Dave Gerraughty

Our members are familiar with many of the aspects of Clean Water Action advocacy: promoting legislation, endorsing candidates, field and phone canvassing, educational outreach.

Several of our state offices also do direct engagement with the business community to promote best practices on issues like chemical policy and waste management. Our New England offices (Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts) have been working for over a year with management at CVS Health on developing a safer chemical policy. 

With national environmental policy in the hands of administrators and officials allied with polluters, it has become essential for activists to form innovative alliances to advance progressive programs.

The president’s executive order aimed at overturning six of President Obama’s directives on regulating carbon emissions, including the Clean Power Plan, is just the latest attempt to reverse hard-won victories for clean water and air.

I had a relative who told me when I was growing up: “If you want to make sure it rains, plan an event that must be held outside.”

I’m pleased to say that wisdom proved correct when our tour of green infrastructure projects at Providence College was held in a light, steady rainfall.

The fact that Mother Nature sent us a little precipitation served to better illustrate how the network of campus bioswales helps direct and infiltrate storm water runoff.

Advocating for environmental issues in the Rhode Island General Assembly is a complicated process that requires persistence, patience and creative approaches. Economic growth and job creation - not the environment - are often the first concerns on the minds of lawmakers.

You never know what you might run into when activists descend on the statehouse for the Environment Council of Rhode Island’s (ECRI) annual Lobby Day.

Last Wednesday, I was greeted in the rotunda by a group of our allies in the Energize Rhode Island coalition wearing snorkels to demonstrate the kind of gear we’ll all need if we don’t fight the sea level rise that is resulting from Climate Change.

Field canvassing can be a lonely task, especially when you are working in a remote area on a night when folks are more into family time than talking with a stranger about social issues.

Sometimes when you’re trying to get folks up at the statehouse to embrace big ideas for progressive change, you have to look for indirect signs of movement in your direction.

I was thrilled to be able to attend the final presentation of the Brown TRI-Lab (Teaching, Research, Impact) students on their successful project to bring green infrastructure to the West End neighborhood of Providence, R.I.