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 23
2016
2016
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…
Jan 29
2016
2016
Gov. Baker’s Clean Energy & Climate Plan Merely Skims the Surface of Meaningful Climate Action
Last week, the Baker Administration released its first update to Massachusetts’ Clean Energy and Climate Plan. This plan – a requirement of the state’s landmark climate law, the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) – is intended to guide the state in reaching its statewide emissions limits of 25% below 1990 levels by 2020. In its…
Jan 26
2016
2016
Update: Massachusetts’ Senate Passes Climate Adaptation Management Plan
The Massachusetts Senate is voting on a climate adaptation plan that will help our communities prepare for climate impacts. Find out why this bill is important and how you can help get it passed.