February 9, 2009

Welcome to Environmental Advocates of New York’s online newsletter from the State Capital, your source for environmental news. We update you every other week with tidbits and observations carefully gleaned from the halls of the Capitol.

WE LOST THIS BATTLE. WE HAVEN'T LOST THE WAR.  

Last Tuesday night, New York State lawmakers passed a measure to plug the current year’s budget hole at the expense of the Environmental Protection Fund (and a lot of other worthy programs, too). The “deficit reduction bill” cut the Fund by $50 million.

The agreed-to bill took some of the sting out of Governor Paterson’s original proposal by reducing the size of the Fund “sweep” —raiding environmental monies to help out the general treasury. By taking $25 million less cash than first proposed, some green projects will be completed during the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends on March 31^st. So instead of turning off the spending spigot completely, spending will be reduced to a trickle.

Now we’re looking to the 2009-2010  budget. The day after the green bloodletting, we joined Assemblyman Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) and Senator Antoine Thompson (D-Buffalo), chairs of their chambers’ respective Environmental Conservation committees, and the 100+ member Friends of New York’s Environment partnership to call attention to the vital role the Fund plays in our communities.

To catalog the Fund’s myriad success stories, the Friends released a new report, The Environmental Protection Fund: Preserving New York’s Natural Heritage & Quality of Life. Click here to download a copy of the report.

The report includes projects from every corner of New York, including working farms, wildlife preserves, community gardens, the historic restoration of the Ephesus Seventh-day Adventist Church in Harlem, and New York businesses that have successfully leveraged Fund resources to create jobs and reduce waste, among others. Like most projects supported by the Fund, those in the report have used its monies to secure matching funds from private and public sources.

We are also calling on the Gov to hold back off on making further cuts to the already depleted Fund and to keep the current funding formula in place. The Governor wants to change the Environmental Protection Fund’s stable funding formula by replacing it with revenue generated by updating New York’s bottle deposit law. 

We’re all for expanding the bottle bill to match consumer drinking habits. The bill would also require beverage companies to send unclaimed bottle deposits to the Fund. That’s an estimated $118 million in unclaimed deposits that would replace the Fund’s current revenue source—the Real Estate Transfer Tax. We think these deposits are a great source of supplemental revenue, but shouldn’t serve as the primary source of Environmental Protection Fund dollars.

WE MIGHT NOT LOOK IT, BUT WE'RE 40 

In the late 1960s, a group of activists got together and Environmental Advocates of New York was born.

Back when we got started, people who cared about the environment didn’t have anyone working in the State Capital. Some of our rivers, lakes and streams were so polluted that people swam and fished at their own risk. New Yorkers in some parts of the state couldn’t trust their drinking water. The Adirondacks were threatened by logging. And air pollution in New York City was off the charts.  

Our founding members saw a need to change what was happening and brought people together from every corner of the state to speak with one clear voice and demand change, if not for ourselves then for our children. And that’s what we’re still doing today.

For the rest of the year, we’ll introduce you to a little bit of our history in every issue of The [Green] Capitol Insider.

Click here to give $40 for our 40th.

NEW FACE AT NYSERDA 

Late last month, Governor Paterson announced that the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) Board of Directors elected Frank Murray to serve as President and CEO.

Murray has a long history of work on energy issues and was most recently a senior advisor at environmental consulting firm Ecology & Environment, Inc. Prior to that, he served as Policy Advisor to the United States Secretary of Energy, assisting the Clinton Administration. He’s also served on NYSERDA’s Board of Directors.

Click here to read the Governor’s official press release.
 

1ST SHOT OVER THE BOW FOR RGGI   

While not wholly unexpected, the first lawsuit was filed by power companies against New York State for participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Illinois-based Indeck Energy filed a lawsuit claiming that the country’s first plan to cut global warming pollution would limit its ability to profit from long-term contracts with power purchasers.

Public records show that New York tried to appease companies like Indeck during a multi-year public comment process of finalizing RGGI regulations. And New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation created a 1.5 million ton set-aside for power plants specifically to address concerns over long-term contracts.

More than 20 groups, including Environmental Advocates of New York, rallied to defend the regional climate plan in the media. The RGGI, which went into effect on January 1^st, is the nation’s first enforceable program to reduce the pollution that is changing the climate.

Our advice to Indeck? Get with the program.

Click here to read the press release.

Click here to read more about the lawsuit.

Click here for New York State’s response.

BILLS ON THE MOVE    

It’s that time again! Every week during the Legislative Session, Environmental Advocates of New York looks at the measures that will impact the environment for better or worse. Here are this week's Bills on the Move.

One tree for the Ulster County Community Preservation Fund. This measure would add Ulster County to those included in the Hudson Valley Community Preservation Act, which was passed in 2007. The Hudson Valley CPA gives Westchester and Putnam County municipalities the power to choose for themselves whether or not to raise local revenue to preserve natural and historic resources.

One tree for Transmission Line Intervenor Funds. This bill would create a fund to defray costs for municipalities, community and nonprofit groups who participate in siting proceedings for major electric transmission lines. The bill would require those who build major electric transmission lines to pay certain fees based on project size. These fees would go to support the fund. 

Three trees for Environmental Access to Justice. This bill restores the original legislative intent of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SE­QRA) by allowing groups or individuals to challenge a SEQRA decision if they can demonstrate that they will suffer injury from a proposed projects’ environmental impact, without having to show that the harm they will suffer is different than that suffered by the public at large.

Click here to learn more about these measures and what each will do to help or hurt New York’s natural resources.