Following a week of mild temperatures, New England is bracing for the cold to come. Last year, we weathered the worst cold snap that we’d faced in 100 years, complete with a new phenomenon known as a “bomb cyclone.” Now don’t be mistaken, this “bomb cyclone” did not involve Armageddon, the sky falling, or even blackouts… Continue reading Cold Snap Shows We Still Don’t Need New Gas Pipelines
Heat waves and flooding are putting New England’s people, environment, and economy at risk. Aging infrastructure is increasingly stressed from sea level rise and bigger storms. Our farmers face challenges from shifting growing seasons. Atlantic cod – already dwindling – will disappear and lobster will move out of reach of New England fishermen as waters warm.… Continue reading The News about Our Climate Isn’t Good – But the Fight is Far from Over
The day after the election, CLF President Brad Campbell joined Staff Attorney Emily Green and special guest Jamie Hoyte – former Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs and currently Senior Advisor with Tremont Strategies Group – to talk through what the election results mean for New Englanders.
“What the tragedy in the Merrimack Valley makes clear is that we need to be weaning ourselves off natural gas now,” said Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “This is a system with too many risks and vulnerabilities.’’
In an unprecedented display of no confidence, our energy grid operator terminated its legal relationship with Invenergy. It’s yet another nail in the coffin on this unneeded, unwanted, fracked-gas power plant.
“The power industry tried every trick in the book to avoid the inevitable, and the state’s highest court rejected each one,” said David Ismay, Senior Attorney at CLF. “The goal of our appeals was to ensure these fossil fuel power generators would reduce their emissions year after year for the sake of our communities and the climate. And the recent Supreme Judicial Court ruling has done just that. We still have a long way to go in the fight to halt climate change and build a thriving clean energy economy, but for the time being, our work with these plants is done.”
CLF dismissed three appeals challenging the permits for two new gas-fired power plants after Massachusetts’ highest court reaffirmed that lowering climate-damaging emissions is the law of the land in the Commonwealth.
The Final Hearing to decide if Invenergy will be allowed to build its fracked gas and diesel oil power plant in Rhode Island is underway. By law, the most important questions to be answered by the state’s Energy Facility Siting Board: Is this plant really needed (it’s not) and would the plant cause unacceptable environmental harms (it would).
A new analysis done by the regional electric grid operator, ISO-New England, confirms what experts have said for years: New England doesn’t need expensive new gas pipelines to keep the lights on and our homes warm during harsh winters. Instead, the clean power and energy efficiency we are already buying will guarantee year-round reliability and… Continue reading My Turn: David Ismay: No need for more gas infrastructure
April 21, 2018 was an historic date for the New England power grid: It was the first time that mid-day peak energy demand from the power grid was lower than at the lowest point overnight. The reason for this historic first is the effectiveness of energy efficiency and the combined output of 130,000 small, medium,… Continue reading April 21, 2018: Renewable Energy Makes History in New England
