New England

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see rggi</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see blue states</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"></b></font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx ya cheap bastard</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Los Angeles Times</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">POLITICS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>People live longer in blue states than red; new study points to impact of state policies</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">States that have pursued more liberal policies in education, environment and civil rights have a longer life expectancy. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">States such as California that have pursued more liberal policies in education, environment and civil rights have seen a swifter rise in life expectancy than more conservative states. Above, the California Capitol in Sacramento.(Los Angeles Times)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By NOAM N. LEVEY STAFF WRITER </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">AUG. 3, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">WASHINGTON —  Weak environmental protections, safety rules and labor and civil rights protections may be cutting lives short in conservative states and deepening the divide between red and blue states, according to a new study on links between life expectancy and state policy.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The report, published Tuesday in the health policy journal Milbank Quarterly, finds that states where residents live longest, including California, tend to have much more stringent environmental laws, tougher tobacco and firearms regulations and more protections for workers, minorities and LGBTQ residents.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Since the mid-1980s, the gap among U.S. states in how long their residents live has widened, reversing decades of progress toward greater equality.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">One group of states, mostly in the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Northeast </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">and the West, have seen average life expectancies rise relatively steadily, placing them on par with the wealthiest nations of Western Europe. Those states tend to have more stringent regulations</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>By contrast, the life expectancy in states with more conservative health, labor and social policies — concentrated in the South and Appalachia — have stagnated in recent decades, according to the study, which adds to growing research on health and political disparities between states.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>California</b> has among the highest average life expectancies in the country, at 81.3 years. It also had the most liberal policies in the nation in 2014, the most recent year the study analyzed, according to the system the authors developed to rank states.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Although the study’s authors note that they can’t prove that state policies caused the gap in life expectancy, the correlation is a persistent one across multiple states and several decades.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It’s disheartening to see another example of a missed opportunity by policymakers,” said David Radley, senior scientist at the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund who studies differences in state health policies and the effects on people’s health. Radley was not involved in Milbank report.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[pix Bakersfield, CA., March 4, 2020 - Jenny Morones, 26, of Bakersfield poses for a portrait on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 in Bakersfield, California. Morones is working mother struggling to raise three children on a low income. Morones fled an abusive relationship and though in her twenties, has dealt with health challenges.Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Morones had health insurance that protected her from financial ruin. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Coronavirus widens healthcare divide between red states and blue states</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">May 25, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The new report may help shape efforts to rethink government policy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which has exposed deep structural weaknesses in the U.S. as well as yawning gaps in many state safety nets.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The overarching conclusion is clear: States that have invested in their populations’ social and economic well-being by enacting more liberal policies over time tend to be the same states that have made considerable gains in life expectancy,” the study’s authors wrote.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Even before the current public health crisis, life expectancy in the U.S. had been declining, setting America apart from most other wealthy nations. That decline has fueled tough questions about domestic policy.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The opioid epidemic, which has had a devastating impact on regions of the country already hit hard by economic stagnation, has been the focus of a lot of the discussion about that shift.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Syracuse University sociologist Jennifer Karas Montez, the lead author of the new study, said the impact of opioids may be only part of the story.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“When we look at what is happening with life expectancy, the tendency is to focus on individual explanations about what Americans are doing,” she said, noting obesity and smoking behaviors as well as drug use. “But state policies are so important.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To assess what role these policies may be playing, Montez and other researchers reviewed more than 120 policies enacted by states over the years and assessed whether each policy choice in each state was more liberal or more conservative.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Policies included housing rules such as rent control; health and welfare policies such as Medicaid eligibility and welfare limits; labor protections such as paid sick leave and minimum wages; and civil rights policies such as gender discrimination bans, hate-crime laws and same-sex marriage.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>They also looked at state abortion restrictions, tax policy, education spending, immigration rules and gun control laws.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Each state was ranked by how liberal or conservative its policies overall have been, going back to 1970.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The researchers then compared these findings to trends in life expectancy in all 50 states.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Montez said the trends they saw were unmistakable. They also correlated with important points in the nation’s political history.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Through the 1960s and 1970s, for example, state life expectancies generally converged. That trend began to reverse in the mid-1980s, around the same time that a conservative movement, led by President Reagan and mirrored in many state capitols, became ascendant.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The gap between states accelerated further after 2010, when sweeping Republican victories in state elections shifted policies further to the right in many places.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>By 2017, residents of the state with the highest life expectancy — <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Hawaii </span>— were living on average seven years longer than residents of the state with the lowest life expectancy — Mississippi.