What does the climate have to do with the food system? A lot, it turns out. This relationship plays out in different ways, but lately we have been seeing an awful lot of one particular aspect. From the production side to the business side of agriculture, drought and heat are a dangerous combination. Drought conditions…
Aug 31
2016
2016
Aug 22
2016
2016
Turning The Tide on Dirty Energy: MA Supreme Judicial Court Weighs In
For the second time this summer, the highest court in the Commonwealth has ruled unanimously and unambiguously in CLF’s favor, confirming that it is illegal for the Baker administration to force businesses and families to subsidize the construction of private gas pipelines via a tax on our monthly electric bills. The court’s wise decision—together with…
Aug 9
2016
2016
Massachusetts Ignores Public Concerns and Climate Change in Controversial Landfill Decision
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,”…
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…