I recently wrote a post commending and admiring the work that youth all over Massachusetts have done in order to shed light on climate change and to call for action to address it. When it comes to climate change action, the youth of Massachusetts are doing their part in spreading knowledge and creating a strong voice. Unfortunately, Massachusetts DEP does not seem interested in taking the opportunity to work with, or seriously respond to, the youth in their fight for climate action.

Students from the Boston Latin School who are members of Youth Climate Action Network recently spoke to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. These students, along with Boston College Law students, demonstrated their concern for our futures by creating a petition asking DEP to do more. Mass DEP was required to respond after the hearing. DEP said that they agree with the students’ statements and requests, and said that they were already working on the proposed actions. But the petition was created in order to get DEP to address global warming more aggressively, as needed and required. DEP, rather than admit what they could and should be working on, suggest that they are already doing enough – ignoring that the work they are doing falls short of what the students are asking and what DEP is required to do. DEP’s response embodies an attitude that needs to change in order to address climate change effectively.

It is very discouraging to see the Kids vs. Global Warming petition being taken lightly by the DEP. The Kids vs. Global Warming climate action in Massachusetts was an eye-opener, it allowed for me to see what some climate change fighters looked like.  It was discouraging that on the seldom recent occasion where youth have had the opportunity to speak directly to their government; Mass DEP chose to ignore their request for action. But this fight is not over. Please join CLF in making sure that youth voices are heard by Massachusetts DEP and other government officials in the fight for climate action.

Image courtesy of dsearls @ flickr. Creative Commons.

While the job of cleaning up New England’s power plants is not complete, we have made a good amount of progress: we have reduced emissions from the plants that are still running and are moving towards closure of some of the oldest, dirtiest and most obsolete plants, like the Salem Harbor Power Plant.

But as Ken Kimmell, the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, noted in this radio story, his department still has to advise people not to eat fish caught in streams and lakes: “The mercury levels in the fish are still too high for it to be safe to eat and that’s because we’re still receiving an awful lot of mercury from upwind power plants,” Kimmell says.  The Commissioner is making the essential point here – we are making progress here at home but if we want to truly end the threat of neurotoxic mercury in fish (and the other health effects of power plant pollution) we need to look towards national efforts.

The path forward is clear.  We need to maintain pressure on the sources of pollution here in our region, like the the Mount Tom power plant on the Connecticut River in Massachusetts, while making a strong, affirmative move towards clean energy resources like energy efficiency, wind power, solar, and smart electric storage.

Meanwhile we need for the federal government to stand firm and implement long overdue rules to reduce pollution from the power plants to our west.  The Mercury and Air Toxic Rules that EPA is releasing will prevent hundreds of thousands of illnesses (like asthma attacks) and up to 17,000 deaths each year.  The effect of these regulations will be overwhelmingly positive. For instance, every dollar spent on power plant emissions reductions yields $5 to $13 in health benefits.

We all deserve to breathe easier, our children deserve to be free from the dangerous neurotoxic effects of mercury in our air, and our communities deserve the reduced health care costs and increased job opportunities that will flow as we build a new clean energy economy.