This past Friday, staff from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission and The Liberty Consulting Group issued the results of their investigation (PDF) into the impacts of PSNH’s failing business model and “ever higher costs” to consumers. The Union Leader and NHPR were quick to quote the report’s damning conclusion: In summary, the situation looks to worsen, as continuing migration from PSNH’s default service by customers causes an upward rate trend. We find no supportable basis for optimism that future market conditions will reverse this unsustainable trend, especially in the near term. To the contrary, the PSNH fossil units face uncertainties that combine to create a risk of further, potentially substantial increases in costs. This underlines the benefits of abandoning PSNH’s residential energy service, noting that “PSNH’s default service rate read more…

Shanice Wallace is a Posse Scholar working at CLF as a summer intern.  As more people are aware and involved in addressing environmental issues, the fight for a greener Boston becomes a shared Bostonian concern. Mayor Menino soon will be leaving Boston after 20 years. More than my entire lifetime!  During that time, he has done a lot to turn Beantown into Greentown, as he likes to say. Now, Boston has the opportunity to build on existing programs to reduce our environmental impact and become a greener city. Boston’s next mayor will have the opportunity to lead the next phase of Boston’s environmental revolution. The new mayor must take this opportunity to improve our neighborhoods by addressing climate change, clean energy and the environment. Please save the date and plan read more…

It’s not often you get the chance to celebrate such a clear victory for the environment as the return of the alewife to the St. Croix River watershed.  As discussed in prior posts, a Maine law prohibiting alewives from accessing this fish ladder at the Grand Falls Dam was repealed this past May and for the first time in two decades, alewives are able to return to their spawning grounds upriver.  The victory was celebrated not only with partners like Chief Clayton Cleaves of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Downeast Salmon Federation but also with former adversaries, like the US EPA who we sued in order to break the logjam with the federal agencies and establish that the Maine law violated the Clean Water Act. For more background on the read more…

This week on Talking Fish, elvers may be the most valuable fishery you've never heard of; in Fish Talk in the News, puffins and squid may be in trouble and Maine celebrates the reopening of fishways on the St. Croix River. read more..

There has never been a better time to care about the ocean than now. The ocean provides us with so many things – half of the air we breathe, an amazing variety of things to eat, a place of beauty and refuge and sometimes fury. This year the New England coast line was pummeled by tropical storms and Northeasters, reminding us yet again that our glorious ocean is powerful, relentless and unforgiving. Despite our ingenuity and technical know-how, we live in a natural and changing environment and need to better plan and protect our ocean ourselves going forward. We used to think that the ocean was so big, and life in it so abundant, that nothing we did could harm it or exhaust its resources. But now, because of us, read more…

If you are like me, you will take just about any excuse to go to the New Hampshire Seacoast – but we have a really great reason for you to head there next Tuesday evening: Ocean enthusiasts and the community are invited to join the screening of Green Fire Productions film, “Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship.” This event, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 from 7:00-9:00PM at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, New Hampshire. The evening will begin with a reception including coffee and cookies, and will feature educational materials from the event hosts. After the screening, there will be a Q&A discussion session moderated by Jennifer Felt, Conservation Law Foundation’s Ocean Planning read more…

Urban agriculture is taking off in Boston, from neighborhood gardens and markets to City Hall. Since January 2012, staff from Boston Mayor Menino’s office, along with a number of farming advocates, urban agriculture experts, and neighborhood representatives have met monthly to draft a new section of the Boston Zoning Code, Article 89.  Article 89 addresses the growing interest in urban agriculture – and specifically commercial urban agriculture – by expanding opportunities and reducing local regulatory barriers in Boston. A comprehensive draft of the proposed rezoning has been completed, and Article 89 is now available for review.  The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) has arranged a series of neighborhood meetings in the city to discuss the draft Article.  A list of neighborhood meeting times and dates can be found here.  The first meeting read more…

We are in the throes of a first-in-the-nation regional ocean planning process, and we need you to join those who are already taking part. The Northeast Regional Planning Body (RPB) is holding a series of public meetings throughout New England (find one near you here) to tell people what’s going on in ocean planning and to find out what your questions and comments are about the goals that they have developed, and their potential actions and outcomes. This process is much more effective and meaningful when people who care about the management of our ocean and coasts get involved. read more..

On June 4, Judge Reiss of the Federal District Court in Burlington, Vermont will take up the latest lawsuit from Vermont Yankee’s owners. Once again, Entergy, the owner and operator of Vermont’s tired old nuclear plant, is asking a federal court to give it a free pass. Entergy wants to stop Vermont regulators from having any say over its operations. This latest skirmish involves the building of a back-up diesel generator. Entergy claims the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires the generator and that Vermont is getting in its way. It needs the Federal Court to stop any Vermont review of the proposal. Hold on. Vermont’s regulators already issued a proposal that would approve the generator. The only deadline is one that is self-imposed by Entergy. The current schedule allows a final read more…

Reinforcing the need to protect vital ocean habitat areas and end overfishing of New England’s severely depleted groundfish, the Conservation Law Foundation and Earthjustice filed a pair of lawsuits in federal district court challenging the shortsighted and damaging groundfish regulations developed by the New England Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for the 2013 fishing year. read more..