The BEAT News February 20, 2014

News Headlines

• Keystone XL Comments Needed: Take the Process Back

• MASSACHUSETTS: Take Action to Pass GMO Labeling Legislation in 2014!

• Pittsfield Resident Denied Backyard Chickens Permit

• Windy Ridge Farm is offering CSA Plant Shares this year!

• Recycle your Cell Phone for a Good Cause

• MA House Passes Gas Leaks Bill

• EPA Administrator Reaffirms Commitment to Environmental Justice on 20th Anniversary of Executive Order

• The Commonwealth Organics-to-Energy Program is Accepting Applications for Feasibility Study grants. 

• Generation Waking Up Boston Leadership Training!

Keystone XL Comments Needed: Take the Process Back
from 350MA.org

The State Department’s Environmental Impact Statement regarding the Keystone XL pipeline was published on February 5th, and the public comment period has begun.  One exhausted 350MAer analyzing the comments on the site and working to rally climate activists said: “The entire site has been taken over by pro-KXL oil workers, union lobbyists, contractors, etc. We need people to make comments against KXL!” Here is where you can make comments and here are expert instructions, not only on how to make comments, but for serious commenters also how to legitimately disqualify selected pro-KXL comments. Make a comment today. This is a great article about why the Keystone XL pipeline is worth the fight!

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MASSACHUSETTS: Take Action to Pass GMO Labeling Legislation in 2014!

Proposed GMO labeling bills are stuck in committee at the Massachusetts state legislature. We have until March 19 to convince legislators to vote these bills favorably out of committee or we’ll have to wait until 2016 to get GMO labeling passed in our state!

Can you contact your legislators today? 

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), the lobbying group for GMO profiteers like Monsanto and Pepsi, has been spreading misinformation. They are engaged in an aggressive lobbying campaign, peddling a talking points memo full of factually incorrect and misleading information, intended to persuade state lawmakers to reject GMO labeling bills.

To rebut these lies, we’ve consulted legal experts and created our own GMO fact sheet.

We need your help to make sure each of Massachusetts’ legislators hear the truth, directly from their voting constituents. This is an election year, and we need our elected representatives to know that 9 out of 10 citizens in Massachusetts want GMO labels. And, we vote!

Can you email and call your legislators today to make sure they know the truth about GMO labels? Click here to look up phone numbers or to send a message. 

It is crucial that you help us correct the misinformation that legislators are hearing from the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Labeling is a cheap and effective tool to provide transparency in the marketplace. Labeling would cost mere pennies per year, per Massachusetts resident.

Don’t let Monsanto and their lobbyists kill GMO labeling in Massachusetts!

– Melinda for the rest of the team at Organic Consumers Association

About the bills and committees: 

Bills H.808 and H.813 are being considered by The Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture.  Chairs: Sen. Marc R. Pacheco (Taunton), Rep. Anne M. Gobi (Spencer)

Bills H.2093, H.2037, & H.1936 are being considered by The Joint Committee on Public Health. Chairs: Sen. John F. Keenan (Quincy), Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez (Jamaica Plain)

For more information visit MA Right to Know GMOs online and on Facebook.

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Pittsfield Resident Denied Backyard Chickens Permit

By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
08:51AM / Thursday, February 20, 2014

Attorney Albert Cimini represented seven neighbors who opposed the permit for keeping chickens.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A Marlboro Drive household fell one vote short of being able to raise chickens in their back yard.

A special permit for Kristen Laney to raise up to six chickens was denied by the Zoning Board of Appeals despite the majority being in favor.

Laney needed four of the five members to vote to grant the permit but only three did.

“If we do grant this, it would destroy the harmony of the neighborhood,” said John Fitzgerald, who along with Chairman Albert Ingegni voted against the permit.

– See more at: http://pittsfield.com/story/45808/Pittsfield-Resident-Denied-Backyard-Chickens-Permit.html

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CSA Plant Shares… brilliant!

Windy Ridge Farm is offering CSA Plant Shares this year! Becoming a member of a CSA is a great way to support small farmers- providing them with your payment ahead of time allows them cash flow during the time of year when they need it most.

The CSA Plant Share program offers three share sizes- depending on how big your garden is. Lettuce, tomatoes, kale, peppers, squash, basil, parsley… the list goes on!

Sign up now to have Windy Ridge start growing all the vegetable and herb starts for your garden… AND you can pick up your CSA shares at our Market- how great is that?!

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Recycle your Cell Phone for a Good Cause

Hello. My name is Jeffrey Reel and I live in the Town of Lenox in Western Massachusetts. I am writing to you today with a request. Will you join me in a project that I initiated through the Town of Lenox Environmental Committee?

