| CLF in Massachusetts
People from all over the world come to the greater Boston area to live and work, to attend renowned colleges and universities, and to explore the history and culture, making Eastern and Southeastern Massachusetts the most densely populated areas in New England.
Intensifying growth and sprawling development drains our water supplies, brings more traffic to our roads, and pushes fishermen from the waterfront. As demand for electricity grows, we produce more greenhouse gases that cause climate change, spurring rising sea levels that threaten our beaches and waterfront communities from the North Shore to Cape Cod and the Islands.
Maintaining our quality of life and finding solutions to our environmental problems pose powerful challenges. Since 1966, CLF has been stepping up the plate by advancing environmental solutions in Massachusetts and across New England.
CLF's current Massachusetts initiatives and cases include:
- Boston Public Transit Commitments: Ensuring that the Boston Public Transit commitments, including extending the Green Line from Lechmere Station to Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford, are funded and built, and that this process happens with meaningful community input.
- BU Biolab: Urging BU to examine alternative locations for it's bio-defense laboratory, currently under construction in the Roxbury/South End section of Boston.
- Cape Wind: Ensuring that the proposed 130 turbine wind farm in the federal waters off of Nantucket Sound moves forward.
- Environmental Insurance Agency: Creating greener insurance that supports the work of CLF.
- LNG Terminal Siting: Examining the impacts of proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) sites across New England, ensuring a full environmental review.
- Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance: Bringing together seven nonprofit organizations to promote smart growth and to reduce the negative impacts of urban sprawl in MA though the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance (MSGA).
- Mercury Initiative: Reducing toxic mercury emissions by enforcing long ignored federally mandated mercury pollution control requirements.
- Rebuilding Groundfish: Ending the overfishing of cod and other groundfish species in New England through legislation and other methods.
- Salem Harbor Power Plant: Working to require that the Salem Harbor Station come into compliance with environmental regulations.
- Stellwagen Bank: Pushing for the creation of fully protected ocean wildlife and habitat areas at Stellwagen Bank, where excessive pollution, overfishing, and environmentally insensitive fishing practices are prohibited.
- Somerset Station Power Plant: Opposing the proposed transition of the Somerset Station Power Plant into a coal gasification plant.
- Transportation Investment Coalition: Working with the Transportation Investment Coalition to ensure that Massachusetts both maintains our existing transportation system and invests in strategic expansion that will meet environmental and economic development goals.
Massachusetts accomplishments and victories:
- Cleaned up Boston Harbor through a combination of legal advocacy and community organizing, vastly improving water quality.
- Launched a campaign in collaboration with Clean Water Action (CWA) and Lead Action Collaborative (LAC) to promote environmental justice by eliminating lead poisoning in Boston and throughout Massachusetts.
- Supported the Massachusetts Food and Farmland Protection Act, a bill aimed at preserving local farming in MA.
- Blocked offshore drilling on Georges Bank through a court victory.
- Forced landmark settlement with Commonwealth of Massachusetts for a series of commitments to expand transit service and reduce air pollution in exchange for the construction of Boston's Central Artery project.
- Stopped construction of three coal-fired power plants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and forced smog-reducing technology at Merrimack Station, New Hampshire's dirtiest power plant.
- Successfully challenged the MBTA's failure to implement transit improvements, securing a dramatic reduction in toxic emissions from city buses.
- Fought a proposed diesel fuel-fired power plant in the environmental justice community of Chelsea, Massachusetts; the power plant would be located on Chelsea Creek directly across the street from Burke Elementary School.
- Curtailed the use of outdoor recreational vehicles on the fragile ecosystem of the Cape Cod National Seashore, preserving this national treasure in the face of large increases in human use and development.
- Launched a comprehensive program for cleaning up stormwater pollution and addressing water quantity issues in MA's Charles River watershed.
- Worked to ensure that small municipal separate storm sewer system in New Hampshire and Massachusetts are regulated by EPA in a meaningful way that protects water quality.
- Helped pass Massachusetts Ocean Act in the State Senate.
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