CT Green Scene

6th Annual Global Environmental Sustainability Symposium: Transportation, Human Mobility, and Sustainability at CCSU

April 4th, 2013

9:45 AM-7:15 PM 

FREE, Registration Required

Central Connecticut State University

New Britain, Connecticut

The CCSU Global Environmental Sustainability Action Coalition invites the public to learn and to teach one another about the actions that we, as human beings, must take to ensure that we live in such a way that we are able to satisfy our needs while ensuring that our children and grandchildren will be able to satisfy their own. The symposium will offer 3 classes, two performances, a panel discussion, a tour, and an optional attendance at the town meeting, as well as opening and closing notes from distinguished professionals in sustainability. This event is FREE: anyone can register online to show up. *Exhibitor tables are still open.

Schedule

9:45-10:00 AM: Symposium opening and welcome with Dr. Charles Button and Dr. Jack Miller (tentative) at Alumni Hall

10:00-10:45: Transportation, Migration, and Sustainability in Four Worlds Alumni Hall

Dr. John Kelmelis expands upon a possibility raised by the United States National Intelligence Council when they published Global Trends 2030: Alternative World. This work explores four very possible future worlds. Dr. Kelmelis will explain what each of these worlds might mean for our future as well as what strategies we might use to make the most of each circumstance at the local, regional, national, and global levels. 

11:00-11:45: Panel Discussion: Electric Cars and Alternative Vehicles Alumni Hall

The president of the New England Electric Auto Association (Dave Oliveria), an environmental writer and speaker (Jim Motavalli), the Senior Associates Autos Editor for Consumer Reports (Eric Evarts), and a natural gas car owner (Joe Booth) all come together in one place to talk about the real value that hybrid, extended hybrid, and electric vehicles hold. This is a special opportunity to discover what users and reviewers genuinely think about these alternative vehicles.

12:00-1:45 (*with second free registration): Water Wars Performance and Lunch Alumni Hall

While you enjoy your lunch, the Sonia Plumb Dance Company will be performing Water Wars. This is an emotionally charged piece of art that exposes the very important and very tenuous relationship that human beings have with one of our primary sources of life: water.

Help Save Clean Energy Rate Payer Funds - Again!

Breaking News from Connecticut Fund for the Environment : The Appropriations Committee will hold a public hearing on the Governor's latest deficit mitigation package on Thursday, March 11, at 3:00pm.

This important hearing will impact the future of the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, ratepayer-funded programs that save money for homeowners and small businesses while cutting carbon emissions and supporting the state's growing clean energy industry. Contact Tisha Ferguson Outreach Director, CFE 203-787-0646 x108 tferguson@cfenv.org for more information.

A Blogger For Any Diet

by James Simpkins

Last week I wrote about a pizza place in Avon and no one said a word. Over the holidays I penned two articles expressing my displeasure about shopping at Discount Food Outlet in Canton; and readers are still writing in droves to expressing their displeasure about my perspective, even attacking me personally. More than one comment suggested that I leave town since I didn’t like it. I was both confronted and amused by such responses. The confrontation part is obvious, I hope—no one likes being openly despised, especially by people they are unacquainted with. Unfortunately, humans seem all too willing to express malice towards those people with opinions that do not match their own (see our current political climate). In my mind, this is akin to hating the guy next to you because you don’t like the color of his tie. Ties, like opinions can, and do, get changed. The life that wears that tie or has that opinion, however, is no less precious, and we are all hard-wired to preserve it. Fortunately that is not all us humans are born with. Laughter, they say, is the best medicine.

In another sense, I was very much amused by all the uproar realizing people’s anger was not because of an unpopular stance on abortion or gay marriage, but a grocery store. Now that is funny!!! I had no idea that people were so attached to where they bought their food. Shame on me, though, as food is always chock-full of intimate meaning for people. Lesson learned.

In the wake of the fallout from the DFO articles, this week allow me to offer a more personal piece that I hope will establish a context for what I write, and why I write it; a kind of road map to my inner gastronome.

