Hi and welcome to Audible Café!

Today, I’m sharing my interview with Mary Stucklen of Berkshire Zero Waste about a new initiative of theirs, WasteLess Restaurants.

They’re having a Kickoff Event on March 23rd online.

So, anyone who owns a restaurant, cafe, or food business that serves customers directly, or if you work for one of these establishments, this show is for you!

There will be exclusive discounts announced at the event, specific to qualifying businesses. And $400 worth of door prizes!

SHOW RESOURCES

You can find details of the Wasteless Restaurant program at:

https://www.berkshirezerowaste.org/wastelessrestaurants

Partners in the program are RecyclingWorksma.com and 1Berkshire.com

GB on Tap website

Welcome to the Audible Café!

Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Kelly Fuller, the Energy and Mining Campaign Director for the Western Watersheds Project, which has headquarters in a number of western states. We talked about the proposed lithium mine in Thacker Pass, Nevada, a project that WWP and others oppose on the grounds that it will destroy an important ecosystem and habitat for a number of unique species.

“Thacker Pass is critically important to wildlife because it connects the Double H Mountains to the Montana Mountains, and provides lower-elevation habitat that greater sage-grouse and other wildlife need to survive the winter,” Fuller has said. “It (the mine area) contains thousands of acres of priority habitat management area (PHMA), the most important type of greater sage-grouse habitat.”

Yet, the Bureau of Land Management that manages the land, has exempted the mine from many legally required sage-grouse protections. “The mine is sited in the danger zone for sage-grouse leks in the Montana Mountains, one of the most important sage-grouse strongholds in Nevada. Local springs are the only place in the world where the Kings River pyrg, a rare type of springsnail, are known to live. The mine could also cut off a pronghorn migration corridor,” wrote Fuller in response to the mine’s approval.

About Kelly Fuller

Prior to WWP, Kelly worked on energy campaigns in more than two dozen states. Most recently she was Executive Director of Gila Watershed Partnership of Arizona and The Protect Our Communities Foundation. She has also worked for American Bird Conservatory, Plains Justice, and Voyageurs National Park Association. Kelly is perhaps best known for leading a 78-mile walk across the California desert to protect public lands threatened by a destructive transmission line project. In 2013, Kelly left Washington, D.C. to return home to the west’s wide open spaces. Since then she has spent as much time as possible outdoors, enjoying America’s beautiful public lands.

Thanks again to Kelly Fuller, and thanks for listening to Audible Café. If you’d like to get directly in touch with me, please email [email protected]. And please visit the website for archives shows and more info at www.audiblecafe.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch!

SHOW RESOURCES

WesternWatersheds.org

Great Basin Resource Watch - gbrw.org

EarthWorks.org - campaignn for reforming the 1872 mining law

Article in Sierra Nevada Ally newspaper 1/15/21

https://sierranevadaally.org/2021/01/15/blm-approves-thacker-pass-lithium-mine/  In reaction to the mine’s approval, Kelly Fuller, energy and mining campaign director for the Western Watersheds Project says the mine “will strip-mine thousands of acres of important habitat for greater sage-grouse and other wildlife.”

Protect Thacker Pass website

Today I’m sharing my conversation with Max Wilbert, one of the activists occupying Thacker Pass, Nevada, up in the northern-central part of the state, to protest a proposed lithium mine there.

He and his fellow protesters have been camping on this land, currently governed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), in winter conditions at about 5,100 feet elevation, so it’s cold and snowy. But the beauty of the pass and their belief in the cause sustains them, though their numbers are few. When you visit the website, ProtectThackerPass.org, and I hope you do, you will find some of the most beautiful writing and personal expression about a place you could find anywhere.

Thacker Pass is habitat for Crosby’s buckwheat (a rare desert wildflower only found in this area), King River pyrg (a critically endangered snail), rabbitbrush, jackrabbits, bighorn sheep, coyotes, golden eagles, greater sage-grouse, pronghorn antelope, and old growth sagebrush. 

