ratepayers.

▪  Cape Wind will bring significant economic development opportunities to the Commonwealth, from quality construction jobs to ongoing maintenance and operation, and will propel Massachusetts to the national forefront of offshore renewable energy development.

Yesterday, New England Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced in the Senate the long-awaited climate bill, now known officially as the American Power Act. Here’s what Seth Kaplan, CLF’s Vice President for Policy and Climate Advocacy, had to say on the subject:

“We applaud Senator Kerry’s hard work and persistence in addressing this most fundamental of global crises and working towards the kind of climate bill we need. Immediate action must be taken to end our dependence on oil, build a new clean energy economy and, most critically for our children and grandchildren, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a reminder of the damage that occurs when our natural resources are mishandled. To protect New England’s communities, forests, coastlines and waters, we must come forward immediately to build a cleaner, safer and more prosperous future for our region.”

Yesterday, Interior Secretary Salazar gave us a glimpse of our clean energy future by announcing his approval of the Cape Wind project. CLF has worked tirelessly on this project for many years, and the decision was momentous for our organization and others in the environmental, labor and business communities who recognize Cape Wind’s enormous potential for our region and our country.

However, as Governor Patrick cautioned a room of enthusiastic Cape Wind supporters after the announcement, thoughtful people can and will disagree on projects like Cape Wind. It is both an asset and a challenge for New England that our landscape, and even our seascape, is small. Every project will impact somebody. By virtue of our physical proximity we are, quite literally, all in this together. And so, more than any other region in the country perhaps, New Englanders must have a shared vision for our energy future.

That future, as Secretary Salazar said poignantly yesterday, will be built on clean energy. We will have more wind power, off- and on-shore. We will have more solar and geothermal power, where it makes sense. We will increase energy efficiency, which makes sense everywhere. We will reduce our use of fossil fuels in general and coal in particular. We will grow our economy, create new jobs and support a high quality of life and the environment.

New England is the perfect place to start. We are good at using our landscape in thrifty ways to live well and in close connection to nature. CLF is committed to a vision of an energy future that will meet our reasonable needs, keep the lights on at reasonable cost, and cause minimal harm to the environment. It is a vision we believe that most New Englanders will embrace. As with Cape Wind, we will not stop until that vision becomes reality. Then we will show the rest of the nation and the world how it’s done.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
John Kassel

On this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I’m going to cut right to the chase. Earlier in the month, a generous donor issued CLF a challenge: If we reach 400 donations by Midnight on Earth Day, he will donate $40,000 to our most vital work—like climate change and clean energy.

Here’s the clincher: We are exactly 38 donations short of our goal, and only a few hours remain until our deadline.

That is why we need you to act now—your donation of just $10, or whatever you can afford, will bring us one huge step closer to our goal. How else can you turn a gift as small as $10 into $40,000 for New England’s environment?

Here’s what we’ll do with your gift:

• Hold Dominion Energy responsible for cleaning up Salem Harbor Station and paying millions of dollars in penalties retroactively.
• Advocate for renewable energy initiatives, like the 130-turbine Cape Wind project.
• Continue to put pressure New England’s on dirtiest coal plants—and hold polluters accountable for violations of the federal Clean Air Act and state environmental standards
• Push for policies that support greater energy efficiency through a process known as decoupling, lowering energy demands and CO2 emissions in New England.
• Reduce our region’s carbon footprint. CLF will advocate for the adoption and implementation of a Northeast and Mid-Atlantic “Low Carbon Fuel Standard”— potentially cutting our region’s carbon dioxide emissions by a staggering 29 million metric tons annually.
• Defend the precedent-setting California Low Carbon Fuel Standard from attacks in federal litigation.
• Ensure that New England continues to lead the country. Fighting alongside congressional staff, senators and representatives to prevent federal legislation that undermines the ability of New England states to lead in clean car standards.

But we can’t accomplish any of this without you.

On this Earth Day, secure a giant victory for New England’s environment by helping us win $40,000! 38 donations are needed—please help us close the gap!