Last
week the Environment Council of Rhode Island held its annual Earth Day
rally at the State House to lobby for environmental bills it considers
important. Governor Carcieri and several key legislators joined the
members.
The
very next day, several of the top bills were voted out of the House
Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, chaired by Rep. Peter
Ginaitt, D-Warwick, who took part in the rally.
The
bills still need to clear the Senate. But Matt Auten, of the Rhode
Island Public Interest Research Group, Sheila Dormandy, president of
the environment council, and Emily Rauchon, of Clean Water Action, all
agreed it was a good week for environmental causes.
Bills
passed by the committee set energy-efficiency standards for items
ranging from cell phones to traffic lights. Another bill, reached after
compromises with the auto industry, would have the industry help scrap
yards remove from junk cars parts containing mercury. (The scrap yards
wanted the auto companies to pay a bounty for each switch.)
The
committee passed a House resolution promoting goals to reduce global
warming and a bill requiring an American master mariner to be on board
any tanker transporting liquefied natural gas into Narragansett Bay.
It
also passed a bill calling for eliminating the additive methyl
tertiary-butyl ether from gasoline sold in Rhode Island by Jan. 1, 2007.
The
advocates did lose on a bill that would have mandated the use of low
sulfur heating oil in Rhode Island. Industry representatives and
advocates agreed it would help clean Rhode Island's air, but industry
experts said such fuels are so rare that it would be difficult to get
enough to keep Rhode Island fully supplied.
The bills still have to clear the House and Senate and get approved by the governor, but the advocates are optimistic.
"We
think we have a great chance of passing environmental legislation this
year, and we look forward to working with the environmental champions
in the General Assembly and Governor Carcieri to make sure that
happens," Dormandy said at the news conference.
Earth
Day cleanups set around the state With Earth Day next weekend,
literally hundreds of cleanups, celebrations and other special events
have been scheduled around Rhode Island. The most comprehensive list is
at www.earthdayri.org.
In
related events, several groups are sponsoring an "Earth Day Breakfast
of Champions" Friday to recognize local champions of environmental
health.
Janet
Keller, chief of the office of strategic planning at the state
Department of Environmental Management, will be recognized as the
"Behind the Scenes Champion."
State Rep. Ginaitt and Sen. Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown, will be recognized as "Legislative Champions."
And Roberta Hazen-Aaronson, director of the Childhood Lead Action Project, will get the "Lifetime Champion" award.
The
breakfast will be at 8:30 a.m. at the Aspray Boathouse in Pawtuxet
Village. Tickets are $25, or $10 for students and people with low
incomes. For tickets or information, call Clean Water Action at (401)
331-6972.
The
Audubon Society of Rhode Island is celebrating Earth Day from 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 23, at its Environmental Education Center in
Bristol. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Admission is
free for those arriving on bicycles.
The
focus will be on clean energy, with demonstrations of solar cooking and
wind energy, as well as giveaways and children's activities. For more
information, call (401) 245-7500 or go to www.asri.org.
The
Rhode Island Earth Day Committee is sponsoring a festival from 10:30
a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Roger Williams Park, in Providence.
Consumer
Reports, the national consumer organization, is offering a new Web site
with information on environmentally friendly products.
Greenerchoices.org will be available to the public next weekend.
S.
Kingstown teen wins stamp award A total of 654 students took part this
spring in the Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest sponsored by the
Friends of the National Wildlife Refuges in Rhode Island and the Rhode
Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
One hundred winners were honored at an awards ceremony two weeks ago.
The
Best of Show Award went to Emily Sorlien, 15, of South Kingstown High
School. Her entry will be sent to Washington, D.C., to compete for a
national title on Saturday.
The
winner of the national competition will receive a $5,000 prize and a
trip to Washington. The design will be made into the Federal Junior
Duck Stamp, which will be sold with profits used for conservation
education purposes.
Sorlien also received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee.
Each student created a picture of native waterfowl in its natural habitat and wrote a conservation message for each picture.
Ballard
offers lecture Tuesday Robert Ballard, the internationally recognized
marine archeologist, will give a lecture, "Exploring the Ocean Floor"
on Tuesday, April 26, at Roger Williams University.
The
lecture is part of a series and will be offered at 7 p.m. in the Mary
Tefft White Cultural Center at the university's Main Library on the
Bristol Campus at One Old Ferry Road.
Ballard
is one of the world's leading spokesmen for marine research. He
discovered the sunken wrecks of the Titanic and the German battleship
the Bismarck. He currently heads the Institute for Deep-Sea Archaeology
at the University of Rhode Island.
Wild
Plant Society hosts walk April 24 The Rhode Island Wild Plant Society
is taking its first walk this spring at the recently acquired Crawley
Preserve in Richmond and South Kingstown.
The
walk is scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 24. There is a fee of
$3 for members and $5 for nonmembers. Registration is required. Call
(401) 453-3777.
The 112-acre preserve is home to a mixed deciduous forest, white pine woods, American beech stands and red maple lowlands.
The
Environmental Journal is a listing of brief news items about the
actions of individuals, organizations and businesses that affect the
air we breathe, the water we drink, and the landscape that surrounds
us. If you have comments or suggestions, please contact environment
reporter Peter B. Lord at (401) 277-8036, or by e-mail at plord [at]
projo.com, or by writing him, care of The Providence Journal, 75
Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902.