The first item on the colloquial menu is the term “connoisseur”; this is what I consider myself in the food arena. Think of it as the “who does this guy think he is?” part of my writing. The second proffering is the usefulness of critique and analysis. While criticism nearly always gets a bad rap, I think we need critics and critical understandings of any subject, food included. As subjectivity is common to all of us, being critical can actually help us appreciate even our least favorite ideas by allowing us to see there is always another side to any story. But first, the connoisseur…

T Boone Pickens to Join Congressman Larson in East Hartford

Via GreenMarine Productions

Congressman John Larson will host a public forum on the Economy and Energy at Goodwin College in East Hartford on Tuesday, November 24th, from 4 - 5:30 pm in Goodwin College Auditorium.

Larson will be joined by special guest T. Boone Pickens, energy pioneer and creator of the Pickens Plan.

Larson is a co-sponsor of the NAT GAS Act, legislation Mr. Pickens strongly supports, which will make domestic natural gas a more accessible alternative to imported oil while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and urban pollution in vehicles.

Seating is limited. To RSVP or obtain further information about the town hall forum, please call Larson's office at 860-278-8888.

Back Away From The Dunkin' Donuts~Green Coffee in our Blue State

by: James Simpkins

Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, I thought Dunkin’ Donuts was a throwback to the 1980’s—somewhere you stopped under duress in Podunk, West Virginia. Moving to New England a few years ago, the dream I was living became a nightmare: Not only was Dunkin’ Donuts not an Atari-like icon of a bygone era, but it seemed to have become the default coffee for millions of people living in the Northeast. And no one seems to care a lick that it sucks. And I’m not just saying that as a guy who’s from out of town, I say that as a coffee lover and aficionado. It’s really bad! However, walking around Yale’s campus a couple weeks ago, my luck changed for the better.

After the results of the 2004 elections, Andrew Ruben and his father, co-owners of Blue State Coffee in New Haven (and RI), were licking their Democratic wounds while in line for a couple lattés. Andrew casually mentioned how coffee might offer an opportunity to place some extra funds in the coffers of progressive causes. His old man knew a good idea when he heard one, and with the help of friends Blue State Coffee was born some three years later, originally as a website where you could order genuine Organic, Fair Trade coffee beans. As ideas tend to do, the concept of a Green, sustainably produced coffee eventually created a life of its own in the form of a retail shop where the idea really took root.

Blue State Coffee first store opened on Thayer Street in Providence, Rhode Island. They now have the original location as well as a spot in the Brown University Bookstore, and the location that I stumbled upon in New Haven. It figures that a good cup of coffee is needed at stellar, modern campuses like Brown and Yale, but how did the whole “Drink Liberally” entendre sit with the old, stodgy right-wingers that those two campuses are also known for? Ruben says it’s going just fine, thank you. Two and a half years in and all three locations are profitable, steadily increasing sales since their openings. Ruben, for one, is psyched. And he should be---he’s still in college (at Yale) and already has a bright future ahead of him. Like so many of us gone the way of the Humanities, that glowing future is completely unrelated to the American Studies degree that he is working on. Well, almost.

Ruben’s timing for his opening could not have been better. Well, maybe by a week or so. The first store opened a week after Obama’s inauguration and attracted quite the following. Al Franken even stopped by and gave a speech on his long road to becoming a U.S. Senator. Good press is also helping Blue State along with Ruben’s ideals being featured in places like Vanity Fair and the Hartford Courant, as well as local papers. What’s driving the interest seems to be the intention to be what Andrew refers to as a “zero-waste business”—striving to recycle, reuse or compost everything they sell. As Ruben says, “Basically, the goal is to remove the trash cans from all of our facilities.”

 Blue State also sources as many products as it can locally. While the coffee isn’t grown around here (I asked just in case) it is roasted by New Harvest Coffee Roasters in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The milk in your latté is from The Farmer’s Cow, a Connecticut based six farm cooperative--and the food they sell is made and delivered daily by La Cuisine in Branford. This is all in line with today's progressive consumer demands. Because of the (correct) popular consensus that we have taken a wrong turn somewhere in our commercial enterprise, the Green concept is something that truly stretches across to our friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Kind of like a good cup of coffee. And this website.

