A CLEAN START - Environmental Advocates of New York

Dear Advocates,

Former President Obama once said, “Elections have consequences.” That statement might be doubly true for the election we just had in New York.

New Yorkers have elected a new majority to the State Senate. In doing so, over a quarter of the Senate chairs will be filled by new members. With these changes comes great opportunity for popular, common-sense environmental legislation to finally see the light of day in the Senate.

You know from your involvement with us that there has been environmental stagnation in Albany. Critical pieces of legislation have been blocked by leaders who refused to step up and protect our environment, strengthen our communities, or improve our health. Bills with broad backing like the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA) and the Environmental Bill of Rights easily passed the Assembly this year with bi-partisan support, only to be buried in the Senate. The CCPA actually had a majority of Senators listed as official co-sponsors.

Where the previous Senate Majority had failed to recognize the importance of having a right to clean air and water or the potential of good jobs in the clean energy economy, we trust the new Senate Majority will take a different path. We expect the new Senate will join the Assembly in being champions of the environment by prioritizing policies that benefit our health, our communities, and our economy. The Climate and Community Protection Act and the Environmental Bill of Rights would both be a good place to start. The incoming Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins has championed the climate bill.

Similarly, the change of leadership in the US House of Representatives holds promise for positive action on the environment. It starts with a fundamental flip of ideals—science is important again, climate change is real, and actual oversight of agencies like the EPA is necessary. While there may be scant hope for the House to be joined in their ideals by a federal government that remains hostile to the environment, they should provide a counterbalance to the dirty policies of the Trump administration.

This election does not mean our job is done. We still need to make our case—loudly—but now to more receptive ears. The opportunity to make real environmental progress is much greater today than it was a week ago. Let’s get to work.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Iwanowicz
Executive Director
Environmental Advocates of New York

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Environmental Advocates of New York strongly supports these bills:

Climate and Community Protection Act 

A.8270-B (Englebright, et al.)    S.7971-A (Hoylman, et al.)

The impacts of climate change are affecting New York’s economic security, safety, and public health. Poor air quality, which is worsened by climate change, is making our children sick and shortening the lives of seniors. Extreme weather events place people in danger, cost billions in lost production and revenue, and damage or destroy communities.

Read more here...

Environmental Bill of Rights 

A.6279 (Englebright, et al.)     S.5287 (Carlucci, et al.)

This bill establishes in the New York State Constitution a right to clean water, clean air and a healthful environment. It addresses a gap in our legal foundations, and provides an expression of values that other states have already seen fit to establish and to pronounce.

Read more here...

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UPDATE (11.14.2018):

The Adirondack Mountain Club (ADK) strongly supports the Environmental Bill of Rights legislation

This proposal would amend the State Constitution's Bill of Rights to include a right to clean air and water and a healthful environment. This proposal establishes for New Yorkers the constitutional right to clean air, clean water and a healthy environmental equivalent to other basic rights guaranteed in New York State’s Constitution Article 1 Bill of Rights, such as, the right of freedom of worship and religious liberty, freedom of speech and the press, compensation for taking private property, equal protection of law, and security against unreasonable searches and seizures, among others. The basic human right to clean air and water and a healthful environment has been starkly absent from this list of constitutional protections, but recent threats to our water and air have reminded us that we cannot take for granted that these life sustaining elements will be protected. It is critical that we recognize the basic human rights to clean air and water and a healthful environment and detail these in the Article 1 Bill of Rights. 
Read more here... 


To Download the PDF document at the ADK website, Click Here

For this and other ADK Policy Positions, visit the ADK Website Here
 

NY Renews Coalition Reacts to NYS Senate Failure to Pass Climate Bill Prioritizing Jobs and Justice

On Thursday, the New York State Senate failed to pass the Climate and Community Protection Act.

In response, the NY Renews Coalition released the following statement: 
 
 On June 1st, Donald Trump made the disastrous decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. On June 21st, the last day of the legislative session, the leaders of the New York Senate failed again to pass a visionary climate bill--the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA)--at the precise moment when we need state leadership the most.

