October 13, 2004
2004 Environmental Voters’ Guide Released

Annual Review of Legislature and State Leaders Includes Scorecard, Environmentalist of the Year and Oil Slick Awards

(Albany, NY) – This was a disappointing legislative year for New York’s environment, prompting environmentalists to join the growing chorus of calls for reform of the state’s dysfunctional legislative process. Despite strong efforts from some political leaders, the Legislature failed to agree on most of the initiatives that have united the state’s environmental community. These included expansion of the bottle bill, which failed to pass in either the Senate or the Assembly, and increased wetlands protections, a ban on backyard burning and power plant siting reform, which failed in the Senate.

“All session, we heard that this year would be about education reform and that the environment had to wait,” said EPL/Environmental Advocates (EPL/EA) spokesman Jeff Jones. “But in the end, there was no education reform. Meanwhile, very little was done to protect our drinking water, our air and our neighborhoods.” Noting that calls for reform are sweeping the state, Jones said that EPL/Environmental Advocates would redesign the Voters’ Guide scoring system next session to give voters a better idea of what really gets accomplished in Albany and to hold lawmakers more accountable for their environmental votes.

Environmental Advocates of New York (EANY), EPL/Environmental Advocates’ sister organization, has endorsed the reform agenda proposed by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. In the coming weeks, in addition to its internal review, EPL/EA plans to meet with other environmental groups, interested citizens and lawmakers about projected changes. “The leadership system in Albany is clearly to blame for the lack of accountability,” Jones said, recalling that in rejecting the Brennan Center’s proposals, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno compared himself to a corporate CEO, described members of the Legislature as “employees,” and said that proposed democratic reforms were chaotic, unworkable “third-world-country stuff.” In response, voters around the state are demanding more responsibility and more accountability. Rank-and-file lawmakers in Albany should demand the same from their leaders. “Those who do will be rewarded in the new scoring system,” Jones explained. “But the most important goal is passage of significant environmental laws that will protect New York’s clean water, air and open space.”

The work of the Legislature’s environmental leaders in restoring Governor George Pataki’s proposed cuts in the state’s Environmental Protection Fund (EPF) is acknowledged in the Voters’ Guide. But it notes that there has been a steady decline in overall environmental spending in the state and calls for a doubling of the EPF to $250 million in next year’s budget. Many environmentally based revenue enhancers are available to state budget planners, including capturing unclaimed nickels under an expanded bottle bill, and increasing fees for recipients of air and water pollution permits. These would not only make more money available to invest in clean water, clean air and preserving working farms, but would help restore some of the staffing cuts at the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that have impacted the agency’s ability to enforce state environmental laws.

For more than three decades, EPL/Environmental Advocates has tracked bills affecting the environment introduced in the state Legislature. This year, the group issued memos rating 117 different pieces of legislation. Of those, just eight passed the Senate, while 57 were adopted by the Assembly. Only five passed both houses and were sent to Gov. George Pataki for his signature. He signed four and vetoed one.

Environmental bills signed into law by the Governor are:
    The Mercury Labeling Law – A.10051-b (DiNapoli)/S.7399-b (Marcellino) – requires manufacturers to conspicuously label products containing mercury and requires mercury-laden products to be separated in the waste stream and handled responsibly. The law directs the DEC to generate educational materials and promulgate any necessary rules to address mercury pollution. It also bans mercury in schools, specialty toys and fever thermometers.
    Residential Wind Net Metering – A.4245-a Englebright)/S.4890-e (Wright) – creates a net metering provision for small residential wind electric generating systems (up to 25kW) and farm wind electric generating systems (up to 125 kW) located at the primary residence of the owner.
   First-time Farmers – A.8360-a (Magee)/S.3734-a (Hoffman) – authorizes the Environmental Facilities Corporation to provide financial assistance to first-time farmers for purchasing land, making improvements, buying equipment and other agriculture-related expenses.
   Flame Retardant Phase-out – A.10050-a (DiNapoli)/S/7621 (Marcellino) – greatly restricts the manufacture, processing and sale of certain brominated flame retardant (BFR) chemicals in a range of consumer products. In addition, a task force is created to investigate the health hazards of the most commonly used BFR, which is not included in this bill.

The Governor vetoed the following environmental legislation:
    Creosote – A/5930-f (Brodsky)/A.4975-b (Marcellino) – would have phased out the sale, manufacture and use of creosote in New York and would have prohibited its incineration. In his veto message, the Governor stated that developing technologies would soon be able to incinerate creosote safely and that a federal creosote ban would take effect within the next few years.

Awards:
    Reflecting the disappointing legislative session, there is no Legislator of the Year award.
    The award for Environmentalist of the Year goes to Janet Allen, of Syracuse. Allen is being recognized for creating an interfaith project to promote energy stewardship, engaging congregations in conserving energy and buying clean, renewable electricity.
    Onondaga County Executive Nicholas Pirro has received an Oil Slick for insisting on placing an above-ground sewage storage facility in Syracuse’s mostly African-American Midland Avenue neighborhood as part of the cleanup of Onondaga Creek.

Copies of the Voters' Guide are available at: www.eany.org/capitolwatch.