Putting Out the Planetary Fire

The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the US hosted a webinar on Nuclear is a False Climate Solution on Monday, July 14. Gov. Hochul recently directed the NY Power Authority to build a new nuclear power plant. Nuclear power is pushing for a big revival both in the US and worldwide, partially on the false premise that it is carbon free – ignoring its carbon footprint from the construction o...

The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the US hosted a webinar on Nuclear is a False Climate Solution on Monday, July 14. Gov. Hochul recently directed the NY Power Authority to build a new nuclear power plant. Nuclear power is pushing for a big revival both in the US and worldwide, partially on the false premise that it is carbon free – ignoring its carbon footprint from the construction o...

On May 5, 2025, the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) hosted a media briefing to discuss the recent proposed 55% budget cuts by the Trump administration to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the cuts and reorganization of the agency’s Office of Research and Development (ORD), and the potential impact of these cuts on American communities. We hear from three speakers. Michelle Roos,...

On Monday May 12 the EcoAction Committee of the Green Party held a webinar on Zero Waste. You can view the webinar on the Green Party’s youtube channel. Zero waste, or waste minimization, is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages redesigning resource life cycles so that all products are repurposed and/or reused. The goal is to avoid sending trash to landfills, incinerators...

On June 4, Beyond Plastics organized a news conference to support the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act and to respond to lobbying from the chemical and plastics industry, which is attempting to mislead environmental justice communities in order to protect their own profits. Chemicals found in plastic packaging are linked to health problems like cancer and developmental disorder...

New York State’s climate law , the CLCPA, set a goal of installing six gigawatts of distributed rooftop and community solar energy generation by 2025. New York achieved the 6 GW goal in 2024 – one year ahead of schedule and $421 million under budget! While the state decided to expand distributed solar goal to 10 GW by 2030, the state’s Public Services Commission decided to reallocate $271 million...

Rather than passing the full NY Heat Act, the Assembly instead just passed the elimination of the gas subsidy called the “100-ft rule”. By repealing this rule, utility companies will no longer be required to pay for gas infrastructure to within 100 feet of a building upon a developer’s request, costs that the utilities pass along to New Yorkers via their utility bills. Pete Sikora of New York Comm...

For the second year in a row, the Democratic supermajority- controlled New York State Assembly failed to vote on the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (A1749 Glick) despite the bill having enough votes to pass. Beyond Plastics held a news conference with leaders from Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group, NAACP NYS Niagara Falls branch, and NYPIRG to discuss the impli...

NY Governor Kathy Hochul, on the Monday after the legislature left town for the yea,r announced that she was directing the New York Power Authority to build a nuclear plant, probably in Central New York. One of the main reasons is to met the energy needs of the new chip factory that MIcron plans to build in Syracuse. The announcement was quickly greeted with dismay by climate and environmental gro...

Clean Earth has submitted an application to the NYS Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to conduct a two-week pilot thermal desorption treatment of 5,000 tons of PFAS-Contaminated soil at their Ft. Edwards facility. While described as a research project, none of the staff of Clean Earth have sufficient scientific credentials for such a study. Angela Pressley, Ph. D., of The Fort Stops PFAS,...

July 1 was the deadline for public comments on NYS’s reporting regulations for greenhouse gas emissions. Bob Cohen of Citizen Action talks about the regs but notes that far more important and not yet issued are the state’s regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Climate activists several years ago successfully got a moratorium on the use of fossil fueled power plants for cryptomining while an environmental impact assessment was completed by the NYS DEC (Dept. of Environmental Conservation). While the moratorium has expired, the draft Environmental Impact Statement was recently released. Irene Weiser of Fossil Free Tompkins discusses the EIS with Mark Dunl...

Four climate justice groups have sued NYS, claiming it is failing to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as mandated in the CLCPA climate law. Much of the suit focused on the Governor's delay in implementing her cap and invest program to reduce emissions, “prolonging New Yorkers’ exposure to air pollution … especially in disadvantaged communities.” Caroline Chen of New York Lawyers...

The State Legislature this week passed their one house budget resolutions. As usual, the state Senate was stronger on climate than the Assembly or Governor. Pete Sikora of New York Communities for Change discusses the climate proposals with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

Several hundred New Yorkers traveled to the state Capitol on Wednesday March 19 as part of the Renewable Heat Now campaign. A main focus was the passage of the NY Heat Act, which passed the Senate last year but stalled in the State Assembly. NY Heat would require state agencies – especially the Public Service Commission – to align their policies and regulations with the state’s climate law (CLCPA)...

A press conference was held at the State Capitol on Wednesday March 19 to promote the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act. We hear from the lead sponsors, Senator Pete Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, Chairs of the Environmental Conservation Committees, Kathy Nolan of the Physicians for Social Responsibility NY; and Judith Enck of Beyond Plastic.

Several hundred New Yorkers rallied at the state Capitol on Wednesday, March 19 as part of the Renewable Heat Now campaign. The lobbyists gathered for a lunch time rally on the Million Dollar Staircase to encourage state lawmakers and the Governor to include the NY Heat in the State Budget which is due April 1. NY Heat would require state agencies – especially the Public Service Commission – to al...

Residents across the state are struggling to keep up with rising energy bills – and these surging bills are hitting low and moderate-income New Yorkers particularly hard. The state’s Empower+ program, which is designed to help low-income homeowners and renters make energy-related improvements to their homes to help lower energy bills, is at risk of being severely underfunded this budget cycle. Mic...

The state Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) approved permits Friday to expand two Hudson Valley compressor stations in Athens and Dover as part of the Iroquois gas pipeline. The entire project, which includes upgrading two Connecticut facilities, allows another 125 million cubic feet of fracked gas to flow along the 414-mile pipeline from Canada to New York City. Emily Skydel of Food an...

On Thursday, February 13, climate activists disrupted the monthly meeting of the Public Service Commissioners in Albany. The immediate focus of the protest was the decision last Friday to approve the expansion of the Iroquois pipeline which builds out the fossil fuel infrastructure and will deliver more gas. The Hochul administration, while acknowledging that the expansion conflicts with the manda...

Despite the significant financial and environmental problems with nuclear power, Governor Hochul is making a major push to develop more of it in NY. Partly it is out of the desire to respond to the skyrocketing electrical demands of data centers, AI, the Micron chip fab plant in Syracuse, and cryptocurrency. Many call nuclear a false climate solution since it does have a carbon footprint related t...

On Tuesday, February 25, the NY Department of State (DOS) and NYSERDA released a revised draft of the 2024 Building/Energy Code update. A public hearing and vote was held on February 28. While many praised the council for including the provisions of the All Electric Building Act in their draft, a number of key proposals made by the Climate Aciton Council were relegated to an advisory appendix rath...

 On December 17, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace held a forum on Climate Change and Resource Wars. Many wars are fought over access to resources, such as oil and rare minerals, major factors in the present conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. The military accounts for an estimated 5% of the global greenhouse emissions and diverts critical funds from the transition to a clean energy future. In this report...

Rensselaer officials and city residents are unhappy with the December 23rd announcement by the NYS DEC that they had renewed the permit for the Dunn landfill. Bob Welton and Jessica Welshans of Rensselaer Environmental Coalition talk about local reactions and next steps with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

On December 10 – 12, 2024, hundreds of New Yorkers participated in a 3 day occupation of the NY State Capitol to urge Governor Hochul to sign the Climate Superfund Act to make the state’s largest greenhouse gas polluters pay $3 billion a year to help repair some of the damages they have caused. 19 elders were arrested. The first dozen of the arrestees were in Albany City Court on January 7. We sta...