Interesting Press Release from the Attorney General's Office!

Here is a press release from the Attorney General’s Office we think you may be interested in!

Please continue to keep in contact with the Attorney General’s Office through this e-mail address, or via our social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). Thank you again for all your work and support.

Sincerely,

Community Engagement Division

Office of Attorney General Maura Healey

One Ashburton Place

Boston, MA 02108

agocommunityengagement@state.ma.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                       MEDIA CONTACT:

February 28, 2017                                                                             Chloe Gotsis

                                                                                                            (617) 727-2543

AG HEALEY JOINS COALITION OF ATTORNEYS GENERAL OPPOSING PRESIDENT TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER THAT GUTS CLEAN WATER PROTECTIONS

Joins Attorneys General From New York, Connecticut, The District of Columbia, Hawaii, Oregon and Vermont Vowing to Fight the Order and Protect the Environment

BOSTON — Attorney General Maura Healey today joined attorneys general and chief legal officers from New York, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Oregon and Vermont in releasing the below statement opposing President Trump’s executive order which the President described as paving the way to eliminating the Clean Water Rule (also known as the Waters of the United States Rule):

“We strongly oppose President Trump’s executive order that undermines Clean Water Act protections and the public health and environment of our states.

The President’s order runs counter to the Clean Water Act’s, and the EPA’s, purpose -- achieving clean water.  The Clean Water Rule is a measured, reasonable, and lawful application of sound and uncontroverted science to protect our nation’s upstream source waters.  We rely on these waters to ensure clean drinking water, water recreation, and viable commercial fishing and navigation.

Rescinding the Clean Water Rule would allow uncontrolled pollution of these critical water resources, and could also harm the competitiveness of our state economies by forcing us to spend more to clean up the pollution of deregulated waters coming from upstream states that refuse to control such pollution in order to benefit their economies.  Clean water is essential to life and the people of our states and the nation deserve the strong federal baseline established by the Rule to ensure that the benefits of clean water are shared equally regardless of state lines.

We won’t hesitate to protect our people and our environment—including by aggressively opposing in court President Trump’s actions that ignore both the law and the public’s paramount need for clean water.” 

In April 2014, EPA and the Army Corps proposed the Clean Water Rule to define the “waters of the United States,” and made the rule available for an extended public comment period.  After receiving over one million comments, most of which supported the rule, the agencies published the final rule on June 29, 2015.Massachusetts was part of a coalition of seven states (New York, Connecticut, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) and the District of Columbia that successfully intervened to defend the Rule in litigation challenging it in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

The Rule clarifies the scope of waters that are protected under the Clean Water Act. It protects waters with a “significant nexus” to downstream waters, such as tributary streams, wetlands, and open waters in floodplains and riparian areas, consistent with Supreme Court precedent. In drawing those lines, EPA and the Corps relied on a robust EPA science report that considered more than 1200 peer-reviewed publications. The agencies also relied on an independent review of the science report by EPA’s Science Advisory Board. 

The Rule enhances environmental protection benefits enjoyed by states and the public by clearly defining the Act’s reach to include waters that significantly contribute to the quality of the nation’s waters.  By clarifying the scope of the Clean Water Act, the Rule also benefits both regulators and the regulated community by reducing time-consuming, inefficient and potentially inconsistent case-by-case jurisdictional determinations that have hampered effective implementation of the Act for years and led to significant, time-consuming litigation across the country.

The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office has long supported an interpretation of the term “waters of the United States” that follows the scientific evidence and thus best achieves the Act’s central water-quality-protection purpose as a means to reinforce Massachusetts’s own strong water quality protection laws, including the Massachusetts Clean Waters Act and the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act.

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A tumultuous year in climate change

By THE DENVER POST EDITORIAL BOARD

PUBLISHED: December 23, 2016

Eitan Abramovich, Getty Images

 

This file photo taken on March  shows an iceberg in the western Antarctic 

peninsula. East Antarctica’s massive ice sheet may be more exposed to 

global warming than long assumed, according to a recent study that shows 

how strong winds can erode ice shelves that help hold it in place. 

There is enough frozen water sitting on top of the world’s polar continent 

to raise sea level by dozens of meters and re-draw the world map if it melts.

As America rolls into 2017, climate warriors on both sides prepare for battle. Before the fighting breaks out, it behooves the nation to reflect on where things stand in the final days of 2016. It was a complicated year for climate change and clean-air policy, though probably not a watershed one.

The worst news is that temperatures continue to increase — 2016 will likely be the warmest year on record, breaking the record for the third year in a row. Even if we just miss it, the upward trend of global temperatures overall continues at a perilous rate.

And as the planet sits a couple of degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, real impacts are emerging. In Colorado it’s born out through diminished snowpack in the mountains, drought and heat-induced wildfires and pine beetles and now spruce beetles devastating our forests. Although 2016 was a great year in the state for precipitation, the EPA says April snowpack has declined by 23 percent over the past 61 years in the West in part due to warming temperatures.

