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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Mon Jul 26, 2010 at 21:05:09 PM EDT
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(Congrats on an important breakthrough for Massachusetts. Ah, if only economic development moneys were aimed at these types of local, cooperative endeavors, we'd be in a different place right now! - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Dear Co-op Power Members and Supporters,
Join us Tues., Aug 3rd, 11 am, for the Grand Groundbreaking for Northeast Biodiesel at our land in the Greenfield [MA] Industrial Park - Silvio Conte Drive (at the end of the road near the Coke plant).
After five years of development, everything has finally aligned so that we can build our recycled vegetable oil biodiesel plant and make a clean fuel alternative to diesel fuel that can be used in any diesel engine or oil heat system.
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Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 16:54:42 PM EDT
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(The GRP candidate for State Auditor makes all-too-perfectly clear the travesty involved in corporate giveaways that plainly don't achieve what they're intended to--at the cost of funding essential prgrams are demonstrably effective. - promoted by michael horan)
The MA legislature's conference committee just made another $300 million in cuts to state health care, education grants, elder home-care services, child care for working parents, human services, and other areas of the state budget for FY2011, conveniently putting the blame on our newest senator, Scott Brown.
Not mentioned in the press releases is the fact that our legislature gave away $300 million they would otherwise have this FY2010 in "single sales factor (SSF)" tax expenditures to Fidelity/Raytheon/related manufacturing corporations for "job creation," even though many of those corporations are actually cutting jobs. According to the Boston Globe, "Fidelity's Massachusetts workforce now stands at a more than 9,000 workers, down from 13,000 four years ago."
As Jill Stein often puts it, these tax expenditures are literally "payoffs for layoffs." In my opinion, they are also the legalized theft of public funds.
Why not use the tax dollars we're throwing away on tax expenditures like these to really create jobs by rehiring laid-off teachers, firefighters, librarians, and health care workers? Why not collect the taxes we would otherwise be due instead of raising the sales tax?
Want to know how the "single sales formula" or "tax apportionment" scam works? Read on.
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Fri May 28, 2010 at 19:12:35 PM EDT
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1. Consistently demonstrate practical, affordable energy efficiency and renewable energy ideas, devices, and systems at the over 4000 weekly farmers' markets that take place across the USA from Memorial Day to Halloween or Thanksgiving.
The people who attend farmers' markets are a core constituency for green technology and practical applications that save money, energy, and resources. They are likely to be early adopters who can spread those possibilities into the community. I've done energy demos at my local farmers' market and know that a renewable energy company sometimes participates in the year-long weekly market near Providence, RI. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more examples out there.
Do energy education weekly at as many of those 4000 weekly markets as possible and over one growing season energy use and attitudes would change significantly. See Mr Franklin's Folks for one vision of how this might work.
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Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 17:07:36 PM EST
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(Seems like we're nearing a big turning point in how the people of the state and the nation regard our political economy, and our corporate friends and their corporate pols are trying to speak with a unified voice to defend the status quo. - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Have you heard about the speech given this morning by Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo to the Boston Chamber of Commerce? Sounds like it's going to be a very good year on Beacon Hill for the business lobbyists. But the news isn't so good for the rest of us. Here are some highlights of the speech:
1) Remember all that talk about how casino revenues would be devoted to worthy purposes like education? Now DeLeo has a different idea: the priority is doling casino revenues out as gifts to corporations. You know, building infrastructure for businesses. It's NOT graft - it's economic stimulus. The recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited money in campaigns seems to be having its effect already. The politicians aren't even waiting for the money to appear before they sell out.
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Sun Feb 21, 2010 at 00:45:46 AM EST
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Climate change is moot. If we halt air and water pollution (using the zero emission standard of such treehugging radicals as DuPont), end our dependence on foreign fuels (through systemic efficiency coupled with cogeneration and renewables), and create new energy jobs here at home, then we can save ourselves. The planet can take of itself.
For instance, the Home Energy Efficiency Team of Cambridge, MA began doing monthly weatherization barnraisings in the summer of 2008. Today they are in contact with about 20 other communities in MA, RI, and NY which are doing something similar and there are other groups in MA, NH, ME, CA that are doing solar barnraisings.
Just for a change, we should spend some of the time and media real estate on a few of the ready solutions like that (weatherization, insulation, efficiency, renewables) instead of the phony debate about global warming, global weirding (a term Friedman got from Hunter Lovins, I believe), and climate change we have been indulging in for years. I don't care if you believe in anthropogenic climate change or not. If you insulate your band joist and attic hatch or install a setback thermostat, you're going to save money and energy and reduce greenhouse gases and other pollutants whether you trust the science or consider it a liberal conspiracy.
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Thu Jan 07, 2010 at 18:58:35 PM EST
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Stein to jump into gov race with Green-Rainbow bid
By Jim O'Sullivan / State House News Service Thursday, January 7, 2010
Dr. Jill Stein plans to join the race for 2010 race for governor, running as a Green-Rainbow candidate and pushing the issue of universal health care, posing a challenge to Gov. Deval Patrick's left flank.
Stein told the News Service late today that she plans to formally announce her campaign later this month. Her candidacy will further complicate a field that already has two major Republican candidates, a state treasurer running as an independent, and Patrick, the Democrat seeking reelection.
"I am very excited to offer voters a real choice for change," Stein told the News Service in an interview. "We're looking at three candidates for governor who have very similar opinions on a variety of key issues. It's very important that voters have a second choice."
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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