The Springfield City Council will challenge Palmer Renewable Energy’s decade-old building permit with the help of the nonprofit Conservation Law Foundation of Boston.
“It’s concerning any time you get a statement like this from a justice, especially from the chief justice,” said Peter Shelley, senior counsel at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “The tea leaves of this statement are going to be read closely by people with very different perspectives.”
“This is an important public health matter,” said James Crowley, staff attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation in Rhode Island. “It is long past time to take action, and we hope that the incoming administration will prioritize this and move ahead with regulations that are protective of public health.”
“We’re experiencing heavier snow loads and precipitation coming in much quicker bursts,” said CLF’s Deanna Moran. “So how is that going to affect distribution lines? What does that mean for trees falling and taking down distribution lines and poles?”
Climate change is “going to put our power infrastructure in a more vulnerable situation. And that jeopardizes reliable service for thousands of Massachusetts residents, which affects not only the cost that they pay in rates, but also their health and safety,” says Deanna Moran, Director of Environmental Planning at the Conservation Law Foundation.
CLF is asking the court to rule that Barnstable is in violation of the Clean Water Act: This would trigger the requirement of a federal permit, which comes with stricter limits on nutrients and other contaminants.
“DES has been operating with a state solid waste plan that was published in 2003 and expired in 2009,” Irwin said. “Our lawsuit is designed to require DES to come into compliance with the law, start planning in ways that will allow New Hampshire to begin reducing the amount of waste it throws away, and move New Hampshire away from its current overreliance on landfills.”
Laws that reduce the demand and availability of plastic products like Maine’s ban on plastic bags and polystyrene foam containers are critical to halting this build out of plastic production facilities. These bans will drastically reduce the harm these products have on the environment, slash the skyrocketing waste management and recycling costs for cities and towns, and cut down on the overall demand for plastics.
Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, said Baker was “reciting some of the hackneyed, false choices about adverse impacts to the economy or having to choose between addressing climate and having a sound economy when in fact, New England’s future economy depends on addressing climate change.”
Protected areas like the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts are critical in the fight to give these waters and species a chance to recover. We know that setting aside parts of the ocean leads to healthy marine life, which fuels an abundance and diversity of life in adjacent waters. That, in turn, supports our ocean economy, including commercial and recreational fishing and whale watching in the long run. Everyone wins.
