In honor of the 41st anniversary of Earth Day, CLF Board members from across New England have banded together to make an extraordinary $41,000 investment in CLF’s – and our region’s – future. Every new or increased gift you make now through Earth Day – April 22– can be matched, dollar-for-dollar, up to $41,000.

Your gift today will go toward solving the region’s toughest environmental problems, and help us ensure a healthy, thriving New England for generations to come. From Maine to Rhode Island, CLF stands up for your favorite places, for the health of your families and your communities, and for the prosperity of our region. Since the last Earth Day, we:

• Cleaned up the air in Somerset, MA by closing the doors on an old, polluting coal plant
• Won tougher standards for phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain, VT
• Preserved the fragile ecosystem of Great Salt Pond on Block Island, RI
• Saved Mainers millions of dollars on electricity infrastructure
• Helped NH cities and towns save energy and money by increasing energy efficiency

As Earth Day approaches, we are reminded that around the world and right here in New England, our land, our oceans and our air are in peril. On the heels of the 2010 elections, many in the new Congress are pursuing a clear anti-environment agenda, one that cuts directly to the core of the most fundamental protections for our health, safety and well-being. With leadership in Washington sorely lacking, CLF is uniquely poised to take the reins in protecting New England.

Today, we are asking you to help us continue our progress by taking part in our Earth Day Challenge. Your commitment enables CLF to safeguard our oceans, clean up our lakes, rivers and forests, promote clean energy innovations and build healthy, livable communities. We hope you will take part in our Earth Day Challenge by making a donation today to help CLF protect our small but mighty corner of the world.

Ipswich, Massachusetts received its first wind turbine this week!

Parts for the wind turbine, including three 132-foot-long blades were delivered to the Town Farm Road site on Wednesday March 30th.  The wind turbine is expected to be constructed and in operation by Memorial Day and it will supply power to the Ipswich High School/Middle School. Check out the enthusiasm displayed by kids as the blades passed by Ipswich Elementary School:

In a tearful April 1st press conference at the Medford, Massachusetts Office of Rep. Ed Markey, House Speaker John Boehner announced that he had changed his mind about climate science and was now in favor of dramatic action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“I was listening to NPR the other day, as you know I am a big fan, and I heard this terrifying show about the long term effects of our greenhouse gas emissions and I realized that I have been dead wrong about how to protect my nation, my constituents and my family.” The Speaker then broke down in tears.

More to come . . .

If the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) does its job right, the environmental review of the Northern Pass project – the largest infrastructure project in recent New Hampshire history – will be a massive and complex undertaking, analyzing all alternatives to the current proposal and describing the many social and environmental impacts of the project.  That’s why it’s critical that DOE begin its work with the right plan – one that takes into account the tremendous public input DOE has received during the ongoing scoping process and that also reflects DOE’s technical expertise, especially regarding the possible technological alternatives to the current proposal.  (Information on the scoping process and how to submit comments to DOE is here – the deadline for written comments is April 12.)

Today, in a joint letter to DOE, CLF and several partners renewed their request (also made at the mid-March scoping meetings) for DOE to release a report – before it begins work on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) – identifying the alternatives DOE plans to study in depth, the alternatives it plans to exclude from the analysis, and the categories of social and environmental impacts that it will consider.  We believe that DOE should not only prepare such a report, but also provide the public the opportunity to comment on it.

The report on the scoping process that DOE currently intends to issue – one that simply summarizes public input – is not enough, especially for this project.  The project application provided almost no information on alternatives and environmental impacts (something CLF and others vehemently objected to months ago), and that lack of information has undermined the public’s ability to provide meaningful feedback during the scoping process as a result.

Before DOE and the EIS contractor it ultimately selects to replace its original contractor begin studying the project and its alternatives behind closed doors, the public deserves to know DOE’s plan and to have the chance to suggest changes to that plan. Otherwise, DOE may “re-emerge” from its work months from now with a document that misses important alternatives and will be very challenging to change – a result that would be problematic for DOE and the public alike.  DOE needs to get it right the first time, and the public should be invited to help ensure that DOE has the right plan to do so.

For more information about Northern Pass, visit CLF’s Northern Pass Information Center (http://www.clf.org/northernpass) and take a look at our prior Northern Pass posts on CLF Scoop.

"The Gipper" explains why William Ruckelshaus (just behind him) is his choice to run EPA.

These days, Ronald Reagan is something of a hero to conservatives in Congress who see him as the champion of a smaller government with less taxes and low deficits (as numerous media have reported–the praise he earns on taxes and deficits often ignores the historical facts of his policies. you can read more about that here.)  Many of these modern-day Reagan-worshipers are the same folks who are behind the unprecedented assault on the Environmental Protection Agency, working to slash EPA’s budgets and deprive the agency of its authority to keep our air and water clean, and our nation’s people protected from the pollution hazards that threaten our health.

