Massachusetts

2012 Weather a Clone of 2011?

October 20, 2011 by Left in Alabama

  The National Weather Association conference in Hover Alabama began yesterday and concludes today. It's looking like we're not going to get enough time to lick our wounds from the brutal weather of 2011 before we have to endure more of the same.

Jobs: Obama Administration Announces Selection of Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project and 13 Others to be Expedited Through Permitting/Review Process

October 12, 2011 by Democracy for N...

Yesterday, the Obama Administration announced the selection of 14 infrastructure projects around the country that will be expedited through permitting and environmental review processes. The administration says it's an important next step in its efforts to improve the efficiency of federal reviews needed to help job-creating infrastructure projects move as quickly as possible from the drawing board to completion. 

One of the 14 selected for expedition is the Navajo Gallup Water Supply Project, which will build two water treatment plants and deliver water through approximately 280 miles of pipeline, 24 pumping plants and numerous water regulation and storage facilities bringing a clean and sustainable water supply to the Navajo Nation in northwestern New Mexico. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation will work to improve coordination between Federal and non-federal entities and to expedite land acquisition through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management.

Congressman Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico’s Third District applauded the move by the Obama Administration.

Second UNM C-SVED Panel Discusses Presidential Electoral College Versus National Popular Vote

September 29, 2011 by Democracy for N...

The UNM Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy (C-SVED) held its second of three Citizen Panel meetings yesterday in Santa Fe to discuss and compare the current Electoral College system with a new approach, the National Popular Vote Initiative. Guests at Wednesday’s meeting included the New Mexico Secretary of State, Dianna Duran, Senators Rod Adair and Peter Wirth, and State Legislators Nate Gentry and David Doyle. In addition to these guests, Citizen Panel members, including County Clerks from four New Mexico counties and multiple citizens and citizen groups, grappled with the idea of changing the way we vote for president to a national popular vote.

Corporate Fleets Beginning to Go Electric

September 26, 2011 by ArticleXI

Cross-posted from Sierra Club Compass

(Contributed by Gina Coplon-Newfield)

At the recent AltWheels Fleet Day conference in Norwood, Mass., I had the opportunity to take a ride in fleet operator Derek Taveres's giant Frito-Lay delivery truck that runs on 100 percent electricity. With 176 all-electric trucks made by Smith Electric, Frito-Lay currently operates one of the largest corporate fleets of electric delivery trucks in the nation. Gino Porter, Frito-Lay's Northeast Regional Fleet Manager, told me that it only costs 13 cents a day in electricity to power each vehicle as compared to about $300 per truck per week for their gasoline-powered trucks. With those savings, even with the money spent on the vehicles and the charging units, Porter said the return on investment is fast.

I asked why Pepsico, which owns Frito-Lay, doesn't use electric delivery trucks for Pepsi. Porter and his colleagues said that there are likely two reasons: 1.