Every turtle counts

Mass Wildlife | Division of Fisheries and Wildlife

"Turtles are known for their protective shells, but a hard shell does little to protect them from threats like habitat loss, pollution, and illegal collection. Six of the ten native freshwater turtles in Massachusetts are protected under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. These rare turtles need your help. [...] While turtles can live a long time, they are slow to reproduce. For example, the box turtle, a species of special concern in Massachusetts, can live for more than 100 years! But only a small percentage of turtles ever reach adulthood. Turtle eggs and hatchlings make an easy meal for many predators, and crossing roads presents a danger to turtles of all ages. Most adult turtles must breed for their entire lives to replace themselves in the wild population. For this reason, removing even a single wild turtle can have a negative impact on the entire local population. [...] 'Losing any adult turtles, especially adult females, can result in the local extinction of a population. Because every turtle counts, we're reminding the public of the harm that removing just one turtle can do,' [said MassWildlife Herpetologist Mike Jones]. Most species of turtles in Massachusetts are protected and cannot be captured or kept. It is also illegal to move turtles from one location to another. [...] MassWildlife works with partners to protect and restore the different habitats where turtles are found. The public can help by leaving turtles alone when they see them in the wild. Rare turtle observations can also be reported to MassWildlife’s Heritage Hub. These observations help MassWildlife identify and conserve important habitats for rare turtles. Turtles have lived on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs. To ensure turtles continue to thrive for the next million years, it’s important for everyone to do their part. Turtles are best kept in the wild." Read More

In Massachusetts, An Undercover Climate Foe

Jon Lamson | The Lever

"In one of the most liberal states in the country, the largest roadblocks to climate legislation do not come from fossil fuel producers or cultural conservatives bent on opposing any progress toward a clean energy economy. Instead, the most successful opposition comes from two giant investor-owned utility companies, which use their earnings from regulated monopolies to shape the state’s climate legislation to their liking. Gas and electric utility companies in Massachusetts collectively spent $439,000 on lobbying over the first half of this year, with the majority of this coming from the state’s two largest utilities, Eversource and National Grid. According to lobbying disclosures from the most recent legislative session, National Grid lobbied against bills promoting rooftop solar, renewable energy financing, clean heating, community representation in the regulatory process, and eliminating gas leaks. The clean energy measures that the utility did support were related to offshore wind, biogas, electric vehicles, and energy storage — topics that help the company maintain its profit-driven business model in the state. Eversource, meanwhile, registered essentially all of their lobbying (more than 99 percent) as “neutral,” while lobbying on many of the same bills. [...] Amid an accelerating climate crisis, such lobbying efforts highlight a major downside of allowing investors to control the essential services of heating and electricity. The ultimate purpose of these utility companies is to maximize profits, instead of keeping rates low and accelerating the transition to clean energy. [...] A 2021 report from researchers at Brown University’s Climate and Development Lab found that between 2013 and 2018, the utility industry was the most successful coalition in lobbying on climate legislation in the state, compared to other coalitions such as environmentally-focused nonprofits, the fossil fuel industry, and the real estate industry. More often than not, the utility industry opposed bills supported by environmentalists, the researchers found. [...] Massachusetts is one of the most liberal states in the U.S., delivering President Joe Biden his second highest percentage of the vote in the country. Biden recently visited the state to announce a series of executive actions on climate change. While Massachusetts currently has a Republican governor, Democrats maintain veto-proof majorities in both the state House and Senate. But the state also boasts an undercover power player holding up the transition to clean energy: powerful local utility companies." Read More

Conservation Groups Win Major Appeal in Challenge to Expansion of Colorado's Gross Dam

Water Keeper Alliance

"On Friday, September 30, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit handed conservation groups — Save the Colorado, The Environmental Group, WildEarth Guardians, Living Rivers, Waterkeeper Alliance, and Sierra Club — a significant victory in their appeal of a U.S. District Court’s dismissal of their challenge to a Clean Water Act permit that is required for the expansion of the Moffat Collection System and Gross Dam in Colorado. The conservation groups allege in their lawsuit that a “dredge and fill” permit issued for the project by the Army Corps of Engineers was unlawful on several grounds, including violations of the federal Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act. [...] The proposed Gross Reservoir Expansion Project would add an additional 900,000 cubic feet of concrete to the existing dam, effectively tripling the size of the reservoir. If completed, the Gross Dam would be the tallest in Colorado and the tallest roller-compacted concrete dam in the United States. The Colorado River Basin, the main water source for communities across Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah and Mexico, is in a crisis of increased demand and reduced supply, magnifying shortfalls of an already over-allocated system and facing forecasts of worsening climate change driven water shortages. In the face of this crisis, putting the water supply for 40 million people at imminent risk of collapse, Denver Water continues to move forward with building the largest dam in Colorado history in order to further drain the Upper Colorado River at the expense of downstream users and ecosystems. 'This important victory will now allow us to prove in court that the Clean Water Act permit for this ill-advised and untenable water grab was unlawfully issued,' said Daniel E. Estrin, General Counsel and Advocacy Director for Waterkeeper Alliance." Read More

Take Action! A Demonstration, Strategy Summit, and Standout 

No Fracked Gas in Mass

"So many great events are happening this week and this month, from protests and rallies to informative webinars and hearings. [...] 