 It’s not all roses, however. Ruben tells me that while each of the locations are making money, even while the economy is turning somersaults, Blue State costs more to operate than it would without the commitments that are behind it. Here’s the Mission Statement:

Our Mission:

• To offer organic, fairly traded coffee, roasted to perfection

• To donate 5% of sales to local and national causes that reflect our progressive values

• To run a zero waste, environmentally sustainable business

• To unite a group of people committed to bettering our communities and our country.

What doesn’t surprise me is that a company with commitments like these is more expensive to run. What does surprise me about Blue State Coffee is that when it comes down to making some money vs. a lot of money, those commitments still run the show. But, unlike your local Dunkin’ Donuts, there is no consortium of global private equity firms (like the one that owns DD) trying this and that to add a penny’s more worth to a weakened portfolio. There’s just a smart, driven college junior, his (clearly cool) dad, and a bone to pick with conservatives. Like one of the numerous Blue State double entendres states--“You’re on political grounds.”

I’m not asking you to give up your Dunkin’ Donuts-quite the contrary; go ahead and pick one up. Then stop by Blue State Coffee in New Haven for a comparison. But no dilly-dallying…it won’t be long before you’ll have to look outside their store for a trash can to put that cup in. Their cups are made from corn and can be composted along with the grounds from the beans. How about your Dunkin’ Donuts cup? Is that…styrofoam?  That is so 1985.

See? I knew it.

Blue State Coffee Locations:

·        Blue State Coffee @ Brown University Bookstore

244 Thayer Street | Providence, RI 02912

·        Blue State Coffee New Haven/Wall Street

84 Wall Street | New Haven, CT 06511

·        Blue State Coffee Providence/Thayer Street

300 Thayer Street | Providence, RI 02906

Next Move Is Rell's On Bill To Block Ash Dump

The Hartford Courant
By ALAINE GRIFFIN
June 18, 2009

FRANKLIN--Opponents of a plan to create an ash dump in Franklin are closely watching Gov. M. Jodi Rell's office this week, hoping she will sign legislation that blocks the project.

The Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority says its plan to dump ash from its trash incinerators at the Franklin site is safe. But a group of residents have fought the project, taking their battle to the Capitol. Both the House and the Senate this session passed legislation barring the CRRA from buying land in either Windham or Franklin for an ash dump.

Rell spokesman Adam Liegeot said Wednesday that the governor has until Tuesday to act on the measure.

In a letter to Rell this week, Sen. Edith G. Prague, D-Columbia, said a veto by the governor "would show complete disregard for the well-being of those it would harm the most." An ash dump in Franklin would destroy "pristine" land there and pollute residents' drinking water, the letter states. Also signing the letter were Reps. Kevin Ryan, D- Montville, and Susan Johnson, D-Windham.

The letter follows recent allegations by environmentalists that the CRRA is using "last-minute scare tactics" to push for a veto, telling municipalities the legislation would mean the state would lose its ability to site landfills, forcing towns and cities to pay more to ship ash outside Connecticut.

Care about Solar? Pick up the Phone ASAP!!

Thank you to our Friends at Connecticut Fund for the Environment, who say that YOU...the readers and supporters of CT GreenScene are making a difference!

"On behalf of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, thank you for your testimony and calls of support throughout the legislative session! Your enthusiasm has been a tremendous help.

Now we need one last big push to get these key bills through the Senate. Please call your senators immediately to make sure these bills make it to the floor before the end of session tomorrow."

             Growing Solar Power

Our allies have been working hard on this bill, and it’s paid off! HB 6635, An Act Concerning Solar Power, passed the House unanimously yesterday. Let’s get it through the Senate and get started—the bill will create at least 30 megawatts worth of new residential solar, encourage large-scale commercial solar projects, and create a new financing model for renewable energy credits.