It is disturbing that, even in the wake of President Trump’s dangerous climate policy rollbacks, the New York State Senate failed to pass landmark climate legislation. This failure is as unconscionable as it is cynical. In ignoring legislation to protect New Yorkers from the worst impacts of a changing climate and seize the vast economic opportunity in clean, renewable energy, the Senate is telling frontline communities, clean energy workers, and all New Yorkers to wait at least another year for this life-saving, economy-boosting legislation--another year our state cannot afford to lose in tackling the growing climate and inequality crisis.

New York, the world’s 12th largest economy, can and should be showing that states’ actions can address the climate crisis even while the Trump administration does everything it can to eviscerate United State’s position as a climate leader.

The CCPA gives New York’s goal of reaching 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050 the force of law, creates fair labor standards for renewable energy jobs, and ensures that state energy funding is accessible to the low-income and environmental justice communities that need it most. The bill was developed and is championed by over 110 organizations statewide, representing many of New York’s most dedicated experts in labor, environmental, and social justice policy.

Support for the bill has united low-income communities of color in Buffalo with Hurricane Sandy survivors in Long Island, with clean energy investors in Manhattan. It united labor and environment, from the Teamsters and the Transit Workers, to Catskill Mountainkeeper and Sierra Club. It garnered support from climate champions like Bill McKibben, Mike Brune, and Naomi Klein; racial justice leaders like Ben Jealous, Rashad Robinson, and Black Lives Matter Greater NY; and progressive visionaries like Mark Ruffalo, Robert Reich, and Heather McGhee. And it has garnered bipartisan support in the state senate itself.

Despite this overwhelming, statewide, cross-sectoral support, the bill’s sponsors--the eight members of the Independent Democratic Conference-- and the senate leadership found any number of excuses not to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. This was their chance to prove they could pass a top-level progressive priority, and they did not live up to the challenge. They did not #CallTheRoll. Meanwhile, the Assembly led on the issue, passing the bill with strong bipartisan support by an even wider margin than last year.

It is time for Governor Cuomo, who did not include the CCPA in the budget, to step up and lead the way to passage for the nation’s strongest climate, jobs, and justice bill. We urge the Governor as well as the IDC and senate leadership to pass the CCPA in a special session this summer.

If the legislature is returning to Albany to protect the education of NYC school children, then surely the Governor and senate can also pass legislation critical to the protection of their very future--not to mention the millions of children outside NYC and around the world whose futures will be foreclosed by the climate crisis. The state’s leaders have left Albany with serious unfinished business, and they must redress this wrong.

In the meantime, NY Renews will continue to hold the Governor and the senate accountable, and stand up for New Yorkers who want good green jobs, healthy communities, and to protect their communities from the impacts of climate change.

URGENT: Support NYS Senate Passage of Important Climate Bill

IMPORTANT - TAKE ACTION TODAY!

The NY State Climate and Community Protection Act [1] passed the State Assembly, and it now has Bipartisan support of a Majority in the State Senate. 

We need to move this important bill to the floor for a vote [2].   

ACT NOW to show your support!  It's Easy! 

To send a form letter to your Senator or write your own, CLICK HERE.

New Yorkers deserve good jobs and healthy communities powered by clean, renewable energy!

1. NY State Climate and Community Protection Act(A.10342/S.8005) 
2. EDITORIAL: Senate Must Act on Climate - Albany TimesUnion - June 15, 2016

 Sponsors: Climate Justice Coalition of WNY, Sierra Club Niagara Group, and NY Renews

Save Energy & Money: Call for Tax Incentives on Geothermal Heat Pumps in the NYS Budget

Message from Bill Nowak,
Executive Director, NY-GEO.org

Dear Friends,

This is it. Can you help one more time?

The Assembly and Senate have included the 25% (up to $5k) geothermal tax credit and the sales tax exemption in their proposed 2016-2017 budgets. 

 The budget is scheduled to be approved by April 1. Things are fast and furious in Albany right now in negotiations between the legislature and the governor’s office.  The instinct to preserve state revenues is engaging in hand to hand combat with the instinct to help the environment and people of New York during this budget process.