Max joined me the afternoon of February 4th from the side of the mountain where, incredibly, there was cell service from a small town miles away. But I’m glad there was, because the importance of what he had to say can’t be overstated.

Many of us have been dreaming of transitioning away from fossil fuels not only because their burning has a devastating effect on the climate, but also because fossil fuel extraction practices are wholly destructive to those parts of the world where they take place, and therefore to the many life forms that call these places home. The prospect of clean, green energy has been so appealing that maybe we have been blinded to the high cost to the earth. The realities of wind and solar, as hyped as they are now, and as seemingly mainstream they are becoming, are not without their damaging environmental effects.

But make no mistake - lithium mining is not unlike coal or gold or other mineral mining in its destructive power - this is a strip mine we’re talking about. It will involve

Lithium is essential for battery production for electric energy storage, that means solar batteries, electric vehicle batteries, and all the batteries that will store all the electricity produced by variable energy sources such as solar and wind. The electric car industry will be one of the largest consumers of large batteries capable of propelling heavy vehicles long distances. And we do love to drive.

The idea that we can just shift our consumption of energy from fossil fuels to solar and wind without serious implications for the health of our planet is just false. It’s like the story with fracked or “natural” gas: there are less carbon emissions when its burned, but the cost to our water, air, and land and all the species, including human, that live where fracking occurs, pay the price through polluted water and methane emissions that they drink, eat and breathe, and there’s the sand that’s scraped from the bottom of our rivers for fracking rigs, the billions of gallons of water trucked in, and all the rest of it.

In short, haven’t we done enough damage? can we please drive less, buy less, eat less, and consume less of everything? And for goodness sake, turn off your spotlights at night. No one’s coming for you, especially not bears! They have far more important things to do.

But back to Thacker Pass. Thank you to Max and all the activists out there and those supporting their efforts for bringing attention to this important topic.

I hope you enjoy the show, and are inspired to learn more at ProtectThackerPass.org.

And thanks for listening to Audible Café. If you’d like to get directly in touch with me, please email [email protected]. And please visit the website for archives shows and more info at www.audiblecafe.com. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, if you use such things, and stay in touch!

In today's show, I talk with Laura Haight, U.S. Policy Director at the Partnership for Policy Integrity, or PFPI. PFPI uses science, policy analysis and strategic communications to promote policies that protect climate, ecosystems, and people.

From the PFPI website: Laura Haight has extensive experience working on environmental, energy, and health care policy, and has been instrumental in passage of dozens of state and local laws to promote clean energy, reduce pesticide use, increase recycling, prevent pollution, and clean up toxic waste sites. Starting her career as a community organizer with the Sierra Club Radioactive Waste Campaign, she has held senior level positions at the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Environmental Advocates of New York, and the New York Public Interest Research Group. Prior to joining the staff of PFPI, Haight served as Vice President for Public Policy at the New York State Association of Health Care Providers. She brings to PFPI a wealth of experience in environmental advocacy, policy analysis, campaign coordination and strategic communications. Haight received a Bachelor’s degree in American history and literature from Harvard University and a Master of Science degree in environmental studies from the Bard Graduate School of Environmental Studies.

Laura is knowledgeable about so many environmental issues around the world. Today, we discussed the biomass industry, its destructive practices, and the government regulations that encourage it.

We discussed:

• the biomass industry, and especially the forest biomass industry, which not only clearcuts forests, but basically vacuums up all the material leaving a virtual moonscape behind.
• We also discussed legislation in Massachusetts called the Next Generation Climate Roadmap bill. This bill was vetoed last week by Governor Baker, apparently because it calls for more stringent green building codes that the construction industry opposes. But it has already been refiled.
• Changes proposed by the Baker Administration to MA Dept. of Energy Resources regulations would make biomass "renewable" and consider it “green power” and open it up for lucrative subsidies that will make biomass plants profitable, and encourage their construction.
• The proposed Palmer biomass burning plant in Springfield, MA. This plant is being opposed by residents and organizations alike for environment justice and pollution threats.

Thanks for listening to Audible Cafe!

This show originally aired on WBCR-lp Great Barrington 97.7FM. Visit berkshireradio.org to find out about the station or make a much-needed and much appreciated donation!

