April 30, 2007

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

Green Day in Albany

On the Monday following Earth Day the Assembly moved a package of 16 environmental bills out of its house.  Among the bills that were passed were the ones you helped us lobby on April 17^th, as part of our effort to make Earth Day “Day One” for New York’s environment.  These included:

*   Climate Change Solutions Program Act – Establishes the framework for guiding state spending on projects designed to decrease New York State’s contribution to climate change, particularly in the arenas of energy efficiency and clean energy generation.  

*   Clean Water Protection/Flood Prevention Act – Closes a loophole in the state’s wetlands law that prohibits the state from protecting wetlands less than 12.4 acres in size.

*   Community Preservation Act – Allows communities to voluntarily adopt a program that allows them to generate funding for land conservation, farmland protection, and historic preservation. 

*   Great Lakes Compact – Ratifies an eight-state agreement on how to best manage the Great Lakes, and large water withdrawals that have the potential to lower water levels in New York State. 

Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee and sponsor of many of the bills, stated, “We need to undertake reforms that safeguard our air, water and land. The steps we take today will be important for future generations.”

For a complete list of the bills passed by the Assembly, click here.

Rumor Becomes Fact

In the last edition of [Green] Capital Insider, we told you there may be a new version of the Community Preservation Act (CPA) coming to light.  Well guess what, it’s no longer a rumor!

Senator Vincent Leibell (R-Brewster) introduced his own version of the Community Preservation Act (A7849/S5125) that will apply only to certain counties in the Lower Hudson Valley.  While Environmental Advocates is still pushing for the statewide bill, Senator Leibell’s legislation is certainly an indication of what we’ve known all along--that there’s a lot of interest in seeing communities get more tools to protect open space and historic resources. 

And for those of you who would like to speak about the Community Preservation Act with your lawmakers, email Katherine Nadeau on our staff.  She’s coordinating lobby day in Albany for May 15^th.  So come to Albany, walk the halls of power, and try your hand at moving the machinery of government. 

Visit http://www.eany.org/May15CPA.html for more information on CPA Lobby Day.

Bills in Play

For more information on this bill and to view our memo, click here.  Note: Each week's memos are posted at noon on Mondays.

 

 One Tree Bills:
 Waterway Right of Passage (A7230)
Alternative Energy Systems Tax Credits (A824a/S1634)

Act Now

Thank your Assembly member for passing the Earth Day bill package on April 23. To find out how your Assembly member voted, click here or here.

Spitzer Sets His Sights on Energy Efficiency Efforts

On Thursday, April 19th Governor Eliot Spitzer announced a goal to reduce electric energy use in New York by 15 percent by 2015. The details of how we achieve those levels of reductions will be coming during the next several months, but it's clear that investing the proceeds of the auctions of carbon dioxide allowances will play a big role in meeting this target.

This initiative makes good sense because energy efficiency is by far the lowest cost way to meet New York’s energy needs—and it promotes significant job development in our state.

Other Bills Your Legislators are Considering (We Can't Tell You Why They're Being Considered, They Just Are)

One bill your legislators will scrutinize this week would create, “a pilot program to explore the use of certain speed bumps” for use on highway off-ramps.  Not sure which is funnier, studying speed bumps, or studying installing them on highway off ramps.

And "adopt-a-highway" efforts across the state could get competition from a new "adopt-a-cemetery" program if newly proposed legislation becomes law. Civic groups across the state could stop pounding pavement and instead get one foot in the grave, so to speak. So don't let your local Kiwanis and boy scouts beat you to the punch. Stake your claim to your favorite cemetery now. (Truth be told, we think this is actually a cool idea.)