Jerry Elmer, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, the environmental group that led the fight against the project, alongside the Town of Burrillville, also waited at the courthouse, arriving at the Rhode Island Supreme Court clerk’s office an hour before closing time. “The case is over. Invenergy lost. The climate won,” he said.
“We already know that this know that this kind of pollution is terrible for our upper respiratory system for things like asthma and lung disease,” said Alyssa Rayman-Read, vice president and director of CLF Massachusetts. “Encore and all these different companies have a responsibility to the communities that they’re in not to exacerbate existing public health crises.”
“The casino is a brand-new neighbor, and it’s already wearing out its welcome,” said Alyssa Rayman-Read, director of CLF Massachusetts. “There’s no excuse for shuttle buses sitting in already vulnerable neighborhoods pumping toxic fumes into the air.”
“We saw a trend and a growing need in the farming and food entrepreneur community for affordable legal services,” says Phelps Turner, a staff attorney who manages the Maine hub. “So we leveraged our connections in the legal community throughout New England to create this program. We identified attorneys and law firms willing to volunteer their time and provide free legal services to farmers and food entrepreneurs.”
Amy Moses, Rhode Island director of the Conservation Law Foundation, said that at a minimum any regulations in the state must have an enforceable drinking water standard at the lowest possible level for some of the most common PFAS chemicals. But she said it’s not enough to target only a few of the compounds when there are thousands of slightly different variations in the PFAS family.
“It’s really unconscionable that the system allows this to continue,” said Caitlin Peale Sloan, also a senior attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation in Boston. “These forever chemicals enter your body, and don’t leave, and they compound. Protecting the public from these chemicals should be an urgent concern.”
“Yeah, it’s a good thing if you’re creating less waste in your home or business, but the most important part of the challenge is understanding that the system is broken,” said Kirstie Pecci, a senior fellow at the Conservation Law Foundation. “We don’t need to make each of ourselves perfect in how we handle our waste – that’s not possible. We need to make a better system.”
“Expanded fishing in a right whale hot spot flies in the face of the Endangered Species Act,” said Erica Fuller, a Senior Attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation — one of the groups that brought the case. “This ruling rightfully reverses a dangerous course and will give right whales the protection they need from fishing gear. We cannot afford to lose even one more of these critically endangered creatures.”
“This ruling rightfully reverses a dangerous course and will give right whales the protection they need from fishing gear,” Conservation Law Foundation attorney Erica Fuller said.
Officials at the National Marine Fisheries Service declined to comment on the ruling. The lead plaintiff in the case, the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, praised the decision. “Expanded fishing in a right whale hot spot flies in the face of the Endangered Species Act,” said Erica Fuller, a senior attorney at the foundation.