Fix the Grid Strategy Summit 2022: This event will include two panels featuring fantastic speakers and several breakout groups to facilitate dialogue and agree on collaborative next steps. We'll cover ways to make our regional electric grid more renewable and more transparent and dig into how to get our state leadership to be more active in pushing for the kind of grid we need. It's also a great opportunity to meet other grassroots advocates, legal experts, and policy pros who are tackling the messiness that is our electrical grid. 

Stop Funding Climate Chaos Demonstration: Take part in this demonstration — which is co-sponsored by No Fracked Gas in Mass and BEAT — to draw urgent attention to the moral imperative to stop funding new fossil fuel projects. We are bringing faith leaders to the forefront of this gathering to highlight the immorality of investments that steal the future from coming generations. This action is to speak to Big Finance on the moral imperative to stop funding fossil fuel projects… It is directed at TD Bank, which continues to finance new fossil fuel infrastructure with billions of dollars, all while science is telling us to reverse course immediately to prevent climate catastrophe.

Eversource Headquarters Standout: Eversource plans to expand its transmission corridor in Hampshire & Franklin Counties. They want to double the width of the corridor to 200 feet by clearcutting an additional 370 acres of forest! We insist that the Mass. Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs conduct its usual full environmental impact report, as is required by Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act. Eversource wants to waive the required environmental impact report, falsely claiming that there will be little impact. Let’s take action!" Find More Info

Female sumac gall aphids leaving gulls to colonize moss

Mary Holland | Naturally Curious

"The sac-like galls, often referred to as “Red Pouch Galls,” found on Staghorn and Smooth Sumac are anywhere from marble to ping pong ball-size, and usually become obvious in late summer and early fall when they often acquire a rosy pink blush. Inside the thin walls of these galls is one big hollow cavity, teeming with tiny orange woolly aphids (Melaphis rhois) referred to as Sumac Gall Aphids. In the spring, female aphids lay an egg on the underside of a sumac leaf, causing the plant to form an abnormal growth, or gall, around the egg.  The egg hatches and the aphid reproduces asexually within the gall. Thus, all the aphids inside the gall are identical clones of one another. In late summer or early fall, the winged females fly to patches of moss, where they establish asexually reproducing colonies. At some point these clonal colonies produce males and females which mate and it’s these mated females that fly off to lay eggs on sumac leaves in the spring." Read More

Rhode Island starts to wrestle with what its net-zero goal means for natural gas

Lisa Provost | Energy News Network

"Rhode Island utility regulators are beginning to consider what the state’s mandate to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 means for its natural gas system. The state Public Utilities Commission, or PUC, has opened a docket to investigate the future of the gas distribution business, a response to the passage last year of the Act on Climate. The investigation could bring about 'wide-ranging and significantly impactful' changes, such as moratoriums on new hookups, incentives for renewable natural gas, and transitioning customers to alternative heating fuels like electricity, the commission said in its notice of the proceeding [...] The neighboring state of Massachusetts began a similar study into the future of gas in 2020. But that process has resulted in sharp criticism from climate advocates, who say it gave too much control to the gas utilities. Earlier this year, Attorney General Maura Healey — who is running for governor — filed a scathing set of comments on the proposals emerging, saying the result would be an energy system that 'pumps more money into gas pipelines and props up utility shareholders.' Massachusetts 'almost wasted a year by putting it in the hands of the utilities to control things from the beginning,' said Larry Chretien, executive director of the Green Energy Consumers Alliance. 'No consensus has been reached, not even close.' [...] Aquidneck Island, have been wrestling with whether to expand or reign in natural gas since 2019, when system failures resulted in the prolonged loss of gas service to more than 7,000 customers in the bitter winter cold. [...] Narragansett Electric’s then-parent company, National Grid, conducted a study and came up with a variety of potential fixes, including building a second gas pipeline or new gas facilities, or curbing gas use through energy efficiency measures and heat pumps. The fix the utility is currently proposing is to make permanent an existing liquid natural gas storage facility in Portsmouth." Read More