Read it here: http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/FC/2009HB-06635-R000491-FC.htm

Water Foul?

by Rip Empson  
New Canaan Advertiser
Thursday, May 28, 2009

Feeding resident ducks and geese has long been an activity shared by parents and their children on afternoon walks, but many residents may be surprised to learn that feeding local waterfowl can be harmful — and is now prohibited.

Last week, Town Council approved an ordinance designed to discourage this behavior,  declaring it unlawful to feed waterfowl on public land.

Ordinance 6-10, which was passed by one vote last week, will be enforced by police and animal control officers, and any resident found in violation of the ordinance may be fined $90.

At the coucil’s meeting, the vote on the proposed ordinance ended in a draw, but First Selectman Jeb Walker stepped in to break the tie in favor of approval.

“With this vote, we are not trying to take away a great childhood joy,” said Town Council member Richard White, who voted in favor of the ordinance. “We are trying to address a broader issue and outline an overall bird management program — which we have to undertake.”

The new ordinance is part of a town-wide effort to address the growing number of waterfowl living on public land in New Canaan — specifically Canada Geese, which have been labeled as the primary offenders.

Food Safety Gone Wrong?

by Eileen Weber

Salmonella. E. coli. Listeria. These are just a few of the scary names that pop up with food borne illnesses. It’s been found in our spinach. It covers our tomatoes. Even peanut butter is not immune.

"We have a crisis in food safety in this country," said Connecticut Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro in an interview with the Hartford Courant on April 8th. "We've watched nine people die of salmonella poisoning from peanut butter. ... This bill is an attempt to address that issue in a very reasoned and thoughtful [way]."

DeLauro has good reason to be alarmed by the illness rate. According to an April 9th article in The New York Times, the Food Safety Modernization Act, or H.R. 875, is addressing these illnesses in the food that we eat. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) listed 16 in 100,000 people were diagnosed with food-related illnesses. That’s roughly 48,000 people. Only three years earlier, that number was 14 in 100,000 or about 42,000 people.

And that’s only the ones that were diagnosed. It takes someone being sick enough to be hospitalized and the illness to be properly diagnosed. For truly accurate statistics, it gets a little tricky.

It’s because of this kind of information that DeLauro is putting her agenda forward to regulate the food industry. The goal here is to break the Food and Drug Administration into two separate bodies. It will require food companies to meet standards for contaminants in the food they sell. It will also offer a system of certifying safe imports. There will be stricter food inspections, mandatory recalls, and civil penalties for policy violations.

While regulating our food sounds like a noble cause, there are many people who think the bill is not such a good idea. Blogs abound with vehement outrage against the bill. There has been plenty of fodder on YouTube. Shouts of “This is just big government trying to shut down the little guy!” and “It will be the death of all things good, right and organic in this world!”

Obamas to Plant White House Vegetable Garden

March 19, 2009
The New York Times
By MARIAN BURROS
WASHINGTON — On Friday, Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of White House lawn to plant a vegetable garden, the first since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets (the president doesn’t like them) but arugula will make the cut.

While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at time when obesity has become a national concern.

In an interview in her office, Mrs. Obama said, “My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities.”

Twenty-three fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington will help her dig up the soil for the 1,100-square-foot plot in a spot visible to passers-by on E Street. (It’s just below the Obama girls’ swing set.) Students from the school, which has had a garden since 2001, will also help plant, harvest and cook the vegetables, berries and herbs.

Conversations on Climate Change

by Eileen Weber

As part of Fairfield University’s Climate Change Week, a panel of political experts converged at the Barone Campus Center Thursday night. The main topic focused on greenhouse gas emissions and what Connecticut is doing to try to reduce it. The panelists represented the local, state, and national viewpoints on the subject.

Carbon emission is the main greenhouse gas that is affecting the environment. “Global politicians agree that climate change is a problem, but nobody can quite agree on how to go about it or how to gauge it,” said Professor Downie, Director of the Program on the Environment at Fairfield University who moderated the lecture.

To those who scoff at global warming, “The science is indisputable at this point,” said panelist Danielle Rosengarten, Counsel and Legal Assistant to Senator Joseph Lieberman.