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>By contrast, the gap between the best- and worst-performing states in 1984 was less than five years.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The gap is not only about policy: States where people live longer tend to be wealthier and have better educated populations, for example.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But Montez noted that decisions by state leaders have helped shape those factors.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“States like <b>Connecticut </b>are investing in their population, investing in schools, setting an economic floor for their workers, discouraging behaviors like smoking that kill people,” she explained. “You have other states like </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Mississippi and Oklahoma that aren’t doing any of this.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In Connecticut, whose policies have become steadily more liberal over the last half century, life expectancy increased 5.8 years between 1980 and 2017 to 80.7 years.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>In Oklahoma, which has become markedly more conservative, life expectancy increased only 2.2 years over the same period, reaching 75.8 years in 2017.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Identifying which state policies may have the most impact on how long people live is difficult, the researchers concede. But the study points to a group of policies that appear to correlate most closely with longer lives.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">These include some unsurprising candidates such as <b>tougher environmental laws, which the authors note may protect people from toxic substances</b>. The authors also found a correlation between longer life expectancy and labor policies that increase economic security, such as a minimum wage.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Tougher gun laws appear to track with longer life expectancies, the study notes, as do stricter tobacco controls.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The authors also point to civil rights laws, which they suggest may protect residents from ill health related to persistent stress.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">And they found a correlation between longer life expectancy and better access to abortion, which the study notes may reflect other research that has linked abortion restrictions to women’s poverty and ill health.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Noam N. Levey writes about national healthcare policy out of Washington, D.C., for the Los Angeles Times. He covered passage of the 2010 Affordable Care Act and has written extensively about the landmark law and reported on its implementation from around the country. A former investigative and political reporter, he is a Boston native and a graduate of Princeton University. He joined the newspaper in 2003 and has reported from Washington since 2006.</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">welcome NJ</font></p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-jersey-climate-crisis-building-permits-2644940252.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.ecowatch.com/new-jersey-climate-crisis-building-permits-2644940252.html</font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/new-jersey" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">New Jersey</a> will be the first state in the U.S. to require builders to take the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">climate crisis</a> into consideration before seeking permission for a project.</font></p><div class="rebellt-item col1" data-basename="particle-1" data-href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-jersey-climate-crisis-building-permits-2644940252.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" data-id="1" data-is-image="False" data-reload-ads="false" id="rebelltitem1" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gov. Phil Murphy announced the new regulations Monday as part of the final version of the state's master energy plan, which commits New Jersey to achieving 50 percent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/clean-energy" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">clean energy</a> by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050, according to <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2020/01/murphy-just-unveiled-njs-master-plan-for-energy-and-made-a-big-pledge-to-fight-climate-change.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">NJ Advance Media</a>. But while <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/nyregion/climate-change-nj-environmental-rules.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR2eDnV4CTUJJcxqcqgod9JH9wQMZV1FpRDT390gU9NJE13wkyMY6ZydLxs" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">The New York Times pointed out</a> that other states have adopted a 2050 100 percent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">renewable energy</a> goal, New Jersey will be the first to require that projects seeking Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permits consider both how their projects' <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/emissions" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">emissions</a> will contribute to global warming and how climate change will impact their building plans.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is a big deal," director of the water and climate team at the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); line-height: 1.5;">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> Rob Moore told The New York Times. "For New Jersey to step to the forefront and say, 'We're going to look at future climate impacts, and that it's going to be a driver of our decision-making' — that's exactly what all 50 states need to be doing."</font></p><p><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">[img?]</span></p><p><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">new Jersey has a particularly good reason to consider how climate might impact new construction projects. The state has 130 miles of coastline and is especially vulnerable to</span><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="self" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-color="text-decoration-color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height">sea level rise</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">. Murphy cited a Rutgers study that found that the state's sea levels were projected to rise more than one foot by 2030 and two feet by 2050, NJ Advance Media explained.</span></p></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.drillednews.com/post/growing-group-of-states-backs-rhode-island-s-climate-suit-vs-big-oil" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.drillednews.com/post/growing-group-of-states-backs-rhode-island-s-climate-suit-vs-big-oil</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1/20</font></p><p class="XzvDs 208Ie _1dH_e blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _3ZX8L _1dH_e" style="margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); direction: ltr; box-sizing: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">More than a dozen states filed an <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/20-01.02%20-%20MA%20%26%20Cal.%20Multistate%20Rhode%20Island%20Amicus%20%5Bfnl%5D.pdf" target="top" rel="noopener" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _2IYtJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">amicus brief</span></a> on Friday supporting Rhode Island’s <a href="http://climatecasechart.com/case/rhode-island-v-chevron-corp/" target="top" rel="noopener" class="_2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _2IYtJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">climate lawsuit</span></a> against fossil fuel companies. The coalition of states supporting Rhode Island’s case is the largest yet, with Maine, Delaware, and Hawaii weighing in for the first time on litigation seeking to hold Big Oil accountable for climate change impacts. </span>

