Our electricity grid was designed over 100 years ago. But times have changed. Today, clean, renewable energy can be harnessed right where we live, so electricity doesn’t have to come from polluting power plants miles away. But we have to update our electricity grid to take advantage of it.
“By erasing protections for the majority of our Nation’s wetlands and more than 18% of streams, this rule green-lights the dumping of pesticides and toxic chemicals into our waters,” said Heather Govern, Director of CLF’s Clean Air and Water program. “Large corporate interests bought and paid for this rollback, which will harm our communities and public health for decades to come.”
“In today’s proposal, President Trump has arrogated to himself the power to repeal the nation’s foundational environmental protection law by fiat, in defiance of the language and history of the statute,” said CLF President Brad Campbell. “This unlawful gift to the fossil fuel industry excludes climate impacts from consideration and redefines the scope of the law to a fraction of those reviewed for generations. This lawless action at the behest of the oil and gas industry will not survive judicial or public scrutiny, and continues the president’s war on science, the environment, rationality, and fact-based decision-making.”
Winter snow and ice bring out Big Gas’s fearmongers. Why is the region’s electric grid operator among them?
“The fishermen have had the ocean all to themselves for centuries,” says Peter Shelley, senior counsel for the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. Shelley says the lawsuit challenging the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument, and the presidential authority that created it, failed to acknowledge other “values” such as conservation and preservation as powers granted in the Antiquities Act of 1906.
“Today’s decision is a clear victory for our oceans and for the Atlantic’s only marine national monument,” said Peter Shelley, Senior Counsel at CLF. “This decision upholds protections for one of the most fragile and scientifically important areas in the North Atlantic from destructive activities like oil drilling and industrial fishing. Safeguarding the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts ensures that we are leaving a proud legacy for the people of New England.”
Although world leaders met in Madrid this month to discuss how to lower global emissions, the gap in ambition between the negotiation rooms and the side events was stark. It highlighted how important it is to take action at the local level—for instance, passing state-level climate laws and advocating for clean energy in New England.
“This state agreement moves us toward much-needed regional collaboration to confront the climate crisis,” said Amy Laura Cahn, Director of CLF’s Healthy Communities and Environmental Justice program. “Urgent and bold action is necessary to tackle the scourge of carbon emissions and jumpstart clean transportation options for New Englanders. We also need more immediate solutions that improve air quality for residents in pollution hotspots.”
“With the ocean getting hotter and more acidic and wildlife facing extinction, the ocean must be a top issue this election season,” said Priscilla Brooks, Director of Ocean Conservation at CLF. “It’s time for bold action to confront the crisis facing our oceans.”
“Yet again the Trump Administration is pandering to big oil and gas at the expense of our health and our communities,” said Emily Green, CLF Senior Attorney. “As we run out of time to tackle the climate crisis, this policy moves the country in the wrong direction. It will lead directly to a dirtier, more polluted future. We cannot afford to hit reverse on these standards.”
