We All Live Downstream

Why Go Solar, Why Now? You don’t need to wait until April 22 to get started. Today’s rooftop solar electric technology is making the electricity that supplies homes and businesses cleaner and less costly. Each new system brought onto the electric distribution grid reduces the amount of electricity that needs to come from burning fossil fuels a major source of climate-changing air and water pollution.

Lower-than-ever costs for solar panel components, innovations in system design, and an array of favorable state and federal incentives now allow many users to save on their electricity bills by going solar. New models for leasing – rather than buying – rooftop solar systems can add to the economic benefits and savings for residential customers. Such arrangements can reduce or eliminate the sizeable up-front investments that used to place solar off-limits for many potential customers.

If you’ve been thinking about going solar with a rooftop system on your home and happen to live in one of these states, then you may be in luck:

Arizona                       Maryland

California                    Massachusetts

Colorado                     New Jersey

Delaware                    New York

These are among the states where rooftop solar is currently most attractive. This is thanks to the combination of natural sun conditions in most parts of these states, plus very favorable financial incentives available to solar installers and investors doing business there. Read the rest of this entry »

By Lynn Thorp, National Campaigns Director

It’s the sound of our government implementing the clean air and clean water laws we work so hard to pass.

Today’s announcement of new air pollution controls for cars and gasoline production are welcome news for people struggling with asthma, especially in areas where the health threat from smog and other air pollution is high.  The new program is needed because we still haven’t met our clean air goals for soot, particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides. That sounds complicated, but it’s not. It means we can get $6 billion in health benefits PER YEAR by 2020 while creating jobs. And it means healthier people and meeting the goals of our landmark Clean Air Act because our U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing its job.

The April 15 tax deadline is one of our least-eagerly-anticipated, most procrastinated-about deadlines.

In addition to the costs, the tax filing process can consume tons of paper. Wasted paper usually means more trees being cut, more water impacts from the tree-cutting and from the process of turning trees into paper. Paper mills consume water and can send polluted water downstream when they’re done using it.

We can’t avoid the tax deadline. But we can avoid unnecessary paper waste. Conserving paper can save trees and protect water quality.

As a Clean Water Action supporter you probably already knew that.

But did you know this? There’s a way you can avoid paper waste (thus helping our water) and generate new funding for Clean Water Action at the same time.

Last year, online tax software that lets you do your returns electronically (saving paper) helped generate more than $600,000 in donations for Clean Water Action and other great causes.

You can be a part of this community of tree-saving, water-loving e-filers this year. Here’s one product to get you started.

Or, if you’d like to see a larger range of offerings, those are available, too.

Moving away from paper may not make the tax deadline any less painful. But it is already making a critical, positive difference for Clean Water Action.

If you want to take one additional step, check out this online shopping app from our friends at We-Care.com. The app lets you generate donations for Clean Water Action automatically and at no cost to you, from your online purchases at thousands of participating merchants.

By Michael Kelly, Director of Online Communications

Finally! After nearly four years without a budget from the Senate, our Senators are working on, and debating, a budget. Of course, it won’t be easy.

This is the Senate, after all. Watch the debate live in CSPAN, here

Polluters and their allies are attempting to slip back-door “riders” or amendments onto the budget that would weaken or defund programs that are essential to the health of our environment, our communities, and our families. This is all being done without a hearing and little chance for public debate. It’s a terrible way to decide environmental policy, but that’s exactly what defenders of the status quo want. Read the rest of this entry »

By Cindy Luppi, New England Regional Director

I’m proud to report this week Clean Water Action endorsed Representative Ed Markey in the United States Senate race in Massachusetts. For decades, Rep. Markey has been a consistent and powerful friend to all who value clean air, clean water and healthy communities.

Over Representative Markey’s decades of service, he has been at the forefront of every major movement to protect our drinking water, air quality and community health and safety. A short list of his leadership efforts includes leading the drive for a smart response to the climate crisis, repeatedly protecting the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts from industry attacks, leading efforts to prevent harm to our health from toxic chemicals  — ranging from banning the notorious chemical bisphenol A (BPA) to phasing out dangerous chemicals in personal care products, being the most effective and persistent watchdog of nuclear safety issues and more.
Read the rest of this entry »

By Joel Wool, Clean Energy Organizer

MA Residents: Stand with Lori, call for clean power and healthy communities

If your children left soot where they walked, left coal-black footprints in the kitchen, would you have the courage to ask what was in their air and water? Would you stand up to terrible power?

Lori did.

When the soot came up toxic, PG&E, then-owners of the Salem Harbor Power Plant, offered to powerwash Lori’s home in neighboring Marblehead if she’d only keep quiet. Rather than be silent about pollution that was harming her children, “Mother Grizzly” began a long fight to transition our communities away from coal-fired power.

She didn’t stop there. From the power plant fight, Lori leapt forward, leading a successful struggle to clean up ash-filled Wenham Lake—a drinking water source for Salem and Beverly. By 1955, around the time the Salem Power Plant was built, a local construction company had completely mined a gravel quarry that abutted Wenham Lake. Industrial waste, including that from coal combustion, piled in the quarry until it was 30-40 feet thick.

It wasn’t until decades later, when Lori got involved and pulled in everyone from neighbors, to city councillors, to lawyers, to west coast activist Erin Brockovich, that the waste was cleaned up. (You can read more on the Wenham Lake story here).

Lori took the fight to Washington to close loopholes on federal air protections. She shook the EPA up and down, demanding they regulate coal ash. And in 2008, she won a seat in the Massachusetts State House, where she continues to fight for all us.

Now Representative Lori Ehrlich is advocating for healthy communities from Beacon Hill—but as always, it’s an uphill battle. Will you stand with heroes like Lori? Join us to call for power free of harm, and thank Lori for her valiant efforts.

(March is Women’s History Month. Today, we honor Representative Lori Ehrlich. Massachusetts residents can take action online here).

By Cindy Luppi, New England Regional Director

Gina McCarthy

Today President Obama nominated Gina McCarthy to be the Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We couldn’t be more thrilled with the selection.  We’ve worked with Gina throughout her career in New England and she is a committed professional who has led the fight to protect our air and water.  We know she’ll do a great job as the head of as she EPA.

McCarthy has served as Deputy Administrator for Air and Radiation under Administrator Lisa Jackson, helping develop critical clean air standards, including rules limiting mercury and air toxics pollution, cutting greenhouse gas emissions from new power plants and the historic fuel efficiency and emission standards for cars.  She also served in the Administrations of Governors William Weld (R) , Paul Cellucci (R), Jane Swift (R), and Mitt Romney (R) in Massachusetts and was head of the Department of Environmental Protection for Gov. Jodi Rell (R) in Connecticut. Read the rest of this entry »