—————-

SHOW RESOURCES

Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) website

Overview of H.853: An Act to Assure the Attainment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Goals in the Alternative Portfolio Standard (Rep. D. Provost, D-Somerville)

New CSSN Report: Who’s Delaying Climate Action in Massachusetts? Twelve Findings

Burned: Is Wood the New Coal? a documentary film

About the Palmer Paving Corporation’s proposed biomass plant in Springfield, Mass:

Arise for Social Justice website

“Scrutiny persists over biomass plant in Springfield.” Daily Hampshire Gazette. December 31, 2020.

“Mass. Has Strong Rules About Burning Wood For Electricity. In 2021, It Plans To Roll Them Back.” WBUR report. December 22, 2020.

“MA Pushes to Greenlight Subsidies for Polluting Biomass Power Plants.” Press release from Biomass Energy Subsidies section of the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) website, December 22, 2020

Theme music by BRIAN EDDY

Welcome to Audible Café!

Today I’m speaking with Scot Quaranda of the Dogwood Alliance. From their website: “For over 20 years, Dogwood Alliance has worked with diverse communities, partner organizations and decision-makers to protect Southern forests across 14 states. We do this through community and grassroots organizing, holding corporations and governments accountable and working to conserve millions of acres of Southern forests.” And one of their major campaigns is called “Our Forests Aren’t Fuel” - taking on the forest biomass industry.

I’ve been looking at the forest biomass issue recently, and I’d like to bring you a series of shows about it, not only because burning forest biomass threatens our environment and our health as much or more than coal or oil, but it is destroying entire forest ecosystems for the profit of corporations, and for little to no return to the people who live in these deforested regions, and who actually pay for the huge profits these corporations make from it through massive subsidies. And we’re only at the beginning of this monster - with pending changes to energy regulations here in Massachusetts, the biomass industry is coming for OUR HEALTH and OUR FORESTS. Just ask Governor Baker.l

I’m going to try to untangle this complex subject for you, so that you are in full possession of the facts.

I’m relying on the great work of a lot of people for this show. Just a few are the Partnership for Policy Integrity or PFPI, the Dogwood Alliance, The film “Burned: Are Trees the New Coal?”, and other sources. See below for links

FOREST BIOMASS is fuel derived from the burning or heating of growing things, like trees and other plants. We’re discussing the industrial scale forest biomass, not your home woodstove, although home woodstoves are terribly polluting despite their cozy appeal.

The fact is, we’re clear-cut logging the forests of the southeastern United States at an alarming rate for biomass fuel for export to Europe. The trees being cut down, processed into pellets, and shipped to Europe, are causing devastation to the southern states, especially along the Atlantic coast, and it’s all being touted as “clean” energy, “renewable” energy, “green” energy. It’s helping governments meet their carbon goals here and in Europe and the UK, and the entire industry is based on a lie.

The big lie is that the burning of trees is a clean, green, sustainable energy solution. Anyone with a smidgen of common sense would conclude that this couldn’t possibly be true, and it isn’t. But by some bizarre “accounting error” — let’s point out this was no error - this was political and corporate maneuvering to make the logging and biomass industry a LOT Of money.

Let’s break it down:

The logging companies cut down the trees. How do they get access? The same way industry vultures got access to coal in the South and fracking rights across our country — they coerce and bribe decent people who have no money to speak of to sell the logging rights to their land. Or they access public forests, like what’s happening now in Massachusetts - by manipulating the political power brokers, like Governor Baker, into passing regulations that favor the cutting of trees for profit. Or they simply buy up the land and create biomass plantations, turning thriving, diverse bioregions into moonscapes.

Once the trees are cut down, they are transported to biomass plants where they are either burned for electricity — a stupid way to meet our electricity needs if ever there was one — or processed into pellets for Europe’s energy needs. And no government is really counting the carbon cost of this process! Voilà!! A convenient “accounting error” — where no country is counting the carbon cost of decimating our forests — and they all get rich.

