Richard Schrader's Blog: Curbing Pollution

Albany makes progress on 3 strong green bills this week

2010-02-24T18:06:26Z

The New York State Senate leadership tested its balky majority by taking up several environmental and clean energy bills this week. Look up the word “frail” in the dictionary and that will define their current state – a tight 32-30 advantage just shrunk after the reigning Ds expelled one of its majority for an assault conviction. Anyway, since 32 votes are needed to pass legislation, and the D’s are down to 31 (tell your kids -- 3th grade math always comes in handy), let’s just say the head count on these bills was tenuous, but two have already managed to prevail – passing through the Senate and heading to the Assembly. The vote on the third bill was postponed for a week or so – but there’s still hope.

Here’s a breakdown of each…

These 2 bills passed the Senate yesterday:

Green Jobs, New York style - Sen. Kevin Parker (D-Brooklyn) has introduced a bill that follows up the passage of last year’s successful Green Jobs-Green NY law. Here’s the premise -- New York State Energy Resources and Development Authority created a Retrofit Investment Fund for energy efficiency rennovations to 1 million New York homes. The fund pays homeowners’ and building owners’ contracting costs for the green improvements as a loan. The owners/borrowers repay their loan with the money they save on energy bills, as they save. Parker’s proposed legislation would create an online recovery mechanism that would allow the owner to repay the investment as a small monthly charge on their utility bill over time. Most homeowners are reliable utility customers – that reliability is crucial because it gives the fund and its lenders confidence, especially in these tough economic times, that the initial investment will be recovered. This could be a model for future green-financing programs in NY and the country.
Net metering – Sen. George Maziarz (R-Niagara) has a bill on the agenda that will tweak his net metering law passed two sessions ago, providing bigger rewards for people and companies that generate renewable energy and feed it into the power grid for public use. Under a net metering plan, an owner of a renewable energy facility, commercial or residential, receives a retail credit from their electric utility for all or a portion of the electricity they generate from renewable sources. Maziarz's changes keep a cap on the amount of energy non-residential users can get credit for at 2 megawatts (this is so large commercial users can't exploit the system). And it removes a limit on the amount of credit users can get during peak load time (this is when utilities generate their mazimum power output) – so they get credit for generating renewable power any time of day. The bill also puts the New York State Public Service Commission in charge of resolving complaints that have come in from some residential customers that their utilities had capped the amount of power considered for the retail credit at an arbitrarily low level.

As is often the case, though, the test is more political than policy-driven – Sen. John Sampson (D-Brooklyn), the newly minted conference leader, is trusting that his experiment in bi-partisanship (there’s not been a lot of convivial playing in the sandbox up here lately) will yield results. But whatever the motive – this policy better rewards people who are paving the way by generating clean energy.

The vote on this one is on hold:

Cleaning up dirty diesel home heating oil in New York: Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan) has been working a bill that would reduce the sulfur content of all heating oil within New York State’s non-attainment area. Home heating oil (diesel fuel) in combustion, is the second largest source of sulfur dioxide emissions in NYS. Yet, it’s much dirtier than the stuff in our trucks and buses. New York households (2.6 million strong) have more oil-heated homes than anywhere in the country and many New York communities have some of the highest asthma levels in the nation. Senate staff project a reduction of 80% in particulate matter (aka soot pollution, which contributes to increased asthma, cancer, heart and lung disease and premature death) and near-elimination of sulfur emissions if home heating oil is reduced from 2% sulfur to .5%. And cleaner heating oil, means cheaper costs in the long run due to increased boiler efficiency, less maintenance, and less fuel use. There is substantial environmental, labor, business and public health support for the bill – but Hess Oil is feverishly fighting the legislation (shouldn’t these guys be concentrating on getting Mark Sanchez a tight end who can catch a screen pass?). This bill won't get past the gate this week -- but is likely to be voted on in the coming week or so. The major sticking point is the start-up year for the conversions to take place: next year, 2012 or 2013.

These bills all add up to important environmental and economic strides for the state and NRDC will continue fighting for them.

New York Environmental Activists Lobby Legislators on the Impacts of Natural Gas Drilling

2010-02-08T16:37:03Z

On January 25, environmental activists from across New York State gathered in Albany to rally and speak with legislators about the threat of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. Despite the monsoon-ish rainstorm, a large and lively rally was held outside of the Capitol building -- making the rest of Albany look as desolate as a scene from "The Road." When the monster winds blew the rally inside, activists dried off and then went into lobbying mode.