Since Ronald Reagan is resting in peace, we can’t ask him what he thinks about the present-day assault on the EPA.  But we can pay heed to the views expressed by William Ruckelshaus, the man that President Reagan and President Nixon entrusted to run the  EPA.  Writing in today’s Washington Post along with Christine Todd Whitman, former Republican Governor of New Jersey and former EPA Administrator under George W. Bush, these former cabinet members injected some much-needed nonpartisan perspective on the importance of a strong, science-based EPA into the debate:

Today the agency President Richard Nixon created in response to the public outcry over visible air pollution and flammable rivers is under siege. The Senate is poised to vote on a bill that would, for the first time, “disapprove” of a scientifically based finding, in this case that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. This finding was extensively reviewed by officials in the administrations of presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. It was finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that greenhouse gases fit within the Clean Air Act definition of air pollutants.

…

It has taken four decades to put in place the infrastructure to ensure that pollution is controlled through limitations on corporate, municipal and individual conduct. Dismantle that infrastructure today, and a new one would have to be created tomorrow at great expense and at great sacrifice to America’s public health and environment. The American public will not long stand for an end to regulations that have protected their health and quality of life.

You can read the entire op-ed by clicking here.

It’s time to remind EPA’s conservative congressional opponents of the role that Republican predecessors and the professionals they appointed played in building an EPA that has made our environment cleaner and our economy stronger, while improving and protecting public health. CLF is making that easy for constituents of Republican Senators Snowe and Collins in Maine and Scott Brown in Massachusetts–click here to find out more–and spread the word to your friends in other parts of the country.

As part of the national effort to streamline and improve regulations launched by President Obama in an Executive Order the Environmental Protection Agency is soliciting comments on what regulations should be “modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed” — so tell them what you think! They have a webpage that explains what they are looking for and provides an opportunity to submit comments online.

At a recent “listening session” held in Boston CLF offered these thoughts to EPA.  The deadline for comments is April 4, 2011– let your voice be heard !

The disturbing recent decision by the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to plow ahead with relicensing Vermont’s troubled nuclear reactor turns a blind-eye to the unfolding tragedy in Japan.   Simply rubber stamping license requests for older nuclear plants is irresponsible.   The NRC should have pressed the “pause” button.  Instead, the NRC rejected requests from Vermont’s Congressional delegation, and issued a decision at odds with Vermont’s wishes.

The events in Japan highlight the problems with the older vintage nuclear plants.   Both Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim, in Plymouth, MA  are of the same vintage and have the same container systems as the reactors in Japan.  While tidal waves and earthquakes of the magnitude just suffered in Japan are unlikely in our region, our plants are vulnerable to the floods and power outages that struck Japan’s nuclear reactors, and caused the cooling systems to fail.

Showing a prescient lack of faith in the federal relicensing of nuclear plants, Vermont law requires the independent approval from the Vermont Legislature and the Vermont Public Service Board before allowing continued operation.

The events in Japan confirm the soundness of the Vermont Legislature’s decision last year to close down Vermont Yankee on schedule, at the end of its current license.   Vermont has been watching Vermont Yankee closely for years.  The Legislature’s vote last year was not a surprise.  The plant is old and has been leaking and plagued with problems.  The public has lost faith in the facility.

Hopefully the events in Japan will prompt a much, much harder look at the safety of our older nuclear fleet.   Meanwhile, Vermont sets a good example for responsible oversight and decision-making about how we meet our energy needs.

We have discussed the pros and cons of electric vehicles on this blog in the past.  Here is a really cool new vehicle: it is electric and when stopped and at slow speeds is the same size as a Segway but as it speeds up it unfolds and expands into full size motorcycle.   It is described as “Motorcycle that changes like a ‘Transformer.’”

Electric motorcycles are not new and fans of them will proudly tell you that they can get the equivalent of over 100  miles per gallon (this guy says 112 and shows his math) – an electric motorcycle manufacturer supplies this little gas and carbon calculator.

But of course it is still a motorcycle – exposing a rider to the open road at high speeds.  So none of my kids are ever allowed to ride or own one !

Take a deep breath. Are you taking your clean air for granted? Don’t.

Today, the EPA proposed a rule to reduce hazardous emissions from coal and oil-fired power plants, such as mercury, arsenic, heavy metals, acid gases and dioxins, which cause thousands of deaths every year. This “air toxics rule” finally implements instructions that Congress gave to EPA in the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990. This much overdue effort, which builds upon decades of Clean Air Act implementation by EPA, protects the public health and serves as a reminder that if the EPA was stripped of its authority to enforce the Clean Air Act, essential safeguards like this wouldn’t exist.

The Clean Air Act is the most successful law our country has ever had to protect public health, preserve our environment and boost our economy. However, the key tool to ensure that protection is in jeopardy. Our senators are facing mounting pressure from our country’s biggest polluters to block the EPA’s ability to do its job, leaving harmful emissions from coal-fired power plants and other sources unchecked and threatening the health of our families and communities. Tell your senators that you expect them to protect you and your family, not big polluters.

New England states have shown leadership in passing progressive environmental laws to protect the health and homes of New Englanders. But it’s not just about us. Our region bears the brunt of pollution from power plants in the Midwest transported here by prevailing winds, which adds to pollution produced locally. Without federal EPA regulation, New England will remain vulnerable to harmful emissions literally blowing into our region.

Tell your senators today that you don’t take clean air for granted and that they shouldn’t either. Ask them to defend the EPA’s ability to do its job and enforce the Clean Air Act. Our region and our nation’s health, economy and environment depend on it.

TAKE ACTION NOW!