It’s another spring in New Hampshire, and the slow death of Public Service Company of New Hampshire’s (PSNH) coal-fired business model continues, as do PSNH’s efforts to hold back reality and hold on to its regulatory protection from competition. More and more PSNH customers are choosing cleaner, cheaper energy options, the company is again getting special treatment as it initiates a strange new program to lure those fleeing customers back, and its dirty and inefficient coal plants are once again sitting idle, with PSNH customers still paying for their upkeep. Increasing Choices for PSNH Customers PSNH (and shareholders of PSNH’s parent company, Northeast Utilities) must be wondering when the rate of residential customers abandoning PSNH’s energy service will slow. It certainly wasn’t during the first three months of 2013, read more…

New England Ocean Action Network (NEOAN)  was founded on the belief that improved management of our ocean and coasts will provide substantial benefits to all ocean users. This is why our membership is so diverse. We have fishermen, surfers, environmental groups, aquariums, and renewable energy industry representatives, all working together to promote regional ocean planning. NEOAN members know that an important part of ocean planning is a robust public participation process, in which New England’s ocean and coastal users are fully engaged. This was the message delivered loud and clear by NEOAN members at New England’s second Regional Planning Body (RPB) meeting in Narragansett, Rhode Island April 11 and 12th. NEOAN was founded to promote public participation in this process – and NEOAN is participating. Seven members of NEOAN provided read more…

This week on Talking Fish, NOAA's tally of public comments on groundfish closed areas is misleading; in Fish Talk in the News, NOAA again denies a request for interim measures to raise catch limits on cod and haddock for the 2013 fishing year. read more..

Earlier this week, I brought a message from New Hampshire to a gathering of major players in the Northeast’s energy industry in lower Manhattan, the Platt’s Northeast Energy Markets Conference. Remember Northern Pass, that novel Northeast Utilities transmission project that would import 1,200 megawatts of large-scale hydropower from Hydro-Québec? The project, as it was conceived and pitched to the region and the industry, Northern Pass version 1.0 if you will, is dead. I ran through the key financial elements of the original proposal, what I called the Northern Pass gambit: $1.1 billion to build a new transmission line, funded wholly by Hydro-Québec. A generous “return on equity,” or guaranteed profit on project costs, of 12.56% for project developer Northeast Utilities, paid by Hydro-Québec. Easy and inexpensive siting approvals for the read more…

After 18 years, Maine alewives can finally swim freely into their ancestral habitat. In an event that went largely unnoticed, on Monday, April 22nd, Governor LePage decided not to veto L.D. 72, legislation requires Maine to ensure that the fish ladders on the Woodland Dam and the Grand Falls Dam be reconfigured or operated in such a way that "allows the unconstrained passage of river herring.” The deadline for this action is May 1st. read more..

Do you ever wonder, when spring begins, what that chorus of what sounds like sleigh bells, loud crickets, or young cackling chicks is? It is that sound that I look forward to every spring. Here in New England, we call the sound spring peepers: a frog that is tan or brown in color with a cross on its back whose size is one inch to one and one-half inch weighing 0.11 and 0.18 ounces. The subspecies in the north is called Pseudacris crucifer but some common nicknames are pinkletinks, tinkletoes, and pinkwinks. They live in forests and regenerating woodlands near ephemeral or semipermanent wetlands. The male spring peeper makes the call on warm days and nights via a vocal sac located by its throat, which expands and deflates like a read more…

Come join Conservation Law Foundation and our allies THIS SATURDAY in Burlington, Vermont for a discussion on Vermont’s Energy Choices. Vermont’s Energy Choices: Old Dirty Problems and Clean Energy Solutions Saturday, April 27th, 1:30 PM at the Billings Auditorium at UVM in Burlington The time is NOW to move away from dirty sources of energy such as tar sands, nuclear, oil and coal. Solutions are available now to move us away from expensive, dangerous and polluting energy. Come hear national and international experts on the problems of dirty energy – from fracking to tar sands – and  the real-world successes of renewable power – including community based renewable power in Europe. Throwing up our hands is not an option. Come find out how to make a clean energy future our reality. read more…

At the Sagamore-Hampton Golf Club in North Hampton, maintaining grass is a science. And that’s a very good thing. Did you know there are six golf courses in just the Winnicut River watershed alone?  And that’s just one small portion of the estuary. It should come as no surprise that fertilizer is considered one of the major sources of nitrogen pollution. Homeowners – along with farmers – are the biggest users of fertilizer in the watershed. Fertilizer is also used on athletic fields and golf courses. As Waterkeeper, part of my job is to educate people on how they, as individuals, can help protect the Great Bay estuary from pollution. As documented in PREP’s 2013 State of the Estuaries report, there are increasing nitrogen concentrations in Great Bay. The loss read more…

Today the Patrick Administration took an important step toward meaningful deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) in Massachusetts. Building on momentum from the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Roundtable that CLF co-hosted with the Administration in March, the Patrick Administration launched a new incentive program yesterday: the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive Program for Municipalities. The Administration announced this new program on Earth Day at events in Greenfield and Chelmsford. CLF attended the announcement, and you can watch a video clip of MA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Kimmell and MA Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Sullivan announcing the new program in Chelmsford here and here (pardon the occasional wind!). Following the MA EV Roundtable in March, the Administration created the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Initiative to promote EVs in the Commonwealth. The new incentive program, focused read more…

In the Boston area we are grieving, and we are rattled. The shocking events of last week have taken their toll on all of us. They have been devastating for the families and friends of those killed and injured.  We are relieved and grateful, but underneath we are in some pain. We all need to heal. Today is Earth Day – a day to appreciate the marvelous planet that sustains us. In some years, my attention on Earth Day has focused on what our planet needs from us – in the form of activism, problem-solving, and protection. In fact, that’s my focus almost every day. But this Earth Day, this year, I for one will focus on what the Earth does for us – emotionally – because we in the Boston area read more…