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Group: 5 steps to a cleaner New England

Email|Link|Comments (1) Posted by David Beard, Boston.com Staff July 28, 2008 01:56 PM

A wind farm in the North Sea

The Conservation Law Foundation today listed five steps New England should take within five years to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming. The full study can be found at www.newenglandclimatesolutions.org, but here are the five points:

1. Expand public transit opportunities and give people the opportunity to drive less by spending at least 75 percent of transportation funds in the region on public transit and compact, transit-oriented development.

2. Invest at least $1 billion in new energy efficiency and conservation measures for our homes and businesses.

3. Build 2,000 megawatts of new wind power.

4. Shut down at least two of the region’s coal-fired power plants or convert them to cleaner, low-carbon fuels.

5. Enact legislation in every New England state that mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and requires review of climate impacts in state permitting and infrastructure decisions.

Readers, do you agree? Did you catch related comments by Ian Bowles, the state's secretary for energy and the environment, earlier today?Have your say in our comments section below.

tags climate change, coal, global warming, New England, public transportation, wind power

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1 comments so far...

If there is global warming, and there probably is, it has little if anything to do with human activity. Only 12,000 years ago there was glacial ice two miles (10,560 feet) thick in Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, only 200 miles or so north of Boston. That two miles of ice has completely melted in these 12,000 years, although mankind has been burning carbon-based fuel in any meaningful quantity for less than 200 years. Global warming is a scam. See how you feel about global warming this January when it's six degrees out and heating oil is more than $5 a gallon. We need nuclear power, wind power, coal-to diesel plants, cleaner-burning but not unrealistically clean coal plants. What we really need is leadership out of Washington. The first Arab oil embargo and energy shock was in 1973, and during the last 35 years we'vre done - nothing!

Posted by Richard Goodkin July 28, 08 04:47 PM