But how are these industry giants getting rich? Our tax dollars. There are HUGE subsidies and tax breaks for the biomass industry. Otherwise, it would not be profitable! But it is, hugely profitable, and all the costs are borne by the earth of course, who suffers the most, and by US, the regular folks.

Here are the ways we all suffer: the devastation of clear-cutting in the first place, which turns a thriving, living, diverse forest with all the creatures that live there, into a dead, desolate waste-land. It’s a soul-crushing experience, to witness the before and after of a clear-cut, and it should be. Because if a person has an intact heart and soul, ,they know deep in their bones that it is wrong, that it is horribly, horribly wrong, to perpetrate this kind of violence on any single living thing, let alone on the millions of living beings destroyed when a region is clear-cut. The forests that shelter us, and sustain life, and are living, breathing beings in their own right. All the biological diversity that lived in those forests can NEVER be replaced by a pine plantation, a monoculture. Pine trees are lovely, but they can’t replace diversity all on their own.

It’s devastating to our health to live anywhere near one of these biomass plants - and by the way, there is one planned for Springfield, Mass, on the Palmer Renewable Energy Corporation (don’t let the name fool you) site, to be built and operated right in the middle of the ASTHMA CAPITAL of the United States, Springfield, Mass, and not coincidentally, in an environmental justice neighborhood, which means people who live in poverty or are low-income, who have been disenfranchised of their power to stop such a project because they don’t make huge contributions to politicians.

So, why is this all allowed to happen? It’s because people who are in power plot for years, decades even, to lay the groundwork for their money-making schemes. And they have plenty of money for schmoozing politicians, dumping thousands to hundreds of thousands to millions into their campaign chests. When we say we need to “get money out of politics” that’s what we’re talking about. GETTING MONEY OUT OF POLITICS so politicians can think straight and make good decisions. Our elected representatives are so distracted by having to immediately start fundraising the minute they take office, pressured by the political machine of their parties, that of course they can’t just do their jobs! The entire system is a mess.

So that’s the groundwork for my great interview with Scot Quaranda, Communications Director for the Dogwood Alliance.

Thanks for listening to Audible Café!Judy

SHOW RESOURCES

Dogwood Alliance website

Burned: Is Wood the New Coal? a documentary film

About the Palmer Paving Corporation’s proposed biomass plant in Springfield, Mass:

Arise for Social Justice website

“Scrutiny persists over biomass plant in Springfield.” Daily Hampshire Gazette. December 31, 2020.

“Mass. Has Strong Rules About Burning Wood For Electricity. In 2021, It Plans To Roll Them Back.” WBUR report. December 22, 2020.

“MA Pushes to Greenlight Subsidies for Polluting Biomass Power Plants.” Press release from Biomass Energy Subsidies section of the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) website, December 22, 2020

Welcome to Audible Café!

Today’s show features Rosemary Wessel, Program Director of No Fracked Gas in Mass, a program of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team, or BEAT. No Fracked Gas in Mass started as a passion project originally created by Rose and others to stop the now-defeated Kinder Morgan Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, a huge fracked gas pipeline project that would have brought fracked gas from Pennsylvania across New York, the full length of Massachusetts, up to New England, and eventually out for export.

Rose and her team at No Fracked Gas in Mass continue to work to stop the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in the Northeast states and to promote energy efficiency and sustainable, renewable sources of energy and local, permanent jobs in a clean energy economy. 

We talked about a new initiative to shut down the obsolete and polluting “peaker plants” in Pittsfield, MA, as the first step a regional effort to do the same across New England. Peaker plants provide energy in those rare times when demand exceeds the usually steady supply of power available to people. As you will learn, there are other, cleaner and sustainable sources of power for those high-demand hours that are usually experienced during heat waves and similar situations.

After my interview with Rose, I also discuss another tar sands pipeline being constructed by Enbridge out in northern Minnesota that rivals the Dakota Access Pipeline that brought so much pain and conflict to indigenous people out there. So here it’s happening again. I’m hoping to bring you interviews from the front lines of that opposition next week, but meanwhile, construction has begun on the pipeline known as Line 3 after 7 years of opposition, while lawsuits are pending in court. 