She went on to say that Washington’s change in administration was a huge gain for climate change. But to panelist Robert Wall, of Energy Marketing Initiatives at the Rocky Hill-based Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF), climate change is still the “800 pound gorilla” in the room.

A little more than six months ago, the global warming bill for this state was passed. Its ambitious goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 17% in 2020 and a whopping 80% by 2050. But with mass transit still under-utilized including a Waterbury-Hartford train line still in the planning stages, transportation, and its ensuing carbon emissions, is still an issue.

Our first green president?

 

by Barry Katz

In five days we will inaugurate our first African American president. It's momentous. It's historic. And it's about time.

Back in the early days of the primary campaign some black leaders raised the question, is Obama black enough. My only question is this - is he green enough.

I think he just may be. I sure hope so. I have watched with pleasure and relief at the science/climate/energy/environment team he has put in place and each appointment raised my level of optimism. Could Barack Obama really be our first green president?

We are faced with an historic opportunity. At no other time would it have been possible to get Congress to approve the kind of spending that could really jump-start the new clean green economy we so desperately need. Only a financial melt-down of current proportions can shake that kind of money from the tree.

It will take bold action and a lot of very smart decisions to make this work, and I'm waiting with bated breath to see if Obama and his team can pull it off. Back in December I wrote a post for my blog, The Future is Green entitled "What we need now" in which I suggested that this administration should be judged primarily on the extent to which the next four to eight years is devoted to energy and climate policy. In my mind, nothing else matters. Nothing else matters because everything else hinges on this.

I'll be watching.

Taking a Bite Out of the Environment

by Eileen Weber

On Sunday at the Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts at Sacred Heart Univerity. Mark Bittman, cookbook author and weekly columnist for the Dining section of The New York Times, spoke for a little over an hour about his new book, Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating with More Than 75 Recipes, and the state of food in America.

Bittman, echoing some of the recent sentiments of Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley, discussed the way we manufacture food in this country affects our health and our environment. As noted in an earlier article on this web site, Pollan told NPR that the food system was responsible for about a third of the greenhouse gas emissions. During the lecture, Bittman repeated that same statement adding the fact that livestock production tops even transportation in how it affects the environment.

Mind Your Own Agri-Business

by Eileen Weber 

The confirmation hearing for Tom Vilsack, Barrack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Agriculture, will take place on January 14th. To some, that comes as good news. Political pundits have noted Vilsack’s background as a former governor of Iowa as well as his shared viewpoints with Obama. They both support the use of biofuel, reducing our dependency on foreign oil, and climate change.

“As governor of one of our most abundant farm states, [Vilsack] led with vision promoting biotech to strengthen our farmers in fostering an agricultural economy of the future,” said Obama of Vilsack’s appointment on December 17th, “that not only grows the food we eat, but the energy that we use.”

But others, like Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley, are a little apprehensive about the challenges facing Vilsack in his new role. In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) on December 18th, Pollan said that the former governor’s appointment may just turn out to be “agribusiness as usual”.

EARTHPLACE To Host Candidate Forum On the Environment

Many of you have met John Hartwell at a GreenDrinks event or two. Well, thanks to EarthPlace, now is your chance to hear the candidate's views, ideas, and goals relating to the environment.

State Senate Candidates John Hartwell & Rep. Toni Boucher Guests

WESTPORT, Conn. , October 17, 2008 – Earthplace: The Nature Discovery Center will host a Candidate Forum on the Environment on Tuesday, October 28th at 7:30 p.m. at Earthplace, 10 Woodside Lane, Westport .

Democratic nominee John Hartwell and Republican nominee State Representative Toni Boucher will discuss their views, ideas and goals for the environment. The candidates are running for the 26th State Senate district seat being vacated by retiring Senator Judith Freedman.  The district includes Westport , Wilton , Bethel , Redding , Ridgefield , New Canaan and Weston.  The question and answer session will focus solely on environmental issues and will be moderated by Earthplace Trustee Matthew Mandell, who also serves as a representative to Westport ’s Representative Town Meeting.  Attendees can participate by submitting written questions to the moderator for possible inclusion during the forum.

