How Electric Utilities Have Changed
When most of our electric grid was built (1935-1960), it was owned by either municipalities or locally owned private companies. In both cases, executives and managers were trusted members of the local community. They were accountable. And they were seen as heroes for bringing electric power to the rest of us.

Corporate takeovers during the 1980s and 90s changed all that. The thinking was that if we allowed large, publicly held corporations to take over our electric utilities, it would bring more capital to invest in the grid.

While that may be true, the trade off is [… continue reading]

One thing I can say about energy policy is that it’s a complex subject But I’ve volunteered for Our Power for the past five years, so I have some knowledge of the subject. Below is a summary of the important points. I hope you’ll find them compelling, and support the referendum with a “yes” vote on election day, November 7th.

1. Substantial savings through lower interest rates: Our electric grid needs substantial investment to meet our state energy and climate goals, an estimated $5 billion over the next 30 years.

The least expensive way to finance this investment is through municipal bonds, at [… continue reading]

Some investors I know, my brother among them, are excited about nuclear fusion. Really excited. So I decided to find out why. Here’s what I learned:

Nuclear fusion powers the sun in a process where atoms are forced together at extremely high temperatures. This fusion forms a new atom minus a little bit of mass, the loss of which generates lots of energy.

Nuclear fusion is not to be confused with nuclear fission, used since the 1960s in power plants. As the word fission implies, it’s based on a process where atoms are broken apart to generate energy.

So here’s what’s exciting [… continue reading]

In 1973, Dupont patented the PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) plastic bottle as an innovative and durable alternative to glass. Since then, production of plastic bottles has skyrocketed to 500 billion a year.

Most people think our plastics problem is primarily about litter. And yes–there is a litter problem. But plastics also pollute air, water, foods and beverages with toxic chemicals.

Defend Our Health is a Maine based nonprofit that’s studying plastics as part of a campaign to eliminate plastic pollutants. Defend’s recent report, “The Hidden Hazards of a Plastic Bottle” traces the “chemical footprint” of a plastic bottle from fabrication [… continue reading]

When I visited my family summer home last week I saw something troubling: the tick, mosquito and lawn chemical people were out. Everywhere.

The lovely, high-end neighborhood where I grew up is right on Mattapoisett harbor—a place that used to be teeming with life. As a kid I used to scoop up starfish and bay scallops at low tide. I haven’t seen a starfish or bay scallop there in years. In fact, low tide now looks like a dead zone.

My brother just hired an organic landscaper for our family summer place. When he met the new landscaper, he asked him if [… continue reading]

For the first time, a state is being sued for it’s support of the fossil fuel industry. Sixteen children have sued Montana for violating their constitutional rights to a clean and healthy environment. The trial will begin June 12.

Under Montana’s state constitution, all citizens have the right to a “clean and healthy environment”. These rights were established at a constitutional convention in 1972 for the purpose of reducing the influence of the copper and coal industries. Pennsylvania and New York have similar rights.

Montana has been generous to the fossil fuel industry. The state has offered easy permitting and [… continue reading]

George Lakey is an activist, sociologist and writer who has added an academic underpinning to revolutionary change. But George is much more than that. From his arrest in the civil rights movement to his recent climate justice march at the age of eighty-three, George has committed his life to taking action for a more peaceful, equitable and healthy world.

I first met George in 2015 when he came to Maine to do a conference keynote. I picked him up at the airport and took him to dinner the night before his speaking engagement. We talked for hours that night. And we’ve [… continue reading]

What if we had a system that could capture and report green house gas emissions from sites all over the world? What if this system could monitor emissions accurately in real time, so we could pinpoint where pollution is coming from? What if we had a system that could tell us if climate policies are actually working? What if the data collected by this system was accessible and free to the public?

We now a system that does all of these things. It’s called Climate TRACE (Tracking Real Time Atmospheric Carbon Emissions). The system gathers data and images from existing [… continue reading]

Will we make it? This question is on our collective minds. We worry. We get anxious. We don’t like to think about it.

But what if everything turned out OK? What would the world look like, sound like, smell like, and feel like if we created a joyful and healthy future?
I’ve thought about this question for years. Chapter 14 of my book Advocating for the Environment describes a future where everything does turn out OK.

I hoped it would stimulate some interesting conversations with readers about possible futures. But so far, no one has commented on it. And I’ve wondered [… continue reading]

I don’t usually get emotional over EPA rule making. But reading that the US Chamber of Commerce said “reducing particulate matter may hamper our ability to build badly needed infrastructure” spiked my heart rate and got my adrenaline flowing.

Why? Because the only “needed infrastructure” that would be impacted by the new rules is infrastructure that burns coal and oil.

At the heart of this issue is public health and environmental justice. Particulate matter—more commonly known as soot—is small particles from smokestacks, trucks and other industrial activities. These tiny particles can embed in the lungs and have been linked to [… continue reading]