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Highlights
Pushing for our Environmental Priorities in the NYS Budget
We were in Albany for Governor Hochul’s 2023 State of the State address and were thrilled to see some of our top priorities for the year highlighted and included in the Governor’s budget proposal. We’ll be in Albany for the next few months urging our Assembly and Senate members to include some of our key priorities in the final budget, including:
Waste Reduction and Recycling: Ensures that manufacturers, not taxpayers, pay for the cost of recycling product packaging. This will help to cut plastic pollution, increase recycling, and save local governments money.
PFAS Cleanup: Provides $60 million to local governments to clean up toxic “forever chemicals” and protect drinking water.
Environmental Protection Fund (EPF): We are pushing for at least $400 million in the EPF, including robust funding to support protection of our ocean, Great Lakes, and estuaries.
Clean Water Funding: We are pushing for a billion dollar investment in much-needed clean water infrastructure improvements, including upgrading sewer systems, treating drinking water for emerging contaminants, replacing lead pipes, and more.
Happenings
Transitioning to Offshore Wind
New York is poised to be a national leader in offshore wind, with five wind farms already selected and a mandate of 9,000MW of offshore wind by 2035. This will not only bring environmental and health benefits to our communities but will also create thousands of jobs and make NY a hub of offshore wind development. January saw some more big milestones for offshore wind:
Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for Sunrise Wind. This project, located approximately 30 miles off Montauk, will generate 924 MW of energy and power nearly 600,000 Long Island homes via a cable connection to the Holbrook substation. We attended a series of public hearings in January; thanks to all who joined and spoke up for wind!
BOEM hosted three public meetings on the DEIS for the Empire Wind project, which will power over a million homes throughout NYC and Nassau County. Thanks to all who joined and spoke up in favor of wind, and everyone who submitted written comments in January.
NYS hosted public meetings last month on the Beacon Wind project as part of their Article VII permitting process. The Beacon Wind project will be located approximately 60 miles off the coast of Montauk and will generate 1,230MW of energy, enough to power over 600,000 homes in NYC. If you missed it, you can submit written comments until February 17th.
Move School Away from the Brookhaven Landfill
Last month we stood with Javien Coleman’s mother as she announced a lawsuit against South Country Central School District and the Town of Brookhaven. Her son sadly passed away at age 13 from cancer after being exposed to toxics, such as TCE and benzene. Javien went to Frank P. Long Intermediate School, which is adjacent to the landfill and has a history of air quality and health issues in the community. We are strongly urging the school board to move the school in order to protect students and teachers. The school has been featured in the documentary “Sick School” on Netflix.
Protecting Pollinators from Toxic Pesticides
We are working to protect our pollinators from toxic neonicotinoid (neonics) pesticides throughout New York. Neonics decimate pollinator populations, contaminate water resources, and harm human health. In January, we joined our partners for a statewide virtual lobby day in support of the Birds and Bees Protection Act. We met with New York elected officials to discuss the importance of banning certain uses of neonics which pose the highest risks to pollinators. This is one of our top priorities for 2023 and we’ll be in Albany in the following months fighting to get this crucial bill passed this year.
Patchogue Gets a Living Shoreline
We had a great time with our partners at the Protecting the Environment in Patchogue (PEP) committee, Suffolk County Executive Bellone, and Secretary of State Rodriguez celebrating the groundbreaking of the largest “living shoreline” on the south shore of Long Island. This $5 