</font></p><p class="XzvDs 208Ie _1dH_e blog-post-text-font blog-post-text-color _2QAo- _25MYV _3ZX8L _1dH_e" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.5; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); direction: ltr; box-sizing: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The climate crisis is impacting Maine in a number of ways, from ocean temperatures affecting our fisheries to extreme weather damaging our infrastructure and costing taxpayers,” <a href="https://www.maine.gov/ag/news/article.shtml?id=1935630" target="top" rel="noopener" class="2qJYG blog-link-hashtag-color _2IYtJ" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: inherit; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); box-sizing: inherit;">said</span></a> Maine Attorney General Aaron M. Frey. “Big oil companies played a big role in creating this crisis and inhibiting an effective, evidence-based policy response. They should be held accountable for their actions.” ...</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" helvetica="helvetica" neue="neue" arial="arial" verdana="verdana" sans-serif="sans-serif"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=50e28a04b5&e=06876ede6b" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Coal Train Protesters Target One of New England’s Last Big Coal-Fired Power Plants</a></span><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" helvetica="helvetica" neue="neue" sans-serif="sans-serif">BY: PHIL MCKENNA
By standing in front of coal trains, they’re starting to draw attention to the power plant’s impact on climate change and ratepayers’ wallets. <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=37d0bf23a0&e=06876ede6b" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Read More</a></span></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ew 1/19</font></div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/public-schools-climate-change-2626280511.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; margin: 0px; line-height: 31px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">This State Might Require Public Schools to Teach Climate Change</font></a></h1><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body js-update-url css-listicle-body-2626280511" data-elid="2626280511" data-authors="Lorraine Chow" data-headline="This State Might Require Public Schools to Teach Climate Change" style="margin: 10px; line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><div class="widget__brief"><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reading, writing, arithmetic ... and climate science. That doesn't have the same ring as the "three Rs" of education, but Connecticut could one day require the subject to be on the curriculum, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/core/dashboard/editor/e19029381ba24b9c9c567e0924621888" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The Associated Press</a> reported.</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Connecticut state lawmaker is pushing a bill to mandate the teaching of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self" style="text-decoration-line: none; overflow-wrap: break-word;">climate change</a> in public schools throughout the state, starting in elementary school....</font></p></div></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font>

