For Immediate Release:
November 16, 1999

For Information, Contact:
Jeff Jones - Environmental Advocates: 518-462-5526 ext.233 (Beeper: 467-6253)
Val Washington - Environmental Advocates: 518-462-5526 ext.228

(Albany, N.Y.) -- EPL/Environmental Advocates, the lobbying arm of Environmental Advocates, released its annual Voters’ Guide at an Albany press conference today. An insider’s guide to the environmental record of New York State’s Legislature and Governor, the Guide is New York’s most comprehensive environmental scorecard. Every member of the state Legislature is scored for their environmental voting record.

EPL/Environmental Advocates Executive Director Val Washington contrasted the long and unproductive legislative session with stunning off-session activity on environmental policy. “Until Gov. George Pataki’s recent announcements on reducing power plant stack emissions, adopting California-level auto emissions and cutting MTBE to protect drinking water, there was little to celebrate this year that was of benefit to New York’s environment,” Washington said. “We applaud the Governor for his recent initiatives.”

By contrast, EPL•Environmental advocates described the 1999 legislative session as a dismal affair, characterized by bickering and brinksmanship. “This year’s environmental successes will be remembered for taking place off session and outside the hall,” Washington said. “The two good environmental bills that passed both houses did not attempt to set state environmental policy, but rather empowered local governments to act. It is not in the interests of New Yorkers or legislators themselves to be so ineffectual on issues of such concern to our state.”

Of the four environmental bills of some significance that actually passed both houses, just one bill with a positive EPL/Environmental Advocates rating, the New York City traffic calming law, was signed into law by the Governor. Another bill, giving localities control over the use of the bird-killing pesticide Avitrol, passed both the Senate and the Assembly unanimously, but was vetoed by the Governor. Two bills opposed by EPL/Environmental Advocates were also signed into law. One will allow Washington and Warren counties to divert a portion of the county sales tax to help bail out the white elephant Hudson Falls garbage burning incinerator. Another will allow for the siting of new power plants without requiring older plants to clean up their pollution to modern emissions levels and delinked the decision about new power plants from any assessment of the state’s actual electricity needs. Ironically, the harmful effects of the bad siting law, a Pataki Administration initiative, will be mitigated in important ways by the Governor’s power plant announcement last month. “We do not understand why Pataki waited until after the session to announce his support for sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide cuts at the state’s older power plants,” Washington said. “A legislative mandate would have strengthened the Administration’s hand in the upcoming DEC rulemaking.”

Due to the Governor’s recent announcements, New York is poised to become the nation’s clean air leader. The DEC rulemaking to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions must proceed as scheduled, with no trading of any pollution credits earned, at least until the state cap is met.

The good environmental news in this year’s legislative process came mostly in the state budget, which essentially followed the blueprint proposed by the Governor. Again, it was spending from the 1996 Clean Water/Clean Air environmental bond act and the Environmental Protection Fund (EBF) that made the difference. “This is a reminder of the importance of those earlier victories -- the EPF in 1993 and the bond act in 1996,” Washington said. “In both instances, we advocated for the creation of these dedicated funds so that environmental progress would continue even in years when the Legislature, for whatever political reasons, lacks the will or ability to deal with New York’s environmental priorities. Our conclusion from this year’s session is that the original EPF strategy works and we should be thinking about increasing the fund to fill new and growing gaps in the protection of our air and water and our children’s health.”

Washington objected to the now-familiar Albany practice of linking passage of the state budget to the end of session debates. “Closed-door negotiations and horse trading have virtually eliminated serious public debate over policy in New York,” she said. “Even the budget conference committees were a farce this year, failing to build on last year’s hopes for an opening up of involvement in the budget process, at least by rank-and-file lawmakers, if not the public and their advocates.”

Noting the Governor’s off-session announcements and the policy shifts sought by an aggressive new Attorney General, Eliot Sitzer, Washington lamented the dysfunctional legislative process. “There is a lot that can be done through regulatory processes and in the courts, but we need a strong and effective Legislature to carry out a vision for our natural heritage and public health.”

Looking ahead to next year’s legislative session, EPL•Environmental Advocates offers an agenda that it believes is both reasonable and supported by New York’s voters:

• Superfund reauthorization, linked to a plan to develop statewide cleanup standards for brownfields and other contaminated sites, is high on the to do list of environmentalists, the Legislature’s environmental leaders and the Governor.
• The Senate’s acceptance of pesticide neighbor notification was a breakthrough for that house in the effort to give New Yorkers greater control over unintended contact with toxic poisons. Unlike the Senate compromise, however, this basic human right must be extended to all the state’s citizens, and not just limited to those living in the downstate metropolitan area and Long Island.
• With the closing of the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island nearing, state solid waste policy needs to be revisited. Without a significant increase in recycling and waste reduction, especially in New York City, there is going to be a dramatic transfer of garbage from downstate to upstate landfills.
• Recognition is growing that a complete environmental program for New York must include improving the quality of life in urban communities that have traditionally been exposed to environmental hazards. Comprehensive strategies are evolving to fight the asthma epidemic, phase out diesel buses, advance public transit, make schools environmentally safe and generate smart economic growth that rebuilds cities and protects greenfields.