News – Page 4

By Jo Anne Shatkin, PhD  

CLF Ventures is engaged in several multi-stakeholder activities seeking to advance safe and environmentally sound practices in nanotechnology and nano-enabled product development. Nanotechnology is revolutionizing technology development for energy applications such as solar, electric vehicle, battery storage, and fuel cells. However, the regulatory path for managing the novel materials used in these applications is slow to develop, in part due to the difficulty in defining what a nanomaterial is, and therefore what regulatory requirements apply. Today’s release of the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s Environmental Health and Safety Research Strategy provides a helpful roadmap. But there are some complicated issues, such as new, differing definitions of nanomaterials.

By Walker Larsen  

CLF Ventures Project Manager Aviva Rothman-Shore and Project Specialist Walker Larsen presented CLF Ventures' "Land-based Wind Energy: A Guide to Understanding the Issues and Making Informed Decisions" as part of a stakeholder engagement panel at the October 6 meeting of the Massachusetts Wind Working Group.

By Jo Anne Shatkin, PhD 

CLF Ventures CEO Jo Anne Shatkin, PhD, was an invited panelist yesterday at the 2011 University of Michigan Risk Science Symposium: "Risk, Uncertainty, and Sustainable Innovation: New perspectives on emerging challenges." View video of Dr. Shatkin's presentation, "The risk toolbox: What are we good at, and what do we need to learn to do better?"

By Eric Halter  

CLF Ventures has been awarded a $391,500 grant from EPA to help two New England charter fishing vessels reduce their diesel emissions. The project will repower four “tier 0” marine engines on the vessels, enabling them to reduce their impacts on air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and fuel costs.

By Walker Larsen  

Many communities are currently trying to learn more about wind energy development and determine whether it makes sense in their city or town. To aid in this process, CLF Ventures, in partnership with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), recently released "Land-based Wind Energy: A Guide to Understanding the Issues and Making Informed Decisions," which provides municipal officials and other local decision-makers with clear overviews of wind energy siting issues as well as best practices for community engagement.

By Jasmine Tanguay  

CLF Ventures Associate Managing Director Jasmine Tanguay and Project Manager Aviva Rothman-Shore led a workshop titled “Using Stakeholder Networks to Engage the Undecided” at the New England Wind Energy Education Project (NEWEEP) Conference on June 7. The workshop built on CLF Ventures' recent work with the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center to help local policymakers with land-based wind energy siting decisions.

By Karen Wood  

A new study, commissioned by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Environmental Insurance Agency, has found a significant correlation between miles driven and risk and confirms that mileage is an accurate predictor of risk, laying the groundwork for adoption of alternative auto insurance pricing models based on mileage. Overall, the study confirms the actuarial soundness of Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) auto insurance pricing and indicates that the PAYD approach would significantly reduce miles driven, auto accident losses, insurance costs and greenhouse gas emissions, creating a win-win-win situation for insurers, consumers and the environment.