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It's not all a House of Cards
Last week, I traveled from our Montclair office to the Statehouse in Trenton for a Clean Water Lobby Day. On the way there, the scene that played in my mind mirrored one from House of Cards. I thought of Kevin Spacey rolling his eyes before he opened the door to the hallway and the lobbyists dying of anticipation waiting on the other side of the door. The whole scene was set to some kind of instrumental beat in tune with the fast paced heartbeat of the lobbyists, and the conversation between legislators and lobbyists I imagined just short of fifteen seconds. The reality of the day was
Making a Career in Environmental Protection: from Canvassing to Chief of Staff
Lisa Plevin, Chief of Staff for EPA Region 2, is one of us – a former door to door canvasser and community organizer of Clean Water Action. Lisa is essentially a Jersey Girl, having moved to New Jersey at age six, graduated from Stockton College in 1981 and immediately started her environmental career.
Christie Administration Floods the Garden State
Right now, over 90 percent of New Jersey's waters do not meet one or more water quality standards. These standards are set by New Jersey under the law and the state is obligated to meet them.
So, one would think that our state government would be doing all they can to improve the quality of our water by ensuring the standards are enforced. Nope. They are, in fact, doing the complete opposite.
The Christie Administration's NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently adopted changes to roll back water quality protections in its Flood Hazard Area Control Act (FHACA), putting our
Our disconnect with water: Scott Pond and linking individual actions to the health of our waters
Earlier this month, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and Department of Health released an advisory to avoid contact with Scott Pond in Lincoln, Rhode Island due to the presence of blue-green algae in the water.
Not only should adults avoid contact with the water, it said, but so should pets. And children. It also advised against eating any fish taken from the pond. It then proceeded to list off a litany of potential side effects from contact with the algal-tainted waters: irritation of the skin, nose, and eyes, stomachache, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Fun stuff
Diving into the Legislature
You never know what you might run into when activists descend on the statehouse for the Environment Council of Rhode Island’s (ECRI) annual Lobby Day.
Last Wednesday, I was greeted in the rotunda by a group of our allies in the Energize Rhode Island coalition wearing snorkels to demonstrate the kind of gear we’ll all need if we don’t fight the sea level rise that is resulting from Climate Change.
Each year around Earth Day, people from ECRI’s 60 member organizations set up tables with information about their issues, hold a brief speaking program and enter the House and Senate chambers to talk