PRESS RELEASE

April 20, 2010

Gov Paterson, US EPA REGION 2 ADMINISTRATOR ENCK & COMPTROLLER DINAPOLI JOIN green groups AT 20^TH ANNIVERSARY Earth day lobby day

state critters lead march to capitol, protest cuts to environmental funding   

(ALBANY, NY)— Governor David A. Paterson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck and State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli joined an estimated 200 New Yorkers today at the 20^th anniversary of New York’s first Earth Day Lobby Day. State Environmental Conservation Committee Chairs Senator Antoine Thompson (D-Buffalo) and Assembly member Robert Sweeney (D-Lindenhurst) also spoke to attendees. A few of New York’s official state critters, including a human-sized beaver, bluebird, snapping turtle and brook trout attended the event to renew their call to restore environmental funding in the state budget. The animals resigned their posts as official critters in March to protest cuts to the State’s Environmental Protection Fund.   

Earth Day Lobby Day is the State Capital’s largest annual environmental event and this year marks its 20^th anniversary.
In visits with Legislators from across the state advocated for the environmental community’s priority “Super Bills,” which include:

• The Global Warming Pollution Control Act (S.4315A Thompson/A.7572A Sweeney) would require an 80 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from all sources by 2050, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cuts like these will help stave off the worst effects of climate change.

• The Electronic Equipment Recycling & Reuse Act (S.6047A Thompson/A.9049 Sweeney) requires electronics manufacturers to take back e-waste and ensure that it is properly recycled, establishing mandatory minimum recovery rates that step up as they phase in over time. This legislation will effectively reduce toxic e-waste, the fastest growing segment of our waste stream.

• The Environmental Access to Justice Act (S.1635 Thompson/A. 9480 Sweeney), also known as the SEQRA Standing Bill, restores the original intent of the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) by allowing groups or individuals to challenge decisions if they can demonstrate that they will suffer injury from a proposed project’s environmental impact, without having to show that the harm they will suffer is different than that suffered by the public at large. 

• A legal and regulatory framework to protect New York from potential dangers of natural gas drilling. The gas industry is eager to drill in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations underlying Central New York, the Southern Tier and Catskills regions using technology—known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”—which has contaminated water sources and polluted air in other parts of the country. New York does not have the legal protections or regulations to safeguard the state’s natural resources.  

• The need to restore environmental funding in the New York State Budget. The Governor cut major environmental programs in his budget proposal, including a $69 million cut to the Environmental Protection Fund, a 34 percent reduction for the Department of Environmental Conservation, and a nearly 20 percent reduction for the Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation that will result in the closure of 41 parks and many historic sites.

A special addition to the Earth Day program included an award presentation to US EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck, who organized New York State’s first Earth Day Lobby Day in 1990.  

This year’s Earth Day Lobby Day was hosted by Adirondack Council, Audubon New York, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Environmental Advocates of New York, Fund for Lake George, Long Island Pine Barrens Society, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York Interfaith Power and Light, New York League of Conservation Voters, New York Public Interest Research Group, North Shore Land Alliance, Parks & Trails New York, PEF-EnCon, Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy.  Co-sponsors included Adirondack Mountain Club, Capital Region 350, Capital District Citizen Action, Clean New York, Garden Club of America - New York State Conservation Committees, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Protect the Adirondacks, and Scenic Hudson. 

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