Construction began in December after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s administration signed off on final water permits in November.

The pipeline is planned to cross Anishinaabe treaty lands, and threatens clean water at 21 water crossings where the company will use horizontal drilling techniques to bore under streams, rivers, and lakes, including the Mississippi River and dozens of its tributaries. Line 3 would cross two “Restricted Outstanding Resource Value Waters,” according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). 

However, there is a great divide within at least on of the agencies: twelve out of 17 members of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)’s Environmental Justice Advisory Group resigned in protest over the agency’s decision to bestow river crossing permits on Enbridge. They wrote in a letter to MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop that “we cannot continue to legitimize and provide cover for the MPCA’s war on Black and brown people.”

The people who will suffer most from this project are, once again, indigenous people from the Red Lake Band of Chippewa and the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. Together with the Sierra Club and the Indigenous environmental group Honor the Earth, the tribes have brought suit against Enbridge.

This is a devastatingly destructive project on numerous levels, and as the most recent of the wide and lasting legacy of Trump’s four years of environmental abuses, it’s more than worthy of strong opposition.

So stay tuned for more on that, but in the meantime, you can visit:

welcomewaterprotectors.com

Honor the Earth

Thanks for listening to Audible Café. See you next week!

This show originally aired on WBCR-lp Great Barrington 97.7FM. Visit berkshireradio.org to find out about the station or make a much-needed and much appreciated donation!

SHOW RESOURCES

No Fracked Gas in Mass - Peakers Project page

BURNED: Is Biomass the New Coal?

New climate bill:  (S.2995) “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy“

Old Stone Mill in Adams, MA, a Zero Waste Maker Space

Welcome Water Protectors

Honor the Earth

SHOW THEME MUSIC by Brian Eddy

Welcome to Audible Café Podcast!

Today, my guests are Gia Neswald and Glen Ayers of the Wendell State Forest Alliance. Their group brought a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Dept of Conservation and Recreation, or DCR and Secretary Kathleen Theoharides of the Exec. Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, to HALT the logging of forestlands in Wendell State Forest. The goal of this and other actions they have and intend to take is to stop DCR’s improper and illegal commercial logging in state parks and forest throughout the Commonwealth.

Unfortunately, their lawsuit was dismissed. But they intend to continue on fighting for laws and regulations that protect forests to be written and upheld.

Although State Forests are lands owned by all of us, the residents of the Commonwealth, (insofar as land can or should be owned at all, which is debatable) the public has basically no say in how they are managed. There is something fundamentally wrong about this state of affairs, and I think you’ll learn some pretty surprising things from Gia and Glen today.

Thanks for listening to Audible Café!

Visit www.audiblecafe.com to learn more about the show and to access archives and show notes. Visit our Facebook page (just search for Audible Café). Follow us on Twitter: @audiblecafe. If you listen on iTunes, please subscribe, and leave us a review.

I appreciate your feedback. So if you’d like to get directly in touch with me, email [email protected].

Audible Café theme music by Brian Eddy

Catch the Audible Café Radio Show on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. on the airwaves on WBCR-lp 97.7FM in Great Barrington or streaming at www.berkshireradio.org or on TuneIn or similar application.

Thanks again, and have a great week!Judy

SHOW RESOURCES

Wendell State Forest Alliance website

Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation (DCR) website

Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) website

Massachusetts Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA) website

Welcome to Audible Café, where we celebrate wildlife and nature, and talk with people who are working to protect and restore the earth.

Today I am excited to share my interview with Sophi Veltrop, Outreach Coordinator for the Northeast Wilderness Trust based in Vermont.

The Northeast Wilderness Trust believes that “wild nature deserves the freedom to flourish. On forever-wild lands people take a step back and natural processes unfold freely. The 37,000+ acres of wildlands safeguarded by Northeast Wilderness Trust are places where all species can thrive and evolve.”

We wholeheartedly agree that all species need space where they can thrive and evolve, and for wildlife, that often means land, water, and air where humans do not encroach.

