Green Roundtable offers homeowners guidance for going green

The Green Roundtable’s NEXUS Green Building Resource Center will start having weekend hours on the second Saturday of each month beginnning July 12, 2008. The Center will be offering information on the newest and most innovative green home building products. 

This is an ongoing event, falling on the second Saturday of each month from 10:00am until 2:00pm.

The Green Roundtable’s NEXUS Center, is at 38 Chancy St., 7th Floor, Boston, MA 02111. The events are free and open to the public, but an RSVP is requested. Please RSVP to Aaron Desatnik at aaron@greenroundtable.org with “Nexus Second Saturdays” in the subject line or call 617-374-3740 x127. Click this link for more information.

Ride for the Climate
Climate Ride 2008 – September 20th to September 24th - is the first multi-day bicycle ride to raise money for climate action.  One hundred Climate Riders will pedal 320 miles from New York City to Washington D.C. Along the way, expert speakers will educate and inspire Climate Riders about the science, the policies and the solutions to the climate crisis.  To learn more and sign up visit www.climateride.org.

Ten states urge the FTC to set marketing guidelines for carbon offsets

  Debra Kahn, Greenwire reporter

Attorneys general from Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Vermont asked FTC in a letter last Friday to define terms like "carbon neutrality" and "baseline emissions."

The commission is considering revisions to its environmental marketing guidelines. First on FTC's agenda are carbon offsets and renewable energy credits, both of which have seen a boom in sales as consumers seek to reduce their carbon footprints.

The public comment period on offset guidelines ended Friday. The agency is planning to hold more public hearings on other aspects of environmental marketing before it issues a decision on offsets, FTC attorney Hampton Newsome said.

Most of the other comments posted on FTC's Web site also called for more regulation.

Michael Gillenwater, of Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, said consumers were confused by the murky terms of the emissions-reduction industry. "It is unreasonable to expect consumers to be sophisticated about these matters. It is up to entities such as the FTC and standard setting and policing bodies to simplify choices for the consumer."

Forest Service employee Amanda Cundiff, representing her own views, said that offsets should not be used for reforestation projects on public lands, as "when carbon credit retailers fund projects on public land, it means that green consumers are stepping in to make up for lower appropriations from Congress for reforestation of federal lands."

The legitimacy of offsets has become a political issue on Capitol Hill.

House Minority Leader John Boehner's office is trumpeting a story in today's Washington Post questioning $89,000 worth of offsets purchased as part of House Democratic leaders' $4 million "Greening of the Capitol" initiative.

"It is outrageous that [House Chief Administrative Officer] Dan Beard would unilaterally waste taxpayer dollars on carbon 'indulgences' with no accountability whatsoever," said the Ohio Republican's spokesman Kevin Smith. "It's the height of irresponsibility, and most Americans would be infuriated if they knew it was happening."

Click here to view the letter from 10 states to FTC.

Mass joins Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently committed the State of Massachusetts to participation in RGGI, and went one step further in promising to see the permits for carbon credits in Massachusetts auctioned off, rather than given away, to power companies to generate a multi-million dollar conservation fund. Massachusetts' re-engagement in the process has led to speculation that RI might be next. Learn more...

UCS report offers new assessment of climate change impacts in the Northeast
Climate Change in the Northeast provides the latest and most comprehensive look at how the changing climate is altering the seasons and ecosystems in the Northeast, as well as a look at what's ahead, based on different levels and rates of potential reponses to global warming over the next several decades. Learn more...

Learn more about what’s happening where YOU live...

New England Governors/Eastern Canadian Premiers Regional Climate Action Plan Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States)

Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Rhode Island Vermont