Vermont keeps working on better ways for people and goods to get where they need to go. The threats from climate change and the high cost of maintaining our travel ways mean we need to be smarter and greener. In 2011 Vermont’s Governor Peter Shumlin announced that the Circ Highway – an expensive, polluting and…
Feb 1
2013
2013
Jan 29
2013
2013
Tar Sands in Vermont? No Way!
I joined with residents of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom today and fellow environmental colleagues to protect Vermont from the devastation of tar sands oil. We filed a legal action to ensure Vermonters have a say over any proposal to move tar sands through Vermont. See press release here. The request asks that the increasingly imminent proposal to move tar sands through an…
Jan 17
2013
2013
The Time is Right for Affordable Heat
Vermont is poised to take a big bite out of the high cost and pollution of heating our homes and businesses. Slashing a full one-quarter of both lies within our reach. Over the past decade, the cost Vermonters pay for staying warm has more than doubled. This strains our pocketbooks, our environment, our health and…
Dec 28
2012
2012
The Latest on Northern Pass: A Year-End Roundup
As CLF begins a third year of advocacy on the Northern Pass project, some updates are in order: The “New Route” Drama With 2013 only days away, it is looking more and more likely that Northern Pass Transmission LLC (NPT) will not have secured 100% of a “new route” for the project’s northernmost portion by year…
Dec 12
2012
2012
Bright Energy Forecast: Saving Electricity, Reducing Pollution, Saving Money
For decades Conservation Law Foundation has pushed for more energy efficiency, which continues to be the lowest cost, cleanest and most reliable way to meet power needs. More energy efficiency means fewer dirty coal plants, fewer monstrous transmission lines, and more money in our pockets. We all win. The operators of the New England Power…
Dec 7
2012
2012
Why We Need to Repair and Maximize the Efficiency of Our Existing Natural Gas System Before Looking to Expand
As the exuberance for “cheap, domestic” natural gas has heightened, so has pressure to build new pipelines and power plants. Often lost in the frenzy, however, is the sobering reality that our existing natural gas infrastructure is in need of some serious care and attention. A recent study highlighted the fact that the pipelines that…
Nov 28
2012
2012
Risky Business: Leaking Natural Gas Infrastructure and How to Fix It
On the day after Thanksgiving, an explosion shook the City of Springfield. A natural gas pipeline leak led to the explosion that injured eighteen people and brought down two buildings. The details behind the cause of this explosion are still being pieced together, but once again, public confidence has been shaken in the pipeline system that is supposed to transport natural gas safely and reliably to homes, businesses and institutions throughout the nation. Today, CLF is releasing a report on the importance of addressing problems with our aging, leaky natural gas infrastructure. (You can download a free copy of that report here.)
Nov 15
2012
2012
Getting Desperate: Northeast Utilities CEO Falsely Claims Wide Support for Northern Pass
This week, the developer of the Northern Pass transmission project, Northeast Utilities (NU), sunk to a new low. In a presentation at a utility industry conference, NU CEO Tom May stated that: “[T]his project has the support of every environmental group in New England basically.” This is unequivocally untrue. In fact, CLF is not aware…
Nov 13
2012
2012
What the Election Means for New England’s, America’s Environmental Agenda
On Tuesday, Americans across New England joined their countrymen in casting their votes. As the results have become clear, one thing has become clear with it: It was a good night for science and for clean energy. Maine, for instance, elected former wind developer Angus King as its new Senator, who ran with an ad…
Nov 1
2012
2012
Sandy in New England: We Can and Must Change The Pattern of Loss
Each of us personally experienced in some way Superstorm Sandy slamming into our communities all along the East Coast. For many of us, the destruction has been widespread and severe and will be long-lasting. In New England, our neighbors in Rhode Island and Connecticut have been dealt a particularly devastating blow.