Even more startling are changes at the top and bottom of the world. In the Arctic, water temperatures are as much as 9 degrees warmer than the 30-year average, and sea ice late in the year has been at a record minimum. In the Antarctic, glacial melting is happening at a startling rate, threatening unprecedented seal level rise.

Bad climate news isn’t always so obvious, though. This year, Volkswagen reached a settlement with its customers and the federal government over the company’s diesel cars that had illegally high emissions. VW will buy back most of the vehicles. The settlement includes a hefty payment to the Environmental Protection Agency to offset the negative impacts the emissions had.

The year had some climate bright spots.

The brightest was ratification of the Paris climate agreement. The United States joined with nearly 200 other countries in a commitment to limit temperature increases. No one country can solve the global threat of climate change. International collaboration and shared responsibility must be cornerstones of serious attempts to prevent catastrophic outcomes.

Meanwhile, President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan continues to promise overdue regulation to some of the worst polluters. Unfortunately, the whole thing is in limbo, thanks in no small part to opposition from officials in several states, including Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman.

And Colorado’s Gov. John Hickenlooper will have to decide what to do with that draft executive order that was leaked in August. It would call for a 35 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from power companies by 2030. That would be a big step for the state, but only if Hickenlooper can truly implement it in a way that wouldn’t mean job-killing cost increases for operators and pocketbook-breaking rate hikes for consumers.

The Environmental Protection Agency took clean air standards into its own hands this year, lowering the allowable levels of ozone. We thought the new standards, which are beyond the reach of Denver and much of the Front Range due to background levels of ozone settling here from other parts of the country, went too far. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t concerned with the quality of air in Denver and the health consequences of high ozone levels.

The world must come together to address climate change. No single city, state or country will reverse the man-made contributions to global warming or the advent of smog alone, but we also can’t sit on the sidelines and blame others for our current predicament.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/12/23/a-tumultuous-year-in-climate-change/

VoteVets: The big oil giveaway fueling our enemies

As veterans, military family members, and VoteVets supporters, we know the cost of our dependence on foreign oil far exceeds the dollars and cents we pay at the pump.

It can be measured in lives lost and changed because of oil profits that fund those who attack our deployed men and women -- and a changing climate that the Pentagon considers a significant threat to national security.

There's no doubt, regardless of the cost to veterans and military families -- BIG OIL has had their way in Washington, D.C., and now they're going after one of the most important policies we have in place to limit our national dependence on their product: The Renewable Fuel Standard.

VoteVets is participating in the Environmental Protection Agency's Public Comment Period to protect the Renewable Fuel Standard and we need you to join us -- this is important.

Add your name to VoteVets' letter to the EPA asking the agency to protect rules in place to ensure a minimum amount of renewable fuel is used for transportation in the United States.

If this message sounds familiar, it's because we beat back attempts to gut the renewable fuel standard last year. But big oil's big pockets have them trying again.

The EPA takes these comments seriously, and we're at risk of being drowned out by deep pocketed special interests.

That's why your signature is so important -- please add it right now:

http://action.votevets.org/stop-big-oil

Thanks for standing with us on this issue.

All my best,

Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran & Chairman
VoteVets

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PAID FOR BY VOTEVETS ACTION FUND

RSN: Pollution and Politics

Stunning article that doesn't even go far enough to explain that the BENEFITS, THE CLEAN ENERGY JOBS would more than justify any minor costs.

The Party of Pollution seems to be another appropriate label.

Who supports that?

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

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FOCUS: Paul Krugman | Pollution and Politics

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed regulations to curb emissions of ozone, which causes smog, not to mention asthma, heart disease and premature death."
READ MORE

 

 

 

 

RSN: More Radiation Exposure Won't Hurt You, Says US EPA

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

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FOCUS: William Boardman | More Radiation Exposure Won't Hurt You, Says US EPA

William Boardman, Reader Supported News
Boardman writes: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States is a full blown oxymoron when it comes to protecting U.S. residents from the danger of increased exposure to ionizing radiation."
READ MORE

Let's breath some fresh air....

Please add your name....

VISIT CLIMATEREALITYPROJECT.ORG

Just moments ago, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy announced the first-ever safeguards limiting carbon pollution from existing U.S. power plants.

Our science and solutions team has begun to comb through this lengthy proposed rule, but what we know right now is simple: this groundbreaking regulation is an important step towards addressing our single largest source of carbon pollution, existing power plants, and will help lead the U.S. towards a cost-effective renewable future. We all want a healthy and sustainable future, not one characterized by rapidly rising asthma rates and other public health issues caused by climate change.

The real work starts now. Earlier this year, thousands of Climate Reality members sent a comment in support of the EPA's carbon standards for new power plants -- setting a direction for the future. Now, we need your help to address current pollution levels, which are actively changing our climate.

Even before these safeguards were released, Big Polluters were already using fear mongering and doomsday scare tactics to mislead us about the impact this proposed rule will have. That's why it's so important for you to send the EPA a comment in support of this rule right now.

Thank you for standing with the EPA, the White House, and Climate Reality in this turning point for climate action.

This won't be the last you hear from us about this -- as more information is released, we'll keep you updated.

Sincerely,

The Climate Reality Team

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