<a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2014/08/07/epa-administrator-praises-maine-and-other-new-england-states-for-climate-protections/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.pressherald.com/2014/08/07/epa-administrator-praises-maine-and-other-new-england-states-for-climate-protections/</font></a>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New England’s market-based approach to reducing carbon dioxide emissions shows that states can fight climate change while still improving their economies, the region’s top environmental officials said Wednesday.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Curt Spalding, Environmental Protection Agency administrator for New England, suggested that Maine and most other northeastern states had already compiled a “toolbox of tools” to meet the federal agency’s proposed rules for slashing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants nationwide. The goal now, Spalding said, is to put in place a national framework flexible enough to work in all states.</font></p>

<h3 style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px; padding-top: 4px; padding-bottom: 0px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); letter-spacing: 1px; text-transform: uppercase; font-weight: 600;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ADDITIONAL IMAGES</font></h3>

</font><div class="photo-credit" style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">curt spalding</font></div>

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<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 26px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What this rule tries to do … is to take advantage of the building blocks that have been put in place in places like New England,” Spalding told several dozen people in a University of Southern Maine lecture hall.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spalding spoke about the EPA’s proposed carbon standards for power plants during an unofficial “listening session” in Portland organized by the Natural Resources Council of Maine, the Island Institute and the Voter Education Brigade. “The first goal is to get the framework in place so that the kinds of continuous improvement experience we’ve had here in New England can happen everywhere,” Spalding said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spalding pointed out that New England’s gross domestic product has increased 22 percent since 1999 while carbon emissions have declined 20 percent.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In June, the EPA unveiled proposed rules to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 30 percent by 2030. The rules, which use 2005 emission levels as a starting point, are part of the Obama administration’s effort to reduce greenhouse gases linked to climate change. Each state was given a different target, with Maine expected to reduce emissions by 13.5 percent by 2030.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA is still discussing technical details of how New England’s existing carbon emission reduction system – the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative – will mesh with the proposed rules, under which states are supposed to start showing carbon dioxide reductions by 2020. However, Spalding said the proposed rules were designed to be flexible and should enhance existing programs such as the New England initiative.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spalding was in Maine days after a dozen other states filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA proposal and roughly one week after several thousand people attended public hearings held in four cities around the country. Speakers at those public hearings were deeply divided with the strongest opposition coming from coal-mining states and areas where coal is the dominant source of fuel for power plants.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The crowd at Portland’s unofficial “listening session” was decidedly friendly to the proposed rules. Speakers warned that a warming climate was already affecting Maine’s commercial fisheries and could have dramatic impacts on lobster, clams and other shellfish as higher carbon levels lead to more acidic oceans.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If we do not cut carbon emissions now, particularly from power plants, it becomes much more difficult if not impossible to protect ourselves from the worst ravages of climate change,” said Tom Tietenberg, professor emeritus of economics at Colby College who has researched climate policies. “The window of opportunity is closing. The time to act is now.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Tony Owens, an emergency physician at Maine Medical Center, said he admitted three people Tuesday who attributed their breathing problems to poorer air quality. “I see the effects every day,” Owens said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The EPA’s carbon reduction plans have not been controversial in Maine, largely because the six major power plants in the state have been operating under a carbon-reduction plan for five years. In addition, the state has no coal-fired power plants.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative is a nine-state program that imposes a cap on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel-burning power plants and then requires those facilities to buy credits for each ton they release. Credits are traded on a carbon market like other commodities, generating revenue for energy conservation or home weatherization in Maine while giving regulated facilities a financial incentive to reduce emissions below their caps.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Emissions from power plants in the nine states have fallen 40 percent, although market trends toward cleaner-burning natural gas and away from coal and oil are also major factors.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spalding said it was too early to tell whether Maine and the other eight participating states would be required to reduce emissions further under the EPA proposal. The EPA and the states must reconcile the different methods that the two systems use to calculate emissions....8/14</font>

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