During our conversation we discussed:

• the difference between wilderness conservation and other kinds of land conservation
• what lands the Northeast Wilderness Trust has under its protection
• the different levels of protection they provide
• new projects underway
• why hunting is permitted on some preserves
• the importance of recognizing the fact that we need everyone to be “all in” to protect the future of all species and, thus, save ourselves. That means opening ourselves and our organizations up to welcome all people, especially those who previously have had neither the luxury of access to wild lands nor a feeling of inclusion or safety while visiting wild lands.

SHOW RESOURCES

Thank you, again, to Sophi Veltrop for being on the show, and for doing the work you do!

Visit www.newildernesstrust.org to learn more about their preserves and programs.

Visit www.audiblecafe.com to learn more about the show and to access archives and show notes.

Visit our Facebook page (just search for Audible Café)

Follow us on Twitter: @audiblecafe.

If you listen on iTunes, please subscribe, and leave us a review.

I appreciate your feedback. So if you’d like to get directly in touch with me, email [email protected].

Audible Café theme music by Brian Eddy

Catch the Audible Café Radio Show on Fridays at 10:00 a.m. on the airwaves on WBCR-lp 97.7FM in Great Barrington or streaming at www.berkshireradio.org or on TuneIn or similar application.

Thanks again, and have a great week!

Judy

Please note: excerpts in the bullet list below are taken verbatim from the 2019 report

This week I am happy to share my conversation with Jennifer Skene, international law fellow with NRDC and lead author of The Issue with Tissue Report that details the destruction of the boreal forest as a result of clear-cut logging.

The boreal forest is a precious forest ecosystem that lies just below the Arctic Circle. It spans 1.9 billion hectares and represents 14% of Earth’s land, stretching across Alaska, Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, and China, crowning the earth in a ring of green. It is home to hundreds of species numbering in billions of lives, including the iconic . It is home to more than 600 First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities whose traditional territories are in the boreal.

It is being fast destroyed by American and Canadian logging companies. 

In our conversation, we discuss the U.S. tissue market — which generates $31 billion in revenue every year, second only to China — and the report published by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) titled “The Issue with Tissue.” (The report was updated this year and can be found here: The Issue with Tissue 2.0.)

This in-depth report presents the environmental atrocities being committed by huge U.S. and Canadian corporation in Canada — Proctor & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific, among others — and details the broad destruction that is underway right now with the tacit approval of the Canadian Government. It also offers us a great way out of being complicit in that destruction with its handy BUYER’S GUIDE TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF AT-HOME TISSUE PRODUCTS (See page 15 of the Report.) 

Here are some disturbing highlights from the report:

• The United States consumes more toilet paper than any other country, using a whopping 9.2 billion pounds of it each year—about 28 pounds per person.

• Americans, who make up just over 4 percent of the world’s population, account for over 20 percent of global tissue consumption. 

• The three companies with the largest market shares in the tissue sector, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Georgia-Pacific, still rely almost exclusively on virgin pulp for their at-home tissue brands.

• Much of the tissue pulp in the United States comes from the boreal forest of Canada, which is home to over 600 Indigenous communities.

• Industrial logging claims more than a million acres of boreal forest every year, equivalent to seven National Hockey League rinks each minute, in part to meet demand for tissue products in the United States.

• Between 1996 and 2015, more than 28 million acres of boreal forest were logged, an area roughly the size of Ohio. More than 90 percent of this logging was done by clearcutting, which removes nearly all trees from an area. 

• These clearcut forests can take more than a century to return to their pre-logging condition, and some never do.

• Major brands such as Charmin, Cottonelle, and Angel Soft are made entirely from 100% virgin fiber.

Here is why we must stop the destruction of this absolutely amazing region:

• The global boreal is especially vital to worldwide efforts to fight climate change since it stores more carbon per hectare than any other forest biome on earth and holds more carbon than all the currently accessible oil, gas, and coal reserves combined.

• It is an essential nesting ground for billions of migratory birds that populate the skies of North America.

• Yet, for all forests’ value, we are quite literally flushing them down the toilet.

