April 20, 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.

TWO DAYS LEFT TO RAISE SOME GREEN 

Last week Environmental Advocates of New York launched a campaign to raise $4,000 by Earth Day to support our email action alert service. We’re almost half way there.

Please consider making a donation to celebrate Earth Day in the next two days so we can keep providing this service free-of-charge to thousands of New Yorkers who care about the environment. Our goal is to raise $4,000 by April 22^nd and we've already received almost $2,000. Click here to make a donation.

Using this service, supporters like you generated more than 6,000 emails, letters, faxes and phone calls to the Governor and New York State lawmakers in the last two months.

Your calls and letters generated some BIG results:

* The Governor backed off plans to gut a regional effort to cut global warming pollution from power plants.

* The Environmental Protection Fund was going broke until hundreds of you contacted state legislators and told them to keep the Fund solvent.

* New York updated the bottle bill. Lawmakers were getting cold feet until New Yorkers started calling their offices. So many of you followed up on our action alert asking for calls to State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith that we helped shut down the Senate switchboard!

Times are tight and you may not be able to make a donation. If you can, please do. If you can’t, help us spread the word by asking friends and family to sign up and become part of our email action network. Click here to tell your friends.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO  

On Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22^nd, Environmental Advocates of New York and representatives from dozens of environmental, conservation, civic, recycling and other groups from across the state are coming together to award a few of New York’s leaders for their roles in securing the green victories in this year’s budget.

As reported here and elsewhere, the budget updates New York’s most successful recycling program, the bottle deposit law, by adding a nickel deposit to water bottles. It also reaffirms the state’s commitment to provide clean water, conserve open space and maintain other critical environmental programs by allocating $222 to the Environmental Protection Fund and keeping its stable funding formula of Real Estate Transfer Tax revenue. And the budget increased fees on air and water pollution permits, among other “green” victories.

We’re not at liberty to say who is being awarded what just yet, but you can visit www.eany.org for details on Earth Day.  

If you’re happy with the green victories in this year’s budget, CLICK here to thank your representatives in Albany  or CLICK here  to send a letter to the editor of your local paper about New York’s bigger and better bottle deposit law.
 

NO MIXED MESSAGES ON CLIMATE   

In our last issue, we let you know that federal legislation that would require big cuts in global warming pollution from all sources had been introduced in Congress. The American Clean Energy & Security Act is a cap-and-trade plan that would require states to cut climate pollution 80 percent from 2005 levels by 2050.

And back in January, President Barack Obama directed federal regulators to move swiftly on an application by California, New York and other states to set strict tailpipe emission and fuel efficiency standards. Seventeen states, representing more than 45 percent of the nation’s auto market, have adopted or announced they will adopt the standards. California enacted a law requiring the state to adopt standards to cut global warming pollution from cars and trucks in 2002.

So the Obama Administration is moving quickly on green issues, right?

Not fast enough according to some. A New York Times story last week suggests the administration is treading too lightly (and slowly) into the climate debate, and noted that the budget proposal sent to Congress didn’t include carbon caps. 

But in a speech delivered the next day, President Obama voiced support for reducing global warming pollution, saying that a carbon cap will help jumpstart the economy.

And even more recently, the EPA made it official—global warming pollution is bad for you. On Friday, April 17, 2009, the EPA announced that greenhouse gases are a threat to public health under the Clean Air Act. The announcement signals that EPA will take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

We’ll let you know what we hear from D.C.

Read more here. And here.

LAST NAIL IN BROADWATER COFFIN    

In what may be the last word on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal for the Long Island Sound, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its official opposition to the project. Environmentalists up and down Long Island, in Connecticut, and elsewhere, cheered.

Click here to read more.

And here.

And here.

JOIN US FOR EARTH DAY LOBBY DAY 2009     

Join hundreds of environmentalists from across New York State to fight for measures to protect our water, air, land and health. No lobbying experience needed!

WHEN: Tuesday, May 5th, 2009, 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM

WHERE: New York State Capitol, Albany, NY

Earth Day Lobby Day is New York’s largest annual environmental event, bringing together people from across the state to hear from government and environment leaders, learn about current legislation, and lobby elected officials on the issues that matter to you.

Click here to sign up for Earth Day Lobby Day.

For more information, contact Bill Mahoney at mahoney.w@gmail.com. 

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