Yesterday, Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton decided not to require an environmental impact review for the Wheelabrator ash landfill in Saugus. The decades-old landfill sits next to a municipal solid waste incinerator on the Saugus and Pine Rivers and Bear Creek, located in a legally protected “area of critical environmental concern,”…
Aug 9
2016
2016
Jul 22
2016
2016
Take Action for Clean Energy in Massachusetts
Contact your legislator in support of a strong clean energy future for Massachusetts. How strong is the clean energy bill for Massachusetts? CLF discusses the in a recent teleconference above. Click to watch the video or listen to an audio recording. The clean energy bill is almost over the finish line in Massachusetts – but…
May 23
2016
2016
Conservation Law Foundation Says MA Clean Energy Bill Not Strong Enough
We need a bill that lives up to its name — An Act to Promote Energy Diversity. This bill is weighted too heavily in favor of imported hydropower.
May 18
2016
2016
CLF Victory: Highest Court in Massachusetts Enforces Global Warming Solutions Act
By Jenny Rushlow and David Ismay In a sweeping unanimous opinion yesterday, the highest court in the Commonwealth confirmed that Massachusetts’s landmark 2008 climate protection law, the Global Warming Solutions Act, requires that the state take enforceable action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on an annual basis in order to achieve the law’s 2050 greenhouse…
Apr 21
2016
2016
How EPA’s Brownfields Program Helps Massachusetts Communities: My Testimony Before Congress
Today, I am one of five people from the private sector testifying before Congress about the importance of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program, and how it is helping local communities here in Massachusetts and across the nation. CLF has long played a role in the redevelopment of brownfields – former commercial or industrial properties…
Apr 13
2016
2016
Natural Gas Has No Place in Our Clean Energy Future
By David Ismay and Caitlin Peale Sloan Massachusetts stands at a crossroads, and the stakes could hardly be higher: Will we invest in a clean and healthy energy future for our children and grandchildren? Or will we continue to subsidize the failing fossil fuel industry that pollutes our air, water, and climate? That is the…
Mar 21
2016
2016
Our 30-Year Fight to Clean Up Boston’s Harbor of Shame
As a young environmental law student at Vermont Law School in the late 1980s, I learned of the effort to clean up Boston Harbor – then regarded as one of the filthiest waterways in America. Labeled the “Harbor of Shame” by the Boston media, the Harbor was avoided by the city and still used as…
Feb 10
2016
2016
Retail Net Metering Is Good for Us All
Retail net metering is the single most important driver behind anyone’s decision – yours, mine, a local business’s, or town’s – as to whether it makes financial sense to install solar panels. And it’s pretty simple: with retail net metering, installing solar makes financial sense; without it . . . not so much. Here in…
Feb 10
2016
2016
No More Dirty Energy for Massachusetts!
As families across New England were preparing for this last holiday season, NRG Energy, a Texas dirty-energy giant (over 80% of its massive power holdings burn fossil fuels!), quietly filed its request with the Massachusetts Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) for approval to construct its newest fossil-fuel power plant: a new, 350 megawatt gas- and…
Feb 5
2016
2016
Right Whales and Cashes Ledge: How to Make a Good Thing Last
In late January, North Atlantic right whales scored a big win when the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expanded the critical habitat for the endangered whale from 4,500 square nautical miles to 28,000 square nautical miles. The original area included only a portion of Cape Cod Bay and an area east of Nantucket near the Great…