SOLUTIONS EXIST Fortunately, solutions promoting healthy forests and a healthy planet already exist. Companies and consumers simply need to embrace them.

• Instead of relying on virgin pulp, tissue companies can use recycled content or sustainably sourced alternative fibers such as wheat straw and bamboo. Use of these materials to create tissue can dramatically reduce our destructive impact on the boreal and other forests around the world.

• Because agricultural residue is often burned if not put to alternative use, using agricultural residue in tissue is additionally beneficial because it prevents this residue emitting carbon dioxide and other harmful air pollutants.

• Producers should look for bamboo that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to ensure it is sustainably sourced and indicate that certification on their products.”

SHOW RESOURCES

The Issue With Tissue 2.0 report

BUYER’S GUIDE TO THE SUSTAINABILITY OF AT-HOME TISSUE PRODUCTS – Page 15 from the NRDC Report

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) website

ABOUT Jennifer Skene, NRDC, author of The Issue with Tissue

ABOUT Shelley Vinyard, NRDC, author of The Issue with Tissue

Canada Invests in the Future of Intact Boreal Forests, NRDC Blogpost, August 20, 2019 by Jennifer Skene

The Indigenous Guardians Program from the Indigenous Leadership Initiative

Also see The Boreal Forest project at davidsuzuki.org

Audible Café theme music by Brian Eddy

You also heard “Raining Trees” by Tiokasin Ghosthorse, producer and host of First Voices Indigenous Radio

The bird calls you heard in this episode were recorded from the Boreal Songbird Initiative, dedicated to education and outreach about the importance of the boreal forest to North America’s birds, other wildlife, and the global environment. 

Welcome to the Audible Café Radio Show/podcast! 

Today, I’m happy to share my interview with Jane Winn of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team (or BEAT) and Rosemary Wessel of No Fracked Gas in Mass (a program of BEAT). We talked about a lawsuit that BEAT and the Food & Water Watch have brought against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in approving a fracked gas infrastructure project without meeting the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requiring FERC to meaningfully evaluate greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel production and transportation projects.

The project in question is known as the “261 Upgrade Project” — a proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company (“TGP”) gas-fired compressor station expansion and proposed new pipeline construction. Both the compressor station and the pipeline portion of the project are detrimental to the health of nearby residents (greater noise, air, and water pollution), will increase greenhouse gas emissions, and will contribute to climate change.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is intended to be “an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquified natural gas (LNG) terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines as well as licensing hydropower projects. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 gave FERC "additional responsibilities” which are too numerous to list here. Check out the FERC website for more info at www.ferc.gov.

This is far from the first time FERC has not met this requirement; in fact, it would be difficult to find an example where FERC meaningfully evaluated the greenhouse gas emission of any project. FERC is known among environmentalists as a “rubber stamp” commission, far from being an independent agency without undue influence by the fossil fuel industry, it is quite the opposite.

One Commissioner, Richard Glick, is a notable exception in voting against unfavorable projects and issuing dissenting opinions that make sense.

Energy projects and the morass of regulations and agencies that oversee them are extremely complicated, but it’s important to pay attention. While COVID-19 is overshadowing our day-to-day lives and distracting us from other things, the current administration is taking advantage of that tor ram through fossil fuel projects and remove protections in ways that will have serious negative repercussions for the environment and our climate.

Thank you, Jane and Rose, for talking with me about this important lawsuit, and for your dedication in working tirelessly to protect the environment and our health, and for standing up for what is right and just.

As always, you can learn more and access archives and show notes with lots of resources at audiblecafe.com, or visit the FB page – just search for Audible Café, or follow us on Twitter @audiblecafe. If you listen on iTunes, please subscribe, and leave us a review.

We appreciate your feedback. So if you’d like to get directly in touch with us, email [email protected].

Thanks again, and have a great week!Judy

SHOW RESOURCES

Berkshire Environmental Action Team (BEAT) website

No Fracked Gas in Mass website

Food and Water Watch website

Food and Water Watch and BEAT v. FERC Petition for Review

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) website

EEPittsfield website