Dec 26, 2010
Dedham
Opinion
Clarke: A renewed environmental agenda
By Jack Clarke/Guest columnist
Re-elected Gov. Deval Patrick and his new energy and environment secretary Rick Sullivan have a full agenda. Their priorities must include protecting our land, water, and irreplaceable diversity of plants and animals while using resources - including wind and sun - sustainably for a green future. Here are 10 things the governor and secretary should do during this second term:
1. Open Space: Continue long-term investments in land by using the Environmental Bond to conserve open space. Each year, we protect 43 acres a day from development and consume 22. Not bad compared with past years when those numbers were reversed. But with little population growth, we build large houses, farther from metropolitan centers, consuming vast amounts of energy, losing 8,000 acres of land each year. Don't lose ground now.
2. Development: Rewrite the state's zoning laws. They are antiquated, confusing, and among the worst sprawl-inducing rules in the nation. Empower municipalities to chart their own futures while meeting local, regional, and statewide goals to build what needs to be built, and develop what needs to be developed in the right places, at the right times.
3. Endangered Species: Fund the commonwealth's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program. Sixteen percent (435) of native Massachusetts plant and animal species are endangered, threatened, or about to be. Keep the Heritage Program alive so it can perform its emergency room services. Currently, endangered species are ignored in the state budget.
4. The Heat is On: Update the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) - a regional program involving Massachusetts and nine other states to reduce heat-trapping air pollution from the electric generation sector. RGGI has modest goals, a modest calendar, and modest results. The states set a cap of 188 million tons of carbon dioxide that power plants can collectively dump into the air, and emissions are then auctioned off at $3 per ton. While RGGI proceeds have been used to invest in energy efficiency, the initiative has failed to have a significant impact on reducing heat-trapping gases. An updated RGGI should be more ambitious, especially as Washington fails to take action. Lower the emissions cap, raise the price to pollute, include transportation sources in the deal, and triple the modest goal of reducing pollution by 10 percent by 2018.
5. Four Islands Wind: Bring together Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Gosnold, and Rhode Island to develop an offshore regional wind energy project. Add adjacent federal waters, and a shared renewable energy resource can produce pollution-free electricity for generations.
6. Green Casinos: If Beacon Hill again tries to bring Las Vegas to Massachusetts, make casinos green. License only those gambling palaces that use renewable energy and recycled and recyclable building materials; have heat-trapping air pollution limits; provide public transportation; protect local plants, animals, wetlands, and water; and avoid off-site impacts to neighboring towns.
7. Better Bottle Bill: Update the 1982 bottle law. Three billion drink containers are sold every year in Massachusetts. One-third are recycled. The rest could fill Fenway Park. It's time to require returnable wasted juice, tea, sports drink, and water containers. Bottle Bill II has languished on Beacon Hill for 16 years. Get it passed.
8. For the Forests: Cut forest loss by continuing the commonwealth's commitment to tax incentives for family tree farms that elect to keep their lands in forest use and not subdivided. Ensure that the commonwealth's timber-cutting standards preserve forests' abilities to absorb carbon pollution and to grow back when harvested. Forests provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities.
9. Water Water Everywhere: Set reasonable standards on the amount of water that can be pumped from ground and surface supplies. We need water for drinking and bathing; want water for lawns, and swimming pools; and use water to buy and sell for commercial and industrial uses. Determine safe yield before our rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, and watersheds dry up.
10. One percent for nature: In the end, it's all about the money. The $30 billion state budget devotes 0.64 percent to environmental protection. It's been a decade since the environmental budget was 1 percent. As the economy gradually improves, so too should our commitment to protecting the nature of Massachusetts.
Jack Clarke is director of public policy and government relations for Mass Audubon.
http://www.dailynewstranscript.com/opinion/columnists/x1148223164/Clarke-A-renewed-environmental-agenda
