Mother Out Front Suzanne Hitchcock-Bryan was published! Her Letter to the Editor calls on Speaker Deleo to honor his commitment to prioritizing health and public safety.

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Lakeshore Mothers and Others Out Front team member Mark Crosby had his Letter To The Editor published in the Orleans Hub regarding a proposed wind project near his community. Kudos to Mark and his team members advocating for approval of this project!

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Mothers Out Front volunteers Viki Bok and Andee Krasner #UsedTheirMomVoice and sent in Letters to the Editor on two topics close to their hearts: questioning the need for "natural" gas pipelines and supporting an annual RPS increase of 3%.

Read the 3rd and 5th letters entitled: "It is time to stop talking about more pipelines" and "Clean energy is the answer."

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For a Mother's voice on our energy infrastructure, read the second Letter to the Editor published in the Boston Globe by Mother Out Front Co-founder and Chair Kelsey Wirth: More Gas Pipelines are Not the Answer.

"Building more pipelines is the wrong investment for our children. We should, and must, be investing in energy efficiency and clean energy. The implications of our energy choices today for the future habitability of our planet are simply too great."

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Somerville Mother Out Front Randi Soltysiak reminds us about the power of relationships in our work:

“Tonight is about relationship building and getting a chance to get to know one another,” said Randi, a member of the Somerville chapter of Mothers Out Front. “We’ll be able to work together better. Tonight, and a lot of the time we get together to do work, it tends to be kind of the same folks, and it’s on us — a lot of our work is to make more relationships with people we don’t know yet.”

Click this link to read the article:

http://somerville.wickedlocal.com/news/20180125/somerville-climate-social-to-tackle-environmental-concerns

This story is about a brownfield site in an oil refinery in Rochester left by Vacuum Oil (Vacuum Oil was then bought by ExxonMobile).

Mothers Out Front is one of a number of community groups actively supporting the PLEX community's demand that the cleanup of this brownfield site be cleaned up to the highest degree possible. The state/city/Exxon/Developer (who wants to develop this property - which is across the river from the University of Rochester) are leaning towards the lowest level (and cheapest) cleanup.

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Cambridge Mother Out Front Melissa Ludtke writes in her Letter to the Editor:

"In a few weeks, the TUE [Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy] committee will decide if legislators will get to vote on a 3 percent annual increase in our state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard. Passage of this bill will increase the amount of clean renewable energy in our electrical grid, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and help ensure a more liveable climate for our children. Since 2002, our state’s RPS has been a cost-effective strategy for developing renewable markets and increasing demand for renewable energy sources, including solar, wind, landfill gas and biomass."

It's time to #ListenToOurMothers. Read more here:

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Mothers Out Front, Tompkins County Community Team #InTheNews. Ithaca Times article on the biggest stories of 2017.

Section: Borger Compressor Expansion Under Scrutiny

“Mothers Out Front – which has an active branch locally – began to question the project, lobbying the company to make upgrades to the proposed design in order to reduce the presence of toxins in its emissions. The group also went to work on a public information campaign around the project, holding numerous community meetings with neighbors and appealing to the County Health Department to assist the group in a study of the health impacts of the station as it comes online.”

MA - Work on the ground continues after the vote to switch to 100% renewable for municipal buildings in Amherst.

Andra Rose notes: "This article includes a celebratory photo of us thanking Town Meeting members after our 100% Renewable Energy and Zero Energy articles won. See the super mom cape?"

"…Those in the construction field who signed onto a letter of support for the bylaw argue that zero energy is becoming much easier and doable, and that the worries don’t match reality. Bruce Coldham, a retired Amherst architect, said skeptics have been challenging him since he built his first zero energy project 15 years ago.

'It’s a wonderful opportunity to turn wishful thinking into real achievement,' Coldham said. 'This is a watershed moment.'”

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Mothers Out Front from Concord (Carolyn Wilkins) and Acton (Judith Aronstein) are #inthenews reporting a gas leak at Walden Pond, thought to contribute to the death of a 100+-year-old tree, which was removed.

“It’s a clear and overpowering gas leak,” Carolyn Wilkins of the Concord chapter of Mothers Out Front said minutes before a huge crane removed the tree in pieces.

Mothers Out Front is an environmental activism organization seeking to have gas leaks plugged. It cites scientific studies showing methane gas is harmful to the environment.

National Grid has said there are 126 natural gas leaks in Concord. All but three, including the leak near the white pine at Walden Pond, are classified as Grade 3, which pose the least risk of combustion."

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