Help Restore Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River

Restore Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River Submit comments and attend an upcoming public hearing

The health of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River has been significantly damaged by fifty years of poor regulation that solely benefited power generation and shipping. Wetlands have been destroyed, fish populations have dwindled, and wildlife has disappeared. We have the chance to change this, and Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River need your voice. After thousands like you demanded action, the International Joint Commission (IJC) finally proposed a new regulation plan, known as Plan 2014 (a slightly revised version of the proposed Plan Bv7). Plan 2014 is a modern plan that achieves a balance of benefits for all interests. Plan 2014 will benefit the environment and economy while improving hydroelectric power generation. This plan will make significant progress toward restoring the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario after more than half a century of environmentally damaging regulation. Plan 2014 is open for public comment, and public hearings have been scheduled. Please take a moment to take action today for a healthier Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River. What you can do: Submit an online comment in support of Plan 2014. This will take just a few minutes and will send a strong message in support of a healthy lake and river. Simply tell the IJC: You strongly support the implementation of Plan 2014. Plan 2014 is a modern plan that benefits all interests and will help to restore the ecosystem of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. Attend an upcoming public hearing. The International Joint Commission is holding public hearings on Plan 2014 in July. Your voice, speaking out for the health of the River and Lake, is critical now more than ever. Hearings in New York Sunday, July 14 Tuesday, July 16 Wednesday, July 17 6:00 - 9:00 pm Cornell Cooperative Extension 4487 Lake Avenue Lockport, NY Meeting Room: 4-H Training Center 6:00 - 9:00 pm Central High School 5891 Route 21 Williamson, NY Meeting Room: Auditorium 6:00 - 9:00 pm Bonnie Castle 31 Holland Street Alexandria Bay, NY More info from the IJC on Plan 2014 Thank you for taking action. Together we make a difference! Sincerely, All of Us at CCE Citizens Campaign for the Environment 225A Main Street Farmingdale, NY 11735 516-390-7150 | Fax: 516-390-7160 6 Regional Offices in New York and Connecticut

Public Hearing on Replacing Coal with Gas in Power Plants

PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION (PSC) HEARING

ON PROPOSAL TO REPOWER DUNKIRK AND CAYUGA

COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS WITH GAS

Come and Give Testimony

Come and Support those Giving Testimony with your Presence

Monday, July 15, 2013

SUNY Fredonia, Multi-Purpose Room at the William Center

Fredonia, NY

Public Testimony starts at 7 pm

Administrative Law Judge Presiding

The Public Service Commission (PSC) is currently deciding whether to repower the Dunkirk and Cayuga coal-fired power plants with natural gas or to opt for more environmental and cost effective transmission system upgrades, efficiency, and renewables. There will be presentations by NRG and National Grid with Q&Q from 6-7. Public testimony will follow at 7 pm.

There is so much agreement that natural gas is the wrong choice (for environmental, fracking, cost, consumer benefit reasons) that the Business Council, the Sierra Club, and seven other environmental organizations submitted joint comments to the PSC urging the transmission upgrades, efficiency, and renewables over natural gas, Needless to say, the Business Council and enviros rarely issue joint statements. 

Senators Maziarz, Young, and Nozzolio quickly requested a public hearing in Fredonia which the PSC granted. The Sierra Club -- and others -- have submitted about 2,000 public comments opposing the natural gas conversion.

We need a strong presence at the Fredonia hearing so that Senators Young and Maziarz will hear our voices in support of cost-effective and more environmentally friendly options like renewables, infrastructure, and efficiency. This hearing can set the stage for future victories and give a public victory to fracktivists and renewable energy activists. 

SUNY Fredonia Location:  Building #21 on Campus Map.
Map to SUNY Fredonia is Here

UB Professor Jim Holstun Receives Conservation Award

By Art Klein and Jay Wopperer

Conservation Committee Co-chairs

Adirondack Mountain Club - Niagara Frontier Chapter (ADK-NFC)

At the Annual Meeting and Picnic the Committee selects a person whom we think should be the ADK-NFC Conservation Person of the past year.
 