In a nutshell:

·         Â ½ million cell phones are thrown away in this country each and every day. Recycling just 1% of these phones could equip 1 million health care workers in underdeveloped countries with this technology.

·         Cell phones contain what are known as “blood electronics”: Similar in nature to “blood diamonds,” smart phones require gold, tungsten, tin and other metals heavily sourced from the Democratic Republic of the Congo where warlords control mines and smuggling routes. So we want to recycle these metals.

·         Discarded cell phones are often shipped overseas and dumped without regulatory oversight, exposing adults and children to toxic materials as they rummage through the electronic waste.

Many poor, rural villages are without direct health care services. A typical clinic in rural Africa might have one nurse serving a radius of 100 miles. People can be 8-to-10 hours away from the nearest clinic. Medic Mobile equips villagers with the phone technology to use what is today known as “€œtelemedicine”€ services. It has been documented that malaria and cholera have been dramatically reduced when villages can communicate outbreaks to clinics, reducing response time. People can text accidents, broken bones, adverse drug reactions, allowing health care workers to communicate immediately with them and/or travel directly to where they can be treated.

Please see the attached fact sheet.

The Lenox Environmental Committee set up to receptacles for used cell phones (Town Hall and the Public Library). We will be approaching other businesses to promote this project, and to accept phones. We have received approximately 75 phones for recycling, which is promising but we don’€™t want to stop there, which is why I am reaching out to you today.  I respectfully request that you, in turn, reach out to your town halls, libraries, high schools and businesses to do the same.

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MA House Passes Gas Leaks Bill

from 350MA.org

This past Wednesday, Bill H3765, a bill that calls for repairs to dangerous leaks in natural gas pipelines, passed the Massachusetts House! Thanks to all of your hard work and the amazing efforts of our friends at Clean Water Action, the bill passed WITHOUT a rider that would have granted Footprint Power the permits it would need to construct a new Gas Plant in Salem. The bill passed unanimously in the House and will be moving on to the Senate! We’ll be keeping an eye on this bill and keeping you in the loop as it continues to progress. Congratulations to everyone that helped work on this!

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EPA Administrator Reaffirms Commitment to Environmental Justice on 20th Anniversary of Executive Order

WASHINGTON – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy today reaffirmed the Agency’s commitment to environmental justice in a meeting of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC) held in Denver, Colorado. The meeting coincides with a Presidential Proclamation by President Obama commemorating the 20th anniversary of the February 11, 1994 signing of Executive Order 12898, “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations.”

Executive Order 12898 states that every federal agency, with the law as its guide, should make environmental justice part of its mission. Other topics discussed included sustainability and environmental justice, equitable development, climate resiliency, and leveraging financial and other resources for communities.

“Working collaboratively with our stakeholders, we have made great strides over the past two decades to reduce air pollution and clean up contaminated land and water in communities across the country, especially those faced with disproportionate impacts from pollution,” said Administrator McCarthy. “While we recognize the important work that has been accomplished over the past two decades, we will keep striving to improve the quality of life for all Americans by addressing the persistent environmental and health burdens faced by our most vulnerable populations.”

In recognizing the work of the NEJAC and communities over the past 20 years, Administrator McCarthy presented the NEJAC gavel to its new chairwoman, Margaret May.

Environmental justice has been an important part of EPA’s mission to protect public health and the environment. Since 1994, EPA has awarded $25 million to 1,400 communities across the country in support of projects that include reducing exposure to indoor environmental asthma triggers, restoring and protecting waterways, educating childcare professionals on ways to prevent lead poisoning, reducing pesticide use in childcare facilities, and other environmental justice concerns.
The NEJAC, a federal advisory committee to EPA, provides independent guidance and recommendations on national environmental justice policy issues, such as integrating environmental justice considerations into EPA’s decision-making process, and strategies for ensuring that communities have meaningful opportunities to participate in that process. During the past 20 years, more than 1,000 stakeholders have volunteered to participate on the NEJAC.

For more information on environmental justice and the 20th anniversary:
http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/events/20th-anniversary.html

To read the Presidential Proclamation, visit: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/02/10/presidential-proclamation-20th-anniversary-executive-order-12898-environ

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The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) is pleased to announce that the Commonwealth Organics-to-Energy Program is again accepting applications for Feasibility Study grants. 

Commonwealth Organics-to-Energy supports the use of anaerobic digestion and other technologies that convert source-separated organic wastes into electricity and thermal energy. Both private and public-sector entities are eligible to apply for Feasibility Study grants.

MassCEC continues to accept applications from public entities for Technical Services grants, and applications from both private and public-sector entities for Construction or Pilot Project grants.

Thank you for your interest in clean energy in Massachusetts!

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