2008 Budget Priorities for the Environment

Environmental Advocates of New York supports addressing the issues below in the 2007 State Budget. Each of these is important to New York’s efforts to protect our lakes and streams, the quality of our air, and the integrity of our public lands. Environmental Advocates supports taking the following actions in the 2007 Budget:

Restore Staff at the Department of Environmental Conservation

As Environmental Advocates of New York has highlighted in two Endangered Agency reports, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) does not have the level of staffing necessary to fulfill its fundamental mission to protect New York’s environment and public health and safety.

The DEC is currently operating with approximately 800 fewer employees than it had in the mid- 1990s. These staff cuts have impaired the agency’s ability to regulate the dumping of pollution into our lakes and streams (for example, more than 1,150 water pollution permits have not been reviewed in over a decade), inspect the structural integrity of our dams (thousands of dams in New York have not been inspected for many years), prevent air pollution, and manage state lands. 

Mechanisms for Funding Additional DEC Staff

To pay for needed staffing increases, fee increases should be proposed for permits issued by DEC, creating a “polluter pays” approach to establishing permit fees. Under the polluter pays model, a permit fee represents the cost to the polluter of exploiting the state’s natural resources. The fee should be sufficient to cover the cost to the State for the administration of environmental programs.
 

• State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit fees should be increased to generate the revenue necessary to support the additional staff required for the agency to run a proper program that conforms to the requirements of the Clean Water Act.
• The fee for Title V air pollution permits is based on a statutorily established formula ECL §72-0303. In applying this formula the fee for the criteria air pollutants would be $67.00/ton, however the statute currently caps the fee at $45.00/ton. Additionally, there is a cap on the per ton fee for the criteria pollutants emitted above 6,000 tons which should be eliminated and a minimum fee of $1,250 per facility should be implemented. Environmental Advocates of New York estimates that $6 to $12 million could be generated from these changes, each year. 
• Other Water Permits: additional fees should be established for activities undertaken in and around New York’s waters, actions that have heretofore required permits for which no fee is paid. A Sierra Club report (Subsidizing Environmental Destruction, January 2004) suggests an estimated $10 million in additional revenue could be raised if permit fees were established for the Wild Scenic and Recreational River Permits, Tidal Wetlands Permits, Freshwater Wetlands Permits, Water Supply Permits, and Protection of Waters Permits. As it currently stands, the DEC is devoting staff time to review these permits and is not charging anything for that service, amounting to a subsidy for activities that are in some instances negatively impacting New York’s waters.

Create an Office of Climate Change

Given the complexity and serious nature of the problems presented by climate change and the multifaceted nature of its impacts, Environmental Advocates recommends that the State establish a permanent Climate Change Office within the DEC. The Office would be responsible for:

• Establishing a clear picture of current New York greenhouse gas emissions from all sources and publishing information on emissions;
• Assessing the impacts of climate change and identifying particular problem areas for state and local governments; and
• Implementing and monitoring compliance with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Increase New York’s Investment in Energy Conservation & Clean Energy

The state should double its investment in energy conservation and clean energy programs over the next two years. New York currently invests approximately $200 million in ratepayer fees to these programs. The state could nearly double this investment by selling 100 percent of the carbon dioxide allocations that are available through the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a nine-state cap-and-trade system for limiting climate-altering pollution from power plants. Additional funding could come from New York selling NOx allocations, which are currently given away to polluters free of charge.

More Efficient Use of State-Subsidized Energy through Power for Jobs

Environmental Advocates of New York recommends that New York State require recipients of “Power for Jobs” subsidies and other economic development power programs to conduct an energy efficiency audit and invest a portion of their cost savings in energy efficiency improvements to their operations.

This would still result in cost savings to the recipients of low-cost, state-subsidized power, while also ensuring that every watt of power delivered to recipients is used to maximum public benefit over the long term.

Increase the Environmental Protection Fund

The Governor and Legislature should work to create an Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) of $500 million by 2010, with the increase supported in part by an expanded bottle bill and the capture of unclaimed bottle deposits, and an increase in the amount of dedicated funding from the state’s Real Estate Transfer Tax.

The EPF is a key funding mechanism for a variety of critical environmental initiatives that range from land preservation to municipal recycling programs. Each year the demand for funding these many program areas grows, and thankfully, over the past several years the Fund has been increased. However, the fact remains that the demand for EPF funding for vital environmental projects far outweighs the amount of funds available in the EPF. This funding shortfall exists despite increased revenues collected from the state’s Real Estate Transfer Tax—the primary source of funding for the EPF.

[Back to Top]