Gas drilling companies plan to use a controversial technique called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale. “Fracking” involves pumping millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals at high pressure into each well, and it poses a substantial threat to water, air, and ecosystems around the Marcellus Shale. The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has issued a draft study intended to assess the environmental impacts hydro-fracking might have in the Marcellus Shale. Over 13,000 comments have been submitted in response and it can be assumed, from the tenor of the public hearings, that the bulk of comments would support amending the draft report to reassess the real dangers inherent in the drilling of thousands of new natural gas wells. However, Governor Paterson, driven by monumental budget problems, continues to support drilling despite initial concerns raised by the U.S. EPA, the NYC Dept. of Environmental Protection and New Yorkers statewide.

Key meetings were held with central legislative players, such as Assemblyman Robert Sweeney (chair of the Assembly Environment Committee) and Senator Antoine Thompson (Senate Env. chair) as well as staffers in both houses and from the Governor's office. The lobby meetings covered a wide range of issues, including the lack of basic regulations for the massive water withdrawals needed for “fracking” in the Marcellus Shale (DEC has no central authority to regulate this intensive industrial process and, as of now, it is an inadequate, crazy-quilt permit structure).

Add to this lack of basic regulation, the harsh impact that drilling will have on environmentally sensitive locations and it's clear that the state legislation has a lot to deliberate. A massive turnout like the one we just had on January 25 can leave an indelible memory on the process and shape the next round of discussions.

If you'd like to see footage from the event, check out this video produced by John Valenti on Environmental Countdown's website: http://ec.environmentalcountdown.org/_Gas-Drilling-Lobby-Day-in-Albany-12510/video/912225/4315.html

Governor Paterson Raids New York's Environmental and Energy Funding

2009-10-21T15:29:21Z

Last week, Gov. David Paterson unveiled a bruising budget deficit reduction plan that included grabbing $90 million generated by auctions under the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) - the nation's first-ever plan to reduce global warming pollution - and shoving it down the exploding black hole otherwise known as the New York State budget. He also swiped $10 million he had already promised to the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF), the state's central artery for environmental programs and initiatives.

The Governor blames the economy for his actions - yet neither of these moves makes either environmental or economic sense.

RGGI

RGGI is a landmark program established between 10-states that is designed to reduce global warming pollution in the Northeast. It is the world's first mandatory program for reducing global warming pollution, and has just begun generating money by auctioning CO2 pollution permits.

RGGI revenues were specifically designed to move New York toward a clean energy economy - encouraging new industries to settle here, creating more jobs in our state, and cutting costs for consumers. And ironically, just two days before his cuts, Paterson signed a bill that will put RGGI funds to work as intended - by creating thousands of new, green jobs and getting money into the hands of consumers to invest in energy efficiency upgrades, with a target of weatherizing 1 million homes in five years.

By taking money from RGGI, Governor Paterson halts New York's progress toward creating thousands of green jobs that can help us pull out of the economic downturn. This short-sighted raid robs consumers' pockets, sets the state's progress back several years, and clears the path for other states to beat us to it.

In the best-case scenario, the state projects RGGI will generate a total of $200 million in auction proceeds, yet Paterson is already robbing the RGGI pot of half its best-possible worth. That means fewer homes upgraded with energy efficiency, New York consumers won't save as much on their energy bills, and more global warming pollution. Not to mention this desperate move flies against a legal agreement the state made under RGGI, which requires all revenues to go to conservation and clean energy investments. This action violates that agreement and the very of spirit of the program. And it imperils RGGI further by confusing consumers with a stop-and-go approach and delaying its progress.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FUND

The EPF is the state's annual pool of money designated for environmental initiatives, and the legislature already promised this year's funds to a wide array of programs across New York. Paterson's attack on the EPF adds to a long-standing pattern of assault on this funding. This spring, the Governor and Legislature approved a $222 million EPF. But the Governor unilaterally decided to only allocate $180 million to agencies to plan and pay their bills with - that's $42 million short of what was promised this spring. Tapping $10 million more means Paterson will have taken a total of $52 million from the EPF - nearly 25 percent of the state's promised funds.

Land preservation programs around the state, zoos in the Bronx and Brooklyn, ocean conservation projects and critical clean water protections will all suffer a severe hit. Scientists, not-for-profit partners, and local governments aren't getting paid, despite delivering the work the state approved and promised to fund.

This just the latest in a long line of EPF pilfering from the Governor's office over the past seven years, resulting in nearly a half billion dollars lost that were dedicated to restoring and protecting the New York state's environment. This money has been taken by gubernatorial fiat once again for non-environmental use.

As always, budget battles are fought out at the legislative level, where all final budget allocations are ratified. New York environmentalists have fought back aggressive attacks on green budgets with real success over the last two sessions. Round 3 will begin when the next legislative session kicks off in January - I'll be there in Albany urging our state representatives to vote the right way for New York's environment, economy and consumers.