“This is a great opportunity for voters to hear what these candidates have to say about issues such as open space, water quality, alternate energy and more,” Mandell said. 

Two Environmental Bills Die in General Assembly

Green Laws Die on the Vine
Reprinted from CONNPost.com
Dated: May 3, 2008

By KEN DIXON

HARTFORD — The two bills that would change the way Connecticut recycles are now in the General Assembly garbage heap, a failure of the kind of green legislation that so many lawmakers hail as the wave of the future.

And another green-minded effort — banning plastic shopping bags — also died in the Environment Committee without a vote.

The bill to expand the state's nickel-deposit law to include non-carbonated beverages died last month after heavy lobbying that has succeeded in an annual elimination of the bill in recent years.

And a bill that would start pilot programs for so-called single-stream recycling — putting everything from cardboard to Coke bottles in 64-gallon cans for curbside collection — died on Friday morning.

Earth Day 2008: Contact Your Senator, Member of Congress and Mayor Today

To contact your Senator go to: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

To contact your member of Congress go to: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

To contact your Mayor go to: http://www.usmayors.org/USCM/cgi-bin/database_search4.asp

SUGGESTED TEXT FOR YOUR EMAIL MESSAGE
provided by Earth Day Network, founded by the organizers of the first Earth Day in 1970:

We elected you to lead, and are now asking you to lead us out of the climate crisis with the boldness and courage that the crisis requires.  As the home of the world’s boldest innovators, the world’s strongest economy, and one of its leading democracies, the United States Congress must champion the effort to solve global warming or risk losing our economic future and our democratic principles.   

We demand that Congress act now to cap greenhouse gas emissions and stop global warming by implementing the following:

1. Impose an immediate moratorium on the building of all new conventional coal-fired power plants, and require a phase out of 30 percent of existing coal plants by 2030.

2. Require that all utilities generate 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030.

3. Require that all new buildings, renovations and developments immediately reduce fossil-fuel energy consumption by 50 percent, and that all new buildings become ‘carbon neutral’ by 2030.

4. Protect the poor and middle class from unfairly bearing the cost of solving the climate crisis.

Is Your Mayor on the List?

Pop Quiz: What do these Connecticut mayors have in common?

Sydney Schulman	Bloomfield	CT
John Fabrizi	Bridgeport	CT
Wiliam Kupinse, Jr.	Easton	CT
Kenneth Flatto	Fairfield	CT
Craig Henrici	Hamden	CT
Eddie Perez	Hartford	CT
Susan Mendenhall	Ledyard	CT
Elizabeth Paterson	Mansfield	CT
Mark Benigni	Meriden	CT
Sebastian Giuliano	Middletown	CT
James Richetelli, Jr.	Milford	CT
John DeStefano, Jr.	New Haven	CT
Dannel Malloy	Stamford	CT
Joseph Crudo	Stratford	CT
R. Scott Slifka	West Hartford	CT

Look Out, Here We Come

"Congress may be in recess, but the climate change movement is in full gear," said Gillian Caldwell, Campaign Director for 1Sky. "As a nation, we've never shied away from a challenge, and climate change is one of the greatest challenges we've ever faced. But it's also a tremendous opportunity for us to benefit from a sustainable economy and ensure our national security by embracing energy independence."

At each district office, supporters are presenting their Congressperson with copies of the 1Sky policy platform, which calls for the U.S to: (1) Conserve 20% of our energy by 2015, creating 5 million new green jobs focused on climate solutions and energy efficiency ; (2) reduce global warming pollution at least 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and at least 80% below 1990 levels by 2050; and (3) impose a moratorium on new coal plants and end fossil fuel dependence through strong standards and incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The Greenest Candidate???

I don't know about you all, but I'm still largely undecided about who to vote for since up until this point, neither Obama nor Clinton have proven their eco-worthiness to me. This post on Greenbang certainly perked my ears up, but the fact that Obama's campaign is LARGELY FUNDED BY THE NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY, has me convinced that he'll have our environmental problems compounded in no time flat.

