October 15, 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.

Making Polluters Pay

The country’s biggest coal-burning utility company, American Electric Power (AEP), will pay a $15 million civil penalty to the federal government and spend $4.6 billion over about 10 years to improve pollution controls at 16 dirty power plants in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic as part of a settlement resolving government charges that it violated the Clean Air Act.

AEP will also spend $60 million on projects to help reverse its plants’ pollution on lakes, rivers and forests. While how much New York will see out of the settlement is uncertain, $36 million will be available for federally directed projects outside New York State. And no less than $24 million will be available to the eight states (approximately $4.8 million per year) for energy efficiency and pollution reduction projects.

Despite the settlement, AEP is not admitting any wrongdoing. The company says that maintenance activities at its plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia complied with the Clean Air Act, and that the settlement “admits no violations of law” on the part of the utility.

The case, initially brought by the Clinton administration in 1999, was joined by 13 environmental groups and eight states which claimed AEP’s air pollution was eroding the environment and health conditions as far away as Massachusetts, New York, Vermont and Rhode Island.

According to AEP, when fully implemented the settlement will result in a 77 percent  reduction in polluting emissions from its Eastern power plants, accounting for 813,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulates annually.

What’s So Special about Special Session?

From the environmental perspective, not much.

While some New York State lawmakers are scheduled to come back to Albany next week, it’s unlikely that both houses will act on any of the environmental measures left outstanding this year. This includes no-brainers such as the Great Lakes – St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (the Compact), which didn’t make it through both houses before lawmakers left Albany last June.

In and around the Capitol, lawmakers are preoccupied with other business, including the ongoing “Troopergate” scandal.

The Compact has little or no detractors and only missed being ratified this year because of an administrative error.

Another measure that has few, if any, opponents relates to updating lighting efficiency standards in New York. Different measures that passed their respective house of the legislature would have both required new regulations establishing minimum energy efficiency standards in lighting.

While we like Assemblyman Robert Sweeney’s version (A. 8641-B) because it also would require a collection and recycling program for bulbs containing mercury, both bills are headed in the right direction. It shouldn’t be hard to bridge the differences between these two pieces of proposed legislation and work to get a bill passed and on the Governor’s desk this year.

We know better than to say never, however. And we’ll keep you posted when and if anything green comes into play in the next few weeks. 

"An Inconvenient Truth” at St. Bart’s

Join us on Tuesday, October 23, in New York City for a special live presentation and discussion of “An Inconvenient Truth” by singer and advocate Kathy Mattea and NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis.

 WHEN: 6 p.m. Tues., Oct. 23

WHERE: Saint Bartholomew’s Church, Park Avenue at 51st Street, NYC

Sponsored by Environmental Advocates of New York, NYS Senator Liz Krueger, and Saint Bartholomew’s Church, the event is FREE and open to the public. Come early to reserve your seat.

Permit Perps

Back in April, Environmental Advocates of New York released a report documenting that the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) isn’t reviewing water pollution permits in a timely fashion. Click here to read our report, Muddying the Waters: The Unknown Consequences of New York’s Failed Water Pollution Permitting Program.

As a follow-up to Muddying the Waters, we’re delving even deeper into the DEC's water pollution permit program (formally known as the Environmental Benefit Permit Strategy) which is not in compliance with the Clean Water Act. And we’ve found hundreds of water pollution permits that have been rubber stamped by the agency for years even though the facilities in question are unapologetically polluting New York waters.

Stay tuned for more details on New York’s polluted waters.

Climate Congratulations

Environmental Advocates of New York congratulates Al Gore and the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for earning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize last week. The award recognizes the honorees' work to improve the world’s understanding of the global climate crisis.

According to the IPCC, the award "is the most significant recognition that the IPCC has received for providing policymakers with objective and balanced information about the causes and impacts of climate change and possible response measures".

For more information, visit www.nobelprize.org.