Jim Holstun at the founding meeting of UB CLEAR* - NY Times

This year we unanimously selected Jim Holstun, who teaches World Literature at SUNYAB.
 

Jim was the hero who forced the SUNYAB leadership to admit they had let a wolf in sheep's clothing to slip into UB, technically the Geology Department. Holstun was a founder and the chair of a group called UB CLEAR, the Coalition for Leading Ethically in Academic Research.
 

A couple years ago the Natural Gas Industry decided to infiltrate academia and develop "special relationships," especially in Geology Departments. At SUNYAB, the Shale Institute was their guise and unapologetic industry shills ran it from the Fracking side of Natural Gas development.
 

Like many technological and science efforts such special bodies work with the universities both gaining mutual benefit from the effort and the University often realizing much needed income and special insight to many aspects of any process that is not already part of the academic realm.
 

Soon UB's Shale Institute published a report that assured the world of the environmental safeness and theoretical total benefits of Fracking. The report was portrayed as a peer-reviewed, valid, scientific study.
 

Then the tattiness of the report began to emerge. The report was actually "sort of peer reviewed," then it was admitted no such review was done. Also, the authors were consultants for the oil and gas industry but failed to disclose their financial conflicts in the report.
 

The Public Accountability Initiative did a detailed study of the report and discerned some terrible arithmetic, distorted emphasis and even signs of repressed data. Liberal Arts folk were now ethically aroused by a bad actor in their midst with the blessing of the University Geology Department.
 

In the end the Institute was bounced and the ethically-inclined Holstun and many allies rewarded for their very special efforts.
 

We had a very pleasant presentation of the reward at our annual meeting and became quite delighted with Professor Holstun who revealed his acumen by having done some research and was glad to note us as such wise Stewards of the Adirondacks, especially our High Peaks Steward Program. Naturally then he briefly explored the etymology of the word steward and expressed hope we would not diminish our efforts.
 

We were all equally pleased that we had one great selection on one great day to present it.

-----------------------------------------
*For more information on the many allies who helped to expose the Shale Institute shills, Click Here.

Editorial cartoon in The Buffalo News by Adam Zyglis

Quarterly Meeting of the Western NY Environmental Alliance

Quarterly meetings are official gatherings of the Alliance member organizations. All who belong to Alliance member organizations are invited to attend. 
Please register now for the second Quarterly Meeting at the Marcy Casino in Delaware Park tomorrow, Tuesday, July 9, 2013. The Habitat & Natural Resources Working Group will be facilitating a discussion on fracking in New York State, following a presentation from the Issues & Advocacy Process Group on the Action Agenda.

Tentative Schedule (Subject to Change)
Please note the earlier start time

4:30 p.m.
WNYEA Advocacy Agenda Presentation 
Micaela Shapiro, Issues and Advocacy Process Group Chair

5:30 p.m.
Dinner  

6:00 p.m.
Fracking Program Presentations
Don Duggan-Haas, Museum of the Earth
David Kowalski, Re-Energize Buffalo
Rita Yelda, New Yorkers Against Fracking & Food and Water Watch & WNY Drilling Defense

6:30 p.m.
Discussion and Q&A
Moderator: Jay Burney, Learning Sustainability Campaign & Greenwatch

The meeting will end at 7:30 p.m.  

Note that only registered member organizations can participate in any official business of the Alliance that may be conducted at a Quarterly Meeting, such as voting. To be sure that the interest and views of your member organization are included in official Alliance business, be sure that you have registered your 2 official representatives. To find out whether you have registered your organization's representatives, email info@growwny.org.

UPDATE: July 11, 2013
Post meeting photo of Fracking Program speakers: Left to right, Don Duggan-Haas, Rita Yelda, Jay Burney, Linda Schneekloth, and David Kowalski

                                                                      Kristen Kaszubowski / GrowWNY

GObike Buffalo -- BIKETOBERFEST 2013

Fracking -- No Complaints, No Problems -- Right? Wrong!

Drillers Silence Fracking Claims With Sealed Settlements
By Jim Efstathiou Jr. and Mark Drajem
Cross-posted from Bloomberg News

Chris and Stephanie Hallowich were sure drilling for natural gas near their Pennsylvania home was to blame for the headaches, burning eyes and sore throats they suffered after the work began. 

