Interested in Living a More Sustainable Life? Consider becoming a member of The Growing Green Co-op! Member benefits include participation in a state-wide delivery of sustainable goods - biofuels, local produce, organic bulk foods, raw food to go boxes, toxic free house cleaning products, organic linens, eco-friendly body care lines and other "green" products/services will be delivered to co-op members state-wide starting this July that will grow our local economy.
Come on Connecticut! Let's get on board with renewable energy and get every town in our state involved!
Host a support group for GOING GREEN in your hometown, based on the handbook The Low Carbon Diet: How to Loose 5,000 Pounds! Our goal is to assist folks state wide to faciliate discussions an support groups in their own home, community center, church, or school starting January 2008. Let us know if you are interested! Email us at info@alchemyjuicebar.com
General Assembly - Raised Bill No. 5717 February Session, 2008 LCO No. 2473 AN ACT BANNING RETAIL USE OF PLASTIC BAGS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2008) (a) On and after January 1,
2010, no retailer shall use or distribute nonbiodegradable plastic bags for the purpose of holding products purchased by a consumer. For the purposes of this section, "retailer" means any person who sells goods used primarily for personal, family or household purposes to a person who is not in the business of reselling such goods.
(b) Any retailer violating this section shall be fined not more than two hundred dollars for the first offense and not more than one thousand dollars for each subsequent offense. Each day that such violation continues shall constitute a separate offense.
On Monday March 3, 2008 at 9:30 at the capitol in Hartford there will be a public hearing on a pending bill to ban the distribution of plastic bags. Trillions of bags are distributed by groceries stores and the likes world wide each year and end up killing animals, creating huge toxic landfills, using billions of gallons of non-renewable oil, making neighborhoods ugly, breaking down into poisons in the water and soil, and those are just the bad things we KNOW about.
The hearing is open to the public and the group who introduced it is looking for as many people as possible to get up and say something in support of it. (If you can't think of anything specific to say you can just say you support it.) Very simple google searches will lead you quickly to plenty of facts to use in support if you do want toprepare a short statement. Each individual who wants to speak has 3 minutes to do so. It is always good to get there early to sign up to speak.
We will be there to speak as well as to hand out reusable bags!
According to the latest data from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, West Hartford is leading all other Connecticut towns in clean energy signups, with 905 by the end of May. The other top ten towns for clean energy signups are New Haven (865), Fairfield (486), Hamden (371), Glastonbury (362), Branford (317), Middletown (315), Stamford (290), Mansfield (279), and Manchester (268). Signups include households and businesses in town.
In terms of just household participation in the clean energy program, West Hartford comes in eighth, tie with Canton and Washington with 3.6% of all households participating. At 12.7%, the town of Norfolk leads in household participation in the clean energy program - almost 4 times more than West Hartford's rate. The other top ten towns for household participation are Bethany (10.8%), Canaan and Portland (6.3%), Cornwall (6.1%), Lyme (5.6%), Mansfield, (5.0%), Chester (4.7%), West Hartford, Canton and Washington (3.6%), Essex (3.4%) and 10) Glastonbury, Ashford and Old Lyme (2.8%).
If you're one of the 96.4% of West Hartford households who haven't signed up for clean energy yet, you've got plenty of company! Here's what you need to know to make the switch:
It may cost less than you think. Choosing clean energy adds 1.1 cent per kilowatt hour to your electric bill. If you're a typical Connecticut household, using about 700 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, you'll pay about $8 more a month if you choose the 100% option, or about $4 a month if you choose the 50% option.
You can get either 50% or 100% of your electricity from clean energy - approved renewable resources such as wind, small hydro and landfill gas rather than from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming and climate change.
You can sign up with either Sterling Planet (uses wind, small hydroelectric and landfill gas) or Community Energy (uses wind and small hydroelectric).
For more information on your clean energy options, go to http://www.ctcleanenergyoptions.com/options.htm
