“This policy reversal is a slap in the face to communities battling pollution,” said Heather Govern, Director of CLF’s Clean Air and Water program. “Communities of color have suffered for decades with dirty air and unsafe water, and supplemental projects help right these wrongs. Such an unlawful scheme cannot be allowed to stand.”
The leaders that we select in this year’s elections – up and down the ticket – will fundamentally shape our lives, not just for the next four years, but for decades to come. As a nonpartisan organization that wields the law to protect New England communities and that challenges broken systems and discriminatory policies, CLF cannot be a passive witness to any attempt to undermine our election process. Neither can our supporters.
New England is extremely vulnerable to climate change. It’s a crisis not only for the environment, but also for the health of our communities. It will take systemic change in the way we do business, the way we govern, and the way we guide people to solve climate change and move into the next century.
“Renewable natural gas” is not a large-scale climate solution. It’s a shameless attempt by the fossil fuel industry to convince New Englanders to pay for more polluting pipelines.
A Renewable Energy Certificate is a way to measure and track the production of clean energy. It’s how states and utilities track how much clean energy is being produced by renewable energy sources and which electrical utilities are buying that power.
A Renewable Portfolio Standard is a way for states to ensure their electric utilities – and by extension, the states themselves – are making progress on clean energy. The best policies heavily emphasize clean renewables like wind and solar.
In the decade since I’ve moved away from California, I’ve watched the climate there go from a temperate paradise with the occasional fire to a place with scorching summers and yearly infernos. This is climate change, playing out right in front of us. It’s easy to see these and other disasters from afar and not call them climate catastrophes. But that’s exactly what they are.
As we celebrate the four-year anniversary of New England’s national monuments, CLF is part of a growing movement of scientists, policymakers, businesses, and conservation organizations in the United States and around the world calling for the global protection of at least 30% of land and 30% of the ocean by 2030.
“The judge made it clear that the federal government needs to go back to the drawing board and meaningfully address all of the impacts of the lobster fishery on right whales,” said Erica Fuller of the Conservation Law Foundation, one of the plaintiffs in the case. “Today’s ruling will put a stop to the government’s endless foot-dragging on implementing new long-term protections.”
“The North Atlantic right whale is in a really perilous position, hovering on the brink of extinction. And the sooner that we can get new protections in place, the better chance we have to protect it.” While the lawsuit had asked for a new rule by January, Green says the May deadline is still a victory.
