Environmental Advocates of NY

For Immediate Release: December 19, 2001
Contact: Jeff Jones, Environmental Advocates: (518) 462-5526 ext 233
David Higby, Environmental Advocates: (518) 462-5526 ext 239
Laura Haight, NYPIRG: (518) 436-0876 ext 258
John Stouffer, Sierra Club - Atlantic Chapter: (518) 426-9144
Susan Harder, SELENE: (516) 769-7384 (cell)

Coalition Urges Governor to Sign Light Pollution Bill

(Albany, NY) - Amateur astronomers, environmentalists and energy policy advocates came together today to urge Governor Pataki to sign a bill addressing New York's extensive light pollution problem. A coalition that includes: SELENE (Sensible and Efficient Lighting to Enhance the Nighttime Environment), Environmental Advocates of NY, the Sierra Club and the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) supports legislation to limit excessive and misdirected outdoor illumination, a move that will save energy, enhance safety, protect nocturnal wildlife and help provide more livable communities statewide. The bill they want made into law - A.5352b (Assemblyman Grannis)/S.3386b (Senator Balboni) - passed both houses of the legislature last spring and is on the governor's desk awaiting his signature.

"This bill would establish New York as a national leader in this important policy area," said David Higby, a project director for Environmental Advocates, "it's an issue of increasing importance, not only to people who want to see the night sky that's too often denied them by glare, but to drivers, pedestrians, property owners and every American, since the energy savings will help wean us from our dependency on fossil fuels."

The legislation would require state agencies and public corporations to use full cut-off luminaires (lamps that are directed completely downward) for new and replacement outdoor fixtures; direct the Environmental Conservation Commissioner to identify and propose restricted light use for "dark areas" in New York; and provide cities, towns and villages with a model outdoor lighting ordinance. Such ordinances would require municipalities to consider energy conservation, glare minimization, and light pollution in outdoor lighting design. It would also set up a system for compiling and distributing written materials for educating officials, the public and electric power suppliers about the advantages of efficient outdoor lighting.

Susan Harder, representing SELENE - a state organization of volunteer citizen activists affiliated with The International Dark Sky Association - and a member of the Energy Advisory Committee for East Hampton, pointed out that the measure before the governor has significant esthetic implications as well as practical ones. "Attempts to view the recent Leonid meteor showers showed many New Yorkers what we've known for some time," said Harder, "wasteful lighting is denying us our night sky heritage." Recent studies have demonstrated that 99 percent of Americans are subjected to light pollution; in places like New York City where the misdirected light is especially pronounced, fewer than 10 percent of the stars in the night sky are visible because of glare.

Laura Haight, senior Environmental Associate of NYPIRG, stressed that improved outdoor lighting design would also result in considerable energy savings. "Wasteful, misdirected, unnecessary and inefficient outdoor lighting requires power plants to produce more electricity, causing more pollution, which in turn creates widespread negative effects for the environment and public health," Haight said, "and the governor has a real opportunity to do something about it. This bill represents our only opportunity this year to rein in the power generation sector, New York's number one source of industrial air pollution, and therefore the greatest producer of toxic gases that cause acid rain, global warming, mercury poisoning and asthma attacks."

For more information, visit: www.selene-ny.org

Read EPL/Environmental Advocates' bill memo on this legislation.

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