Environmental Groups Set New York State Agenda for Upcoming Earth Day Lobby Day

New York State Wetlands. Photo courtesy of geocities.comALBANY- Environmental advocacy groups from around the state have just finalized the agenda for this year’s annual Earth Day lobbying pilgrimage to Albany on May 5.

“There are a couple of dozen environmental groups that will be taking part in the day. The Sierra Club, Audubon Society, Environmental Advocates of New York, and the New York Public Interest Research Group, just to name a few,” said Bill Mahoney, legislative operations coordinator for the Albany office of NYPIRG.

“All the groups came together to come up with the agenda of what issues we are working on,” he added. The major focus of the groups during the day will be the following four bills:

• Wetlands Protection (A.6363/S.848)
• Global Warming Pollution Control Act (A.7572)
• Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act (A.7571/S/2512)
• Environmental Access to Justice (A.3423/S.1635)

The purpose of the Wetlands Protection bill is to “provide the Department of Environmental Conservation with regulatory authority over freshwater wetlands of one acre or more in size, and other wetlands of significant local importance,” according to the bill memo provided by the New York State Assembly.

The memo states justification for the measure is that, “In a closely divided five -four decision, the United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the federal government no longer has jurisdiction over isolated wetlands.

“While a number of states (including all the northeastern states) already have the regulatory authority to step in and regulate the wetlands that Corps of Engineers formerly oversaw, New York’s DEC is currently limited to regulating mapped wetlands of a size greater than 12.4 acres. If we do not protect New York’s wetlands, we jeopardize our drinking water and property values. This legislation gives DEC the regulatory authority necessary to protect New York’s wetlands by eliminating the mapping and reducing the size limitations on DEC’s regulatory authority over wetlands.”

The purpose of the Global Warming bill is to require the DEC to declare “rules and regulations establishing limits on greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the bill memo provided by the New York State Assembly.

Graphic courtesy of combatclimatechange.ie

Among the provisions this bill would provide, according to the memo, are to:

• define greenhouse gases to include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluroide, and any other gas determined by the DEC to be a significant contributor to global warming.
• authorize the DEC to declare rules and regulations, by May 1, 2010, requiring annual greenhouse gas emission reporting from greenhouse gas emission sources.

Stock Graphic.

The next item the environmental groups will focus on is the Electronic Equipment Recycling and Reuse Act, which will basically mandate that manufactures will have to “accept for collection, handling and recycling, reuse of covered electronic equipment that is offered for return by a person” beginning on January 1, 2012, or 180 days after the act is approved, according to the current version of the bill.

If the bill in its current form becomes law, it mandates for a public education program to inform consumers about the plan, including, at a minimum, a website or a toll-free telephone number.

The final item on the lobbying agenda is the Environmental Access to Justice bill, which has the general purpose of amending the environmental conservation law giving individuals legal standing in private actions alleging violations of environmental quality.

Justification for this bill, according to its memo, is that under current law individuals can be effectively barred from bringing legal actions alleging violations of the environmental conservation law solely on the basis that “the injury alleged by such individual does not differ in kind or degree from the injury that would be suffered by the public at large.”

According to Mr. Mahoney, “Everyone that is coming is going to be lobbying on these bills. It’s basically a coalition effort of all the interested citizens and groups.”

The lobbying day will be divided into two parts. In the morning, there will be a presentation with various speakers, including Governor David A. Paterson and Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith. In the afternoon, individuals will be able to meet with their legislators if they complete the online sign up through NYPIRG. This is a free event and open to all of the public. For carpooling information, Roger Downs, a representative of the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter can be emailed for information at roger.downs@sierraclub.org.