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.

Massachusetts State House in downtown Boston.

Last night, in keeping with the long and rich tradition of Massachusetts political debate, the candidates in this fall’s gubernatorial election appeared at Boston’s Old South Meeting House to discuss the most pressing environmental issues facing the Commonwealth. Several hundred people attended the Gubernatorial Forum on Energy and the Environment, which was sponsored by CLF and a coalition of other local environmental organizations. Governor Deval Patrick (Democrat), Dr. Jill Stein (Green-Rainbow Party), State Treasurer Tim Cahill (Independent) and State Representative Brad Jones (appearing as a representative for Republican Charlie Baker’s campaign) appeared in succession, each presenting opening remarks and then answering questions from panelists and audience members. The forum was moderated by George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and panelists included Beth Daley of the Boston Globe and Steve Curwood of Public Radio’s “Living on Earth.”

Governor Deval Patrick appeared first, highlighting his administration’s environmental achievements on climate change mitigation and land conservation, among other programs, and voicing his continued support for the Cape Wind project to put offshore wind turbines in the Nantucket Sound. Dr. Jill Stein spoke next, presenting herself as a Beacon Hill outsider and charging the current administration with not taking sufficiently strong action on issues such as greenhouse gas reduction and funding for environmental programs. Treasurer Tim Cahill took the podium third and struck an honest tone, explaining that while his lack of party affiliation would allow him to consider all sides of a debate, in a conflict between protecting the environment and growing the economy, he would take a pro-growth stance. Finally, Rep. Brad Jones appeared on behalf of Republican candidate Charlie Baker, who was absent due to a prior commitment. The audience was keen to hear Rep. Jones’s response to questions about Baker’s previous remarks that some interpreted as skeptical of climate change. Rep. Jones explained that while Baker does not believe he has the technical knowledge to discuss the science of climate change, he does support renewable energy projects.

The overtones of a struggling economy were heard throughout the forum as candidates disucssed such issues as green jobs, a dwindling state budget, and of course, the economic viability of renewable energy. While Governor Patrick defended his decision to offer tax incentives to companies to create green jobs, Dr. Stein argued that the money spent on tax breaks should instead be used to close the funding gap for state environmental programs. While the Governor discussed the future economic and environmental benefits of Cape Wind, Treasurer Cahill declared offshore wind to be a prohibitively expensive technology.

The audience, for its part, was respectful but responsive, asking detailed questions and frequently interrupting candidates’ statements with supportive applause. While the event was capped at two hours, there’s no doubt that it could have gone on much longer. All in all, it was a successful airing of the candidates’ environmental views. Thanks to the groups, candidates, moderator, and panelists who made it possible and to all of the concerned citizens who attended the event!

Click here to watch video clips, courtesy of ELM.

Big announcement yesterday:

In an ongoing effort to protect the environment and the public from the hazards of dirty coal-fired power plants, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) today filed a federal suit against Dominion Energy of New England for repeatedly exceeding smokestack emissions limits at its Salem Harbor Station facility in Salem, Massachusetts.  The suit holds Dominion Energy accountable for willful and ongoing violations of the federal Clean Air Act’s “opacity” requirements. The Clean Air Act sets limits on opacity – a measure of the density of smokestack emissions – to minimize the amount of soot that is released into the air.  Soot, which contains harmful chemicals, metals and ash, has been linked to severe health and environmental problems.

The suit would hold Dominion responsible for paying millions of dollars in penalties retroactively for violations of the smokestack emissions limits. The violations – 317 in a five year period – are documented in Dominion’s own quarterly reports of mandatory monitoring at the Salem Harbor Station power plant.

“Abiding by the Clean Air Act is not optional,” said Shanna Cleveland, CLF staff attorney. “According to its own reports, Salem Harbor Station is in continual violation of what the law has deemed necessary to safeguard public health. This casual disregard for the law and the people impacted by Dominion’s negligence must not go on unchecked.”

Recent studies have shown that even short-term exposure to soot has been linked to higher rates of hospitalization for heart and respiratory problems. Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable, experiencing health problems ranging from decreased lung function to premature death.

Martha Dansdill, executive director of the public health advocacy group HealthLink and a co-plaintiff in the suit, said, “Salem Harbor Station must not be allowed to continue to pollute with impunity. It is clear that Dominion is not operating in the best interest of the people who live nearby and must breathe in air dirtied by this particulate-laden, toxic plume. Dominion cannot continue its lax management at Salem Harbor Station which risks our health.”

For two decades, CLF, along with residents of Salem and neighboring communities, has fought to force Dominion, and before them the prior owners of the plant, to clean up or shut down Salem Harbor Station. The plant has a long history of violations related to its coal-burning operations, repeatedly exceeding legal limits on the discharge of known pollutants including, over time, mercury, coal ash and now, soot.

The Conservation Law Foundation (www.clf.org) works to solve the most significant environmental challenges facing New England.  CLF’s advocates use law, economics and science to create innovative strategies to conserve natural resources, protect public health and promote vital communities in our region.  Founded, in 1966, CLF is a nonprofit, member-supported organization with offices in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

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NOTE: Photos of Salem Harbor Station’s plume are available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/conservationlawfoundation/sets/72157623295027376/

The press is picking up the story – including the Boston Globe, the Boston Business Journal and the Salem News.

An earlier post on this blog pressed Google to donate money it was getting from BP for AdWords and search results around the Gulf oil catastrophe.  And full disclosure that Elizabeth Stillman, who happens to be married to me, independently came up with the idea and inspired the original CLF Scoop post.

Some people think that making this request of Google is  a good idea – including a certain Todd C who has launched a Facebook campaign aimed at this goal.

