Green days

Part 4

by Michael Crowley

It's a pivotal moment for the environment here in Massachusetts, too. This fall and winter the legislature will debate far-reaching environmental proposals. And local activists are exploring new ways to link environmentalism to people's daily lives.

There's been some sunny news about the state's environment lately. Last year the legislature finally passed a long-stalled "rivers bill," preventing economic development near the state's 2000 rivers and streams. The continuing cleanup of Boston Harbor got a major boost last month with the installation of a secondary sewage-treatment plant that will reduce by 70 percent the amount of waste dumped in the harbor.

But a story like the recent one about chemical runoff from the Pittsfield GE plants -- which has contaminated backyards and water supplies in the region -- is a reminder of the importance of local environmental protections.

Topping the list of hot issues on Beacon Hill for greens and insider pols alike is a brewing battle over land banks. In his headline-hungry first week in office, acting governor Paul Cellucci promised to veto any bill adding a tax on home sales to fund these community reserves, which are used for public conservation purposes. Local enviros, displaying their clout, say they may already have the votes to produce a veto override that would embarrass Cellucci.

The showdown might also expose Cellucci to attacks from his rivals in the 1998 governor's race. Treasurer Joe Malone, Cellucci's rival for the GOP nomination, has already put environmental themes at the center of his campaign. And Scott Harshbarger has established a strong reputation among the state's environmental powers.

A more obscure but vastly more significant coming battle will be the deregulation of the electric-utility industry.

Like several other states, Massachusetts is breaking the monopoly of its public utilities and introducing market competition, so that by next year, electric companies will vie for your dollars the way MCI and Sprint do today -- "You're going to get all the phone calls at dinnertime," says Doug Foy, president of the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF).

Consumer groups are trying to keep ratepayers from getting burned by deregulation (the utilities want to stick customers with their "sunk costs," the bad investments they made in nuclear and other lemon plants over the past decades). But environmentalists see this as a prime opportunity to limit smog -- and to save lives. In this sense, utility deregulation echoes many themes of the national clean-air debate.

"Electricity is the single largest source of air pollution in the world," Foy says. "Every time you flip the light switch, a plume goes up somewhere in the countryside that is polluting us and our children, causing asthma attacks and lung cancer. We are killing people by the thousands because of what happens when we flip the switch."

Groups like CLF and MassPIRG are trying to ensure that any deregulation bill sets pollution standards to cover the state's aging, fume-belching coal- and oil-burning plants, most of which were exempted from the 1977 Clean Air Act. MassPIRG is also pushing for rules requiring that a minimum amount of electricity production come from clean, renewable energy sources, says Rob Sargent, the group's director.

If utility deregulation offers a major opportunity for top-down environmental action through new pollution limits, another issue ready to break on the legislative shore is a symbol of what some greens are calling a new wave of American environmental activism.

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Michael Crowley can be reached at mcrowley[a]phx.com.