If you love Massachusetts’ oceans and care about our legendary fishing industry, then CLF is asking you to take action right now to ask Governor Patrick to stand behind the science-based plan he approved to protect that fishing legacy for generations to come. read more..

The view from the corner office at CLF Boston is not always glamorous. For the past few days, the sights and sounds outside our building on Summer Street have been dominated by environmental remediation trucks. read more..

In an effort to clean up the Charles River—and as the result of years of CLF advocacy—residents in Bellingham, Franklin, and Milford, MA may soon be obligated to comply with a proposed EPA mandate to reduce phosphorus runoff by 65 percent. As with most important initiatives to restore our environment, implementing this program will cost money, and there are constituencies opposed. read more..

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (known as “FERC”) has delivered a clear message: the time to plan for a future without coal is now. This comes in response to a protest submitted in October by CLF that challenged a decision by the New England Independent System Operator (ISO-NE) that could have kept the 60 year old Salem Harbor Station running for years longer, despite the damage it causes to public health and the environment and the huge costs it imposes on ratepayers. CLF argued that ISO-NE, the overseers of the regional electricity system under FERC’s supervision, should have developed an alternative to retaining units at Salem Harbor Station to meet the area’s reliability need.  CLF therefore asked FERC to step in to expedite the planning process. Today, the FERC issued read more…

CLF intervened today in proceedings regarding the proposed Northern Pass electricity supply and transmission project in New Hampshire. The project, which involves creating 180 miles of new transmission lines in the state and installing new transmission infrastructure in the White Mountain National Forest, is intended to import 1,200 megawatts (MW) of electricity generated in Canada by Hydro-Quebec, the Canadian public utility. read more..

CLF is a founding member of Renewable Energy New England (RENEW), a collaborative between the renewable energy industry and the environmental community.  After ISO-NE (the operator of the New England electricity grid) gave a press briefing about a report on “wind integration” yesterday, RENEW issued the following statement, check it out: Renewable Energy New England (RENEW) today issued the following statement about the New England Wind Integration Study (NEWIS) currently underway by the Independent System Operator of New England (ISO-NE).  The final NEWIS report from ISO-NE is not yet available, but is expected to be released later this week. “RENEW is encouraged by the study results released thus far and looks forward to seeing the final report soon,” said Abigail Krich, president of Boreas Renewables and a consultant to RENEW. read more…

CLF announces Senior Attorney Sue Reid's appointment as vice president and director of CLF Massachusetts. Longtime director Peter Shelley will take on the new role of senior counsel, in which he will focus on marine conservation issues. read more..

The Boston Globe ran an interesting essay in its Ideas section on whether we should do “randomized trials’ of new laws before applying them to our entire society and economy. Louis Brandeis, a great Boston lawyer before ascending to the Supreme Court once eloquently and clearly presented the mechanism we have long had in place for doing something of the sort: “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” – New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann, 285 U.S. 262, 311, 52 S.Ct. 371, 386-387, (1932) (dissenting opinion of Brandeis, J.) Back in 1932 a knuckle-dragging Supreme Court invalidated read more…

Recommended reading:  A good piece in Slate about the folks in the Evangelical Christian community who are serious about taking on the challenge of global warming.   Because if you think a loving god gave us a wonderful world that we have a duty to preserve and protect you oppose damaging it through flooding the atmosphere and seas with pollution that will cause global warming and acidify our oceans.

CLF congratulates Jo Anne Shatkin, CEO of CLF Ventures, for receiving the 2010 Outstanding Service Award from the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) for her extraordinary service to the Society, particularly in the fields of nanotechnology and emerging nanoscale materials. BOSTON, MA  December 13, 2010 – The Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) has presented Jo Anne Shatkin, CEO of CLF Ventures, with its 2010 Outstanding Service Award. The award is presented annually to a Society member in recognition of extraordinary service to the Society. Shatkin is a distinguished expert in risk analysis related to nanotechnology. In 2006, she organized a group of 75 SRA members to work on the complex issues raised by the use of nanotechnology and emerging nanoscale materials. Now numbering more than 130 members from around the read more…