Source of the following: Greenbang
As the Clinton-Obama battle heats up, (Greenbang would like to put in a shout for a televised arm-wrestle to settle the matter) Obama is going for the green vote, showing off his eco-credentials as he toured a green building specialist last week.Apparently, Obama said if he were to find himself on the business end of the Democratic nomination, he would mandate carbon caps, greener cars and grants for families for personal green efforts, as well as chucking funding towards new green tech and biofuels.

“Washington is still turning a deaf ear toward the climate crisis,” Obama said.Obama said as soon as he wins the nomination he would convene a panel of experts to start working on a new national environmental policy. He promised to make the federal government carbon neutral by 2025 and make America 50 percent more energy efficient by 2030. He said he would personally reach out to the countries with the highest carbon emissions to encourage and help them improve their environmental records.

The Devil Wears Lip Balm

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

Who am I to scorn Treehugger for selling out to Discovery or look down my nose at Bear Naked and Kashi giving in to Kellogg? After all, I'm only a hard working mother of two whose hard earned money helped fatten their sacrificial lamb.

Sure I was bummed that I could no longer purchase my favorite cereal or Toms of Maine feeling good about voting for a greener economy with my dollars, but Clorox purchasing Burts Bees for $913 million in November has officially tipped my needle from mild disappointment to despair.

And just to add insult to injury, this article in the New York Times reports that Clorox plans to turn Burt’s Bees into a mainstream American brand that's sold in big-box stores like Wal-Mart.

Who's next?


 

Shame on the EPA!

I don't know about you, but I've always counted on the EPA to safeguard our planet. Not that I'm naive enough to think they're perfect, but their recent move to loosen the reigns on corporations who pollute has me miffed.

This week, Connecticut joined 11 other states including,  Arizona, California, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, in a suit against the EPA for streamlining the application process for companies who produce toxic chemicals.

Under the old laws, companies discharging 500 lbs. or more had to file detailed reports, and under the new regulations, companies can forgo filing lengthy forms for 5,000 lbs. or less.

Call me crazy, but given the current state of environmental duress in the US, shouldn't we be getting more stringent about what toxic substances we allow to pollute our planet? Shame on you, EPA!

Read the full article in the New York Times.

Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE USA)

The aging Indian Point Nuclear Power point and its radioactive isotopes are far from a clean, green energy option. Previous arguements against closing the plant included not having enough power to replace the plant's output. This is no longer the case.

FUSEUSA (Friends United for Sustainable Energy) is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization, that advocates for the development and use of  sustainable energy, in an effort to protect public health and safety and to preserve the integrity of the environment. Their current campaign is to STOP the issuance of relicensing of the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plants, (located just outside New York City) that have a peak injury radius which includes Fairfield and Litchfield counties. They have already filed Contentions and Rulemaking Petitions with the NRC, and are currently preparing Intervener Petitions and other legal actions.

FUSEUSA is a member of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC) which is a coalition of over 70 community groups dedicated to the closure of Indian Point.  Visit their website or read more about their recent legal action in the NY Times.

How CT Legislators Vote on the Environment

 

By Patricia Gilbanks 

The Connecticut League of Conservation Voters recently released its annual score card, an effort designed to track legislators' voting record on bills that have an environmental impact. In addition to tracking votes cast by our legislators, the nonpartisan organization reports on the negative or positive impact on the environment of laws passed in the preceding year.

The League has three goals for its work in the state: to elect pro-environment lawmakers, to hold legislators accountable, and to engage the public in Connecticut's environmental policies.

They set off a bit of a fracas in the media as legislators complained that the scoring did not always do justice to their efforts on environmental issues.

The Dog Ate Bush's Homework

Most of us know that the current administration isn't exactly eco-friendly, but the fact that they're three years late turning in their homework--scientific data regarding the affects of global warming on our economy, environment and public health--came as a bit of a shock, especially since they told their "teacher" that they had control over when and how they produced their reports. Perhaps that's why columnist Cal Thomas is holding fast to an illusion that global warming is conjured up by progressive Democrats to extract more taxes.