 We can win this one or we can lose it and NY-GEO is leaving no stone unturned.

 PLEASE HELP US TODAY – We need you to take 2 easy steps:

1. Please call Governor Cuomo at 518-474-8390 - press 2 to leave a message or 3 to speak with an aide.  See below for both short and long sample messages.

 A sample short message for the phone:

Please include BOTH the geothermal tax credit (S 6249) and sales tax exemption (S6250) in the final 2016-17 budget.  Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) cut greenhouse gases, save New Yorkers money and create green jobs.  These incentives would give GHPs parity with Solar PV.

2. Then send an email message to the Governor's aides and the legislative leaders who are negotiating the budget:

NYS Senator Stands Up for Climate Science in the Face of Ignorance

By David Kowalski .

Senator Brad Hoylman, ranking member of the NY State Conservation Committee, called out the Senate majority for ignoring the term 'climate change' in their Earth Day Resolution.

Speaking in the senate chambers, he implored the legislative body that "we be mindful as public policy makers of the solemn responsibility to be good stewards of our planet."

Holyman said “There is an oversight in the resolution, which I feel obligated to point out, that there is no mention of climate change. The two words 'climate change' do not appear in the resolution.”

“It has to be [an oversight]. This is Earth Day, not Flat Earth Day. And the science, Mr. president, is clear.”   

Holyman cited scientific facts drawn from reports from the International Panel on Climate Change and cited by the NY City panel on Climate Change: rising temperatures, increasing precipitation, heat waves, extreme weather, sea level rise, and flooding of New York City, the most densely populated city on Earth.

“We should be mindful of the economic impact of climate change. With extreme weather events predicted to increase, we have to be prepared for economic impacts including infrastructure damage, rebuilding costs. The direct costs of Superstorm Sandy alone was $71.4 Billion,” he said.

“We are dooming our children’s future unless we act now.”

“Now the Peoples Climate March … 350,000 people attended it. It was in my district less than a year ago, but what have we done to address it?"

"Where is NY State’s Climate Action Plan? Who’s in charge of Climate Change in NY State? Can you name that person? I can’t.”

Hoylman concluded, “Mr. President, I support this [Earth Day] Resolution, but urge my colleagues, as we move forward in this legislative session, to take decisive steps to reverse global warming and climate change."

Senator Hoylman's full testimony delivered in the senate chambers can be viewed in a video here.

The Earth Day Resolution passed by the Senate GOP majority omitted the phrase “climate change” because some legislators objected to the words, according to a Capital New York report.

Republican Senator John DeFrancisco said it was a "politically correct term" and cast doubt on the notion the Earth was warming because his city saw record cold this winter.

“It was global warming a few years ago, and I can attest, being from Syracuse, New York, that the globe wasn't warming around Syracuse this winter. So by putting a label to good environmental practices is a very risky thing and that's why [climate change] was not put in this resolution,”  DeFrancisco said.

Buffalo News editorial cartoon by Pulitzer-Prize Winner Adam Zyglis

Senator DeFrancisco is ignorant of the fact that global warming is not simply evaluated by determining the temperature in his home district of Syracuse NY.

Global warming is assessed by measuring temperatures at numerous locations on land around the world as well as in the oceans that make up more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface. Measurements are made over time and the global average temperature is determined.

So, while it was brutally cold this winter in Syracuse, across NY state and elsewhere in the Eastern U.S., most all other regions on land and in oceans around planet Earth showed above average warming according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Results of NOAA's global temperature analysis are displayed on world maps for the months of January (click here) and February (below).

Hydrofracking Updates

Yes, a Drilling Moratorium.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013 by: Times Union Editorial Board. 

Our opinion: The Legislature should pass a moratorium on fracking while multiple studies are under way.

Whether you feel that natural gas fracking is the economic salvation of New York or an environmental disaster waiting to happen, there is one indisputable fact about it: The science is not in. Not by a long shot. And that’s why a moratorium in New York makes sense.

State leaders who have vowed to let science guide their decision on whether to allow high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing could show they mean what they say by declaring that the idea is off the table at least until some serious study is done.

While the industry’s persistent public relations campaign has portrayed fracking as clean and safe, we simply don’t know if that’s true. At least five studies are under way or being considered on fracking as scientists and health researchers seek answers.

Read more at TimesUnion.com

Note: The New York Assembly has already voted to ban fracking for two more years.
The moratorium would last until May 15, 2015. In the meantime, the Assembly bill calls for the State University of New York to conduct an independent, comprehensive health review (A5424A-2013).

A similar bill to ban fracking for two more years was introduced by the Independent Democratic Conference in the Senate (S4236A-2013).
However, the GOP is against the moratorium and they prefer to wait instead for Governor Cuomo’s health commissioner to complete an ongoing review. Read more here.
 
UPDATE 4.9.2013 --  Letter: Governor Cuomo, insist on a drilling moratorium
To the editor of the Times Union -- Published Friday, April 5, 2013

On behalf of a bipartisan group of more than 635 local elected officials from all 62 counties across New York, we agree with the Times Union's editorial in support of a moratorium on fracking. Wisely, the Times Union cited a growing majority of New Yorkers who question the safety of fracking: "Safe? Prove it. We can wait."

We can — and must — hold off. Elected Officials to Protect New York, whose signatories represent more than 13.5 million New Yorkers, has long been calling for Gov. Andrew Cuomo to maintain the moratorium on fracking. An informed decision cannot be made until analyses have evaluated the health, economic and cumulative environmental impacts on local communities.

The facts and science are not in. New concerns arise weekly.  Read more here.

TAKE ACTION: Call Governor Cuomo at  518-474-8390 and let him know your opinion about hydrofracking in NY State.

3rd NY Town Wins in Court over Fracking Ban

By The Associated Press on March 19, 2013

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A third upstate New York town has won a court challenge to its ban on natural gas drilling as two previous cases are about to be argued before a state appeals court.

Gas drilling company Lenape Resources, based in western New York, had sued the Livingston County town of Avon and the state Department of Environmental Conservation over the town's moratorium on drilling, saying the action threatened to put it out of business after it had operated in the town for decades. Lenape's owner, John Holko, also sought $50 million in damages. He named the Department of Environmental Conservation because he said the agency had a duty to stop towns from enacting local bans.

On March 15, Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert Wiggins in Livingston County ruled against Lenape on all counts. He cited Court of Appeals precedents as well as decisions in favor of local bans in the Upstate towns of Dryden and Middlefield.

Read more at The Post-Standard's Syracuse.com

Note: The basis for NY Supreme Court rulings upholding the gas-drilling bans in the Towns of Dryden and Middlefield was covered in my earlier post here (February 27, 2012) .

Sierra Club Blasts 'Sustainable Shale' Center's Partnership Between Industry And Environmental Groups

AP  |  By KEVIN BEGOS Posted: 03/21/2013

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Sierra Club and some other environmental groups are harshly criticizing a new partnership that aims to create tough new standards for fracking.

The criticism Thursday came a day after two of the nation's biggest oil and gas companies made peace with some national and regional environmental groups, agreeing to go through an independent review of their shale oil and gas drilling operations in the Northeast.

If Shell Oil, Chevron Appalachia and other companies are found to be abiding by a list of stringent measures to protect the air and water from pollution, they will receive the blessing of the new Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale Development, created by environmentalists and the energy industry.

But some are questioning whether a partnership between environmentalists and the oil and gas industry should exist at all.

Read more at the Huffington Post

NOTE 1: "Sustainable shale" is an oxymoron, like "clean coal."  How about "sustainable wind" or "sustainable sunlight"... that works!
NOTE 2: Even Pro-frackers don't like this industry-enviro "partnership." See MarcellusDrilling.com

Collapse of Salt Mine serves as Cautionary Tale on Fracking

By Margaret Wooster
Special to The Buffalo News - 03/17/2013

This cautionary tale is relevant to one of the most important decisions confronting New York State in our time: whether to permit the construction of tens of thousands of new high-volume hydrofracking gas wells across the southern half of our state.

Read more at BuffaloNews.com

EPA Announces Expert Panel to Review Fracking Study

WASHINGTON | Mon Mar 25, 2013

(Reuters) - The U.S. environmental regulator has selected experts in fields ranging from well-drilling to toxicology to review a highly anticipated report on the natural gas and oil extraction method commonly known as fracking.

The Environmental Protection Agency's science advisory board on Monday named 31 experts from universities, scientific labs and companies to review the agency's landmark hydraulic fracturing study that is expected to be delivered in 2014.

The study, first requested by Congress in 2010, may prove pivotal in the government's regulation of fracking that has unlocked generations' worth of oil and gas supplies.

Read more here.

Click here to view a list of Members of the Hydraulic Fracturing Research Advisory Panel

To view the Executive Summary of the Progress Report on the EPA hydraulic fracturing study (December 2012), click here.

HydroFracking News Briefs

Excerpts from articles in the news and blogs

NY State Won't Fund Hydrofracking Health Impact Study
By David Kowalski
April 4, 2012 

The $132,600,000,000 budget passed by New York State last week did not include funds for a $100,000 study intended to protect the health of NY residents from the fallout of high-volume hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) already seen in other states. 

Many lawmakers, as well as the governor and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), seem bent on moving forward on unconventional shale-gas drilling. Sadly, they ignored sound advice from 250 physicians and healthcare/scientific experts who recognize the lack of a Health Impact Assessment as a major flaw in the DEC’s draft hydrofracking regulations. 

Senator Mark Grisanti said "It's very difficult to do a health study on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in NY state when it's not occurring here."

Read the full article here and see a video by Dr. Sandra Steingraber entitled "Will NY Regs on Fracking Protect Our Health?"
 
Another Voice / Hydraulic fracturing
New Yorkers have a right to know the health impacts
By Lois Marie Gibbs and Larysa Melnyk Dyrszka
April 10, 2012
 
New York State may be on the verge of allowing fracking on a large scale across the state. Yet, despite all of the information indicating that there will be negative impacts on our communities and public health from fracking, our elected officials have not yet studied the potential health impacts to identify the risks involved.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has stated repeatedly that science will drive New York’s decision on whether to proceed with this extreme form of fossil fuel extraction. But on the issue of health, the science hasn’t been done. The New York State Assembly has called for an independent health impact assessment on fracking by including an appropriation in its budget proposal. The State Senate and the governor should follow suit and ensure that this critical study is funded in the final budget.

As chairman of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee and member of the Budget Conference Committee, Buffalo’s own Mark Grisanti has a critical role to play. He can and should fight for this appropriation in the Senate and the governor’s office.

Read the full article at BuffaloNews.com

Grisanti proposes fracking safeguards
Bill would prohibit treatment of water at public facilities
By Charlie Specht
April 7, 2012

State Sen. Mark J. Grisanti on Friday announced legislation that would prohibit treatment of water from hydraulic fracturing at public facilities statewide, create a tracking program for the waste and enact other environmental safeguards.

But Grisanti, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environmental Conservation, said he would not support or oppose the controversial gas drilling process until the state completes its final environmental impact study.

“It’s preliminary,” he said. “It’s too early to tell.”

As Grisanti was confronted by environmental activists demanding a complete ban on fracking, his chief political opponent called for more education on the issue before any action is taken.

“We need to see the full scope of their final draft of regulations before we rush to start the drilling,” former Erie County Legislature Chairman Charles M. Swanick said as he urged consideration of alternative energy methods.

Read the full report at BuffaloNews.com and see a video of Sen. Grisanti's presentation and the reactions of fracking opponents including Rita Yelda of Food & Water Watch.

Links to Press Releases

Senator Grisanti announces legislative package aimed at protecting our environment with regards to hydrofracking
By Mark Grisanti  - April 4, 2012 
Contains links to the proposed legislation.

Coalition Urges NY Sen. Grisanti to Support Statewide Fracking Ban 
By New Yorkers Against Fracking - April 5, 2012  

New Yorkers to Senator Grisanti: Ban Fracking
By Rita Yelda - April 6, 2012