The companies insisted hydraulic fracturing -- the technique they used to free underground gas -- wasn’t the cause. Nevertheless, in 2011, a year after the family sued, Range Resources Corp (RRC). and two other companies agreed to a $750,000 settlement. In order to collect, the Hallowiches promised not to tell anyone, according to court filings.

The Hallowiches aren’t alone. In cases from Wyoming to Arkansas, Pennsylvania to Texas, drillers have agreed to cash settlements or property buyouts with people who say hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, ruined their water, according to a review by Bloomberg News of hundreds of regulatory and legal filings. In most cases homeowners must agree to keep quiet.

The strategy keeps data from regulators, policymakers, the news media and health researchers, and makes it difficult to challenge the industry’s claim that fracking has never tainted anyone’s water.

“At this point they feel they can get out of this litigation relatively cheaply,” Marc Bern, an attorney with Napoli Bern Ripka Sholnik LLP in New York who has negotiated about 30 settlements on behalf of homeowners, said in an interview. “Virtually on all of our settlements where they paid money they have requested and demanded that there be confidentiality.”

Energy Transformation

Because the agreements are almost always shrouded by non-disclosure pacts -- a judge ordered the Hallowich case unsealed after media requests -- no one can say for sure how many there are. Some stem from lawsuits, while others result from complaints against the drillers or with regulators that never end up in court.

“We are transforming our energy infrastructure in this country from burning coal for electricity to potentially burning a lot of natural gas,” Aaron Bernstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in an interview. Non-disclosure agreements “have interfered with the ability of scientists and public health experts to understand what is at stake here.”

Global Warming - Editorial Cartoons and Grim Reality

[Click Image to Enlarge]

And then there's this...

Bloomberg to discuss preparing NYC for warming world, as projections show growing effects

By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, June 11

NEW YORK — The projections paint an unsettling picture of New York’s future: a city where by the 2050s, 800,000 people could be living in a flood zone that would cover a quarter of the land, and there could be as many 90-degree days as is now normal for Birmingham, Ala.

Facing those new projections of the effects of global warming on the nation’s biggest city, Mayor Michael Bloomberg was scheduled to talk Tuesday about what to do about risks that Superstorm Sandy brought into stark relief.

“We have to look ahead and anticipate any and all future threats, not only from hurricanes and other coastal storms but also from droughts, heavy downpours and heat waves — many of which are likely to be longer and more intense in the years to come,” an excerpt from the mayor’s planned speech says.

Read more online at The Washington Post 

Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Energy Rose To Record High In 2012, IEA Reports
AP  |  By By KARL RITTER Posted: 06/10/2013

Rally for Clean Energy not Fracking -- Featured Speakers

Get On the Bus to Albany!
Buffalo/Rochester Bus: Reserve Seat Now: Click Here.
For more information, Click Here. 

Job Opening at Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper

Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper is seeking a full time Habitat Restoration Program Manager to implement the new “Living Shorelines” Program and support other Riverkeeper riparian restoration efforts. The “Living Shorelines” Program will utilize bioengineering and “natural shoreline” techniques through 5-8 demonstration projects in the Niagara River Greenway. Download the full job announcement  - Habitat Restoration Project Manager.

Application deadline is Monday, July 8, 2013.

The ideal candidate for the position will be a self-motivated, high-energy person with excellent interpersonal communication skills and direct experience in shoreline restoration projects, including engineering and construction methods using bioengineering techniques. The candidate will be expected to coordinate multiple stakeholders to accomplish project goals.  The position will be located at the Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper Office in Buffalo, NY.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:
Salary range is $50,000-$53,000, commensurate with experience. Benefits include a health insurance option, three weeks paid time off, 10 paid holidays and flexibility in the work schedule.

BUFFALO NIAGARA RIVERKEEPER SUMMARY:
Since 1989, Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper leads the Buffalo Niagara’s efforts to safeguard our water for present and future generations.  Our mission is to protect the quality and quantity of our water while connecting people to Great Lakes water.  

JOB SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS: