“They’ve known since the 1970s that their products are damaging the climate,” said Darrell Brown, vice president of CLF Rhode Island. “But instead of protecting our communities from climate fallout, they’ve spent nearly 50 years and billions of dollars sowing doubt and deceit.”
Removing the incentives and rebates for heat pumps as called for by the oil dealers would only punish those who don’t have the resources to choose a cleaner, healthier and cheaper way to heat, cool and dehumidify their homes and businesses. There is nothing just or equitable about that. Stay the course, Maine.
If we consider the facts, adapt to changing conditions and avoid polarizing this issue, we can find ways to develop and bring to market innovative fishing systems that allow a healthy right whale population and a healthy lobster fishery to coexist.
Greg Cunningham, director of the climate and clean energy program at the Conservation Law Foundation in Massachusetts, has been pleased to see that the struggles to pass major legislation have ended in success in many places.
“I would say that the last two years there has been more activity than I’ve seen in my 15 years of doing this,” said Greg Cunningham.
A federal appeals court is reinstating restrictions on fishing gear in a nearly 1,000-square-mile swathe of ocean off Maine’s coast. It’s a blow to Maine’s lobstermen and a victory for advocates for the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation, one of the environmental groups involved in the appeal, said the court’s “decision affirms that science matters.”
The preliminary injunction filed in federal court is part of a larger lawsuit the Atlantic Salmon Federation, Conservation Law Foundation, Maine Rivers and Natural Resources Council of Maine are pursuing against Brookfield Renewable for allegedly violating the federal Endangered Species Act.
“There’s a real risk that, because of the market power of these companies, they may actually crowd out competitors and ultimately make renewable energy more expensive for consumers,” says Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation.
“President Biden’s announcement is a welcome relief after Trump threw science out the window and slashed protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation, in a statement. “With our oceans in peril from human impacts and the climate crisis, it’s time to protect more areas, not less.”
Kirstie Pecci is director of the zero waste project with Conservation Law Foundation. She says the MassDEP decision to expand the capacity of the landfill is especially egregious because the landfill doesn’t have a plastic liner.
