Update: News articles in Boston Globe, Salem News and Boston Business Journal about this announcement. Puts Dominion Energy On Notice Of Clean Air Act Lawsuit BOSTON, MA (January 27, 2010) In a continuing effort to bring the Salem Harbor Station coal-fired power plant into compliance with the federal Clean Air Act, Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) today announced that it intends to file a federal suit against Dominion Energy of New England for ongoing violations of smokestack emissions limits. The suit focuses on the emissions of particulate matter – small particles of chemicals, metals and ash which have been linked to severe health and environmental problems. If successful, the suit would hold Dominion responsible for paying millions of dollars in penalties retroactively for violations of the smokestack emissions limits. The violations read more…

The bad news: Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski introduced a resolution designed to tamper with the science driven regulatory process of Greenhouse gas emissions by the U.S.E.P.A. The good news: The two Republican Senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, courageously refused to follow their party line and did not sign on to the resolution. “Maine should be proud to have two senators with the courage to do the right thing for Maine and the country when it comes to critical environmental issues,” said Sean Mahoney, director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Maine Advocacy Center.  ”Unlike Senator Gregg of New Hampshire and his Republican cohort of climate change deniers, Senator Snowe and Senator Collins withstood the pressure of party politics and did not join in this attack on the authority read more…

It’s hard to say a good word about the new fees being charged by airlines for checked baggage.  Travel websites abound with tips on how to get around these new fees.  At the risk of taking an unpopular stand, anyone who cares about reducing global warming pollution needs to think twice before decrying this industry practice.  If you’ve ever tried to calculate your “carbon footprint“–the measure of the greenhouse gas emissions you create directly or indirectly as you live your life–then you know that your footprint grows larger and larger with each trip you take on an airplane.  Like the cars we drive, the planes we fly in burn lots of fossil fuels and emit greenhouse gases as a result.  Scientists say jet airplanes also contribute to global climate change through the “contrails” they leave in read more…

The authors of the book The Rising Sea summarizes their conclusion that prudent planning for waterfront communities assumes a sea level rise of seven feet in a post on the Yale environment 360 website. Chilling stuff, especially for those of us who remember when early iterations of this work nearly ten years ago labeled New Orleans as the American community most vulnerable to sea level rise and catastrophic storms. They identify Florida as the most vulnerable place in the United States to sea level rise and aggressively argue that building new high rise developments on the waterfront is a big mistake.

Who would have thought that Wearing Blue would turn out to be such a huge national event?  The interest in today’s Wear Blue for Oceans events is proliferating like so many amphipods. There are 13 “formal” events including the CLF and Ocean River Institute event in Cambridge. I’ll be with a hundred or so blue attired folks at Lafayette Park (in front of the White House) in Washington, DC. The public interest is coming from all over the country in about as many ways as people can express their love and desire for a healthy living ocean. One of my fave’s is the Beach Chair Scientist’s rendition of ”Love me Blue.” Meanwhile, friend and colleague Sarah Chasis of NRDC has this to say in the HuffingtonPost. And, the Wear Blue Facebook friends group is now over 1500 and Sherman’s Lagoon read more…

In a web video interview (transcript) Rob Bradley, Director of International Climate Policy at the World Resources Institute, makes the following observation about the difficulties and challenges around the international climate negotiation process: Well, some of the problems that occur are down to the sheer complexity of climate change as an issue. It’s too politically charged for the technocrats, but it’s way too technical for the politicians. You know, very often ministers come in and they’re handed, by their subordinates, simply too long and difficult a list of questions to get to grips with. But it’s true that the U.N. as a process offers a lot of challenges of its own and we saw some fairly ugly scenes really towards the end of Copenhagen. It operates by consensus. You’ve got read more…

Happy Blue Year! With all the great progress we are making CLF is expecting 2010 to be one of the best years for America’s oceans and coasts yet. Earlier this week we declared a pretty major victory in Massachusetts with the completion of the much anticipated Mass Ocean Plan.  Not to be outdone, President Obama’s hardworking Ocean Policy Task Force is driving towards the finish line on the nation’s first ever comprehensive policy for oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. Part of the effort is to include a vital framework for coastal and marine spatial planning so we can finally stop managing our oceans with a single issue by issue approach. Poor management leads to more environmental impacts whether the cause is overfishing, drilling for oil, pollution or badly planned coastal development.  One of the most stylish things you can do to kick read more…

Yesterday the Commonwealth of Massachusetts released the final management for all of the state’s ocean waters. Despite centuries of land use planning experience in the US, this is the first time in history that a state has developed such a comprehensive approach to planning uses of the ocean. This is a true victory for our oceans and all who use them. Much congratulations to Gov. Patrick and the hard working people in the Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs who were working on the details through the holidays. Read the joint release CLF and Mass Audubon issued yesterday. What does it mean for the economy? A study by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management estimates the annual output of the state’s marine economy at $14.8 billion a year. The results of better planning will help read more…

Determined journalist from Renewable Energy World takes the time in a long form NPR/radio style podcast to dig into this important topic.   If you are deeply ideologically committed to either “cap and trade” or to a carbon tax you should not listen to the last 5 or 10 minutes – or maybe you should . . .

Former NY Times Reporter Andrew Revkin – now Senior Fellow at the Pace University Center for Applied Environmental Studies while still writing and moderating the NY Times Dot Earth blog – provides a good overview of how the media has fundamentally under reported the climate story drawing upon this cool diagram. This is the challenge of addressing such a large and systemic problem – how do we sustain focus, interest and energy around an issue that by definition is global, long term, pervasive and does not have a signal moment of crisis.