Since Sean Mahoney, CLF’s Executive Vice President, and his wife put a rooftop solar panel system on their barn, they’ve noticed a huge difference in their energy bills. All told, their annual energy costs have decreased by up to 80 percent! For the Mahoneys, installing solar panels was about both saving money on electricity and about reducing their carbon footprint.
“I love all of New England,” Kirstie Pecci, senior fellow at the Conservation Law Foundation, wrote in a regional update email Tuesday. “I am busting my butt every day to move towards Zero Waste through the whole region.”
Solar energy helps end our addiction to fossil fuels.
It’s hardly news that temperatures in New England drop below freezing in winter. But as CLF has long argued, we have plenty of fuel to get through even the coldest winters unscathed, without footing the bill for a polluting new pipeline. And on top of that, if we want to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change, we must stop using dirty fuels like gas altogether.
Vineyard Wind signed an agreement in January with the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and other environmental groups under which they will take historic steps to protect right whales.
The 2018 midterms brought a Democratic majority to the House, giving us new and exciting opportunities for environmental legislation. This Congressional session, CLF’s Oceans team is focused on protecting special places in New England’s ocean, effectively addressing threats facing the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, and promoting sustainable fisheries.
“That standard should probably be set between 1 part per trillion and zero,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the foundation. “That’s where the agencies should end up, if they engage deeply in the science.”
Managing energy demand is the easiest and cheapest way to meet energy needs.
It’s an exciting time for offshore wind in New England, with multiple projects moving forward over the next decade. Developers can move the clean energy industry forward while protecting North Atlantic right whales by following these best practices.
“The 52 Senators who voted to confirm Andrew Wheeler to lead the Environmental Protection Agency are each complicit in the countless premature deaths, compromised health, and global economic peril that will undoubtedly result from Wheeler’s agenda to weaken protections and safeguards that are fundamental to the agency’s mission,” said CLF President Bradley Campbell.