Taking action on this kind of thing is great – and almost as good an idea as calling your Senators and asking them where they have stood on maintaining the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency and moving forward new comprehensive legislation to address our climate and energy crisis.

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)  issued a statement about President Obama’s speech calling for a complete clean up of the oil spill and enactment of comprehensive energy and climate legislation that concluded with the following paragraph:

“Finally, the President called on America to begin a transition to cleaner, renewable energy. As people all across our nation watch the oil pouring into the Gulf, they are asking ‘isn’t there a better way?’ The answer is yes, there is a better way, and we must begin to lay that foundation now. Oil has paid tremendous dividends to our country. It helped us win World War II, it helped create an industrial revolution and it built the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. But, it’s time has come and is moving past us, and the transition to clean renewable energy is one our country has to begin immediately.”

The source of these powerful words is very important.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics Senator Landrieu has banked $751,744 from oil and gas interests since 1989.

The big question now is whether Senator Landrieu and other past friends of big oil are truly seeing the light and will spurn that greasy embrace in favor of clean energy and climate protection.

Writers on this blog have not been the only ones to take note of BP buying “AdWords’ from Google.  This PR strategy means that a search for “Gulf Oil Spill” or a related topic yields a page with a paid link from BP right at the top.

So here is a suggestion for Mr. Brin, Mr. Page, Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Cerf and the rest of the leadership of Google:  Announce that revenue from BP will be donated to a good cause.  The options for what to do with the money are depressingly vast.

You guys decide.  Give it to advocacy groups like ours who work on preventing this kind of disaster and promoting clean energy.  Give it to the “Keeper” groups who are the first line of defense against the spill.  Give it to a local charity on the Gulf, like the this one in New Orleans, or someone else you find.  You could even just funnel it out the door as a grant to build energy efficiency or renewable energy through Google.org.  Or divvy it up among these different causes.

The point is – we are all accomplices in the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico because or gasoline consumption drives forward offshore drilling, tar sands development and similar dangerous behavior but Google has a chance here to shed a little bit of that accomplice liability by giving away some of BP’s money.

And of course if Google announces it is taking this step the rest of us will feel compelled to get on our computers and use Google to search for “Gulf Oil Spill” and click on that BP ad, sending the money to a good cause – transforming Google from accomplice into a good guy, a conduit for donations.

If you agree that Google should donate it’s revenue from BP, click the “like” button below to share this message with your friends on Facebook.

While the oil continues to gush out of the wounded well on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico a group is gathered here in Boston today to try to head off development of an important tool that would help move us away from oil.  In fact, these folks want us to shift to an even dirtier fuel that requires even more energy to extract than oil and has a whole different set of bad side effects for the public health and the environment.

The group in question is the Consumer Energy Alliance an infamous “astroturf” group that acts as a public face for the oil industry.  The fuel they are promoting, working with certain elements of Canadian provincial government, is oil produced by a messy and fuel intensive process from a gooey mixture of sand, clay, water and a tar-like substance called bitumen known as “oil sands” or “tar sands.”

And the policy they are opposing is the Low Carbon Fuel Standard – a reasonable policy that would gradually reduce the “carbon content” of the fuels that power our vehicles, helping to make the transition to cleaner fuels like clean bio-fuels and electricity from renewable sources.

The oil industry does not like the Low Carbon Fuel Standard because it is a tool for finally beginning the process of phasing out their enormously profitable product as the sole fuel for our transportation sector.  And the folks in the business of squeezing oil out of sand REALLY don’t like this standard because their product is really ghastly from a global warming perspective – putting at least 3 to 4 times as much global warming pollution into the atmosphere than conventional oil.   And just as the citizens and wildlife of the Gulf of Mexico suffer from continuing harm from oil production there is pollution that threatens the public health and environmental damage associated with production of this “unconventional oil” from tar sands.

A consortium of Northeastern States are working on moving the Low Carbon Fuel Standard forward.   The governors and environmental agencies of New England need to hear from their citizens that this a positive path forward and they will be hailed and supported for moving forward towards climate protection and away from dirty and dangerous oil.

Climate advocates breathed a collective sigh of relief today when the U.S. Senate rejected Senator Lisa Murkowski’s resolution to strip the EPA of its power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions with a vote of 53-47. Backed by big oil lobbyists, the defeat of the bill signified the triumph of science over politics—at least for now.

Earlier today, I discussed this ridiculous debate that occupied the Senate all day on the radio.  There was some interesting press in the run up to the vote.

And when the dust cleared, CLF issued this statement:

“The decision by the United States Senate to reject the Big Oil Bailout is a victory for science, the environment and efforts to build a new clean economy,” said Seth Kaplan, CLF’s Vice President for Policy and Climate Advocacy. “Senators Dodd and Lieberman of Connecticut, Senators Reed and Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Senator Kerry of Massachusetts, Senators Leahy and Sanders of Vermont and Senator Shaheen of New Hampshire have all taken a stand against big oil and in favor of protection of our environmental, economic and public health and national security. We are hopeful that Senators Snowe and Collins of Maine, Senator Gregg of New Hampshire and Senator Brown of Massachusetts will realize they have made a mistake and join the effort to protect our environment and grow clean energy jobs.”

What is truly amazing is continuing denial about the science of climate change among the 47 senators who supported Murkowski’s resolution. The National Research Council, at the request of Congress, delivered yet another report (well, really a series of reports) that make it crystal clear that global warming is real, is caused by humans, is causing real harm and will cause very great harm unless action is taken. Meanwhile, senators and representatives continue to support initiatives that will back big polluters and limit the power of the EPA.

CLF acknowledges the 53 senators whose votes amounted to today’s victory, and thanks all of our members who responded to our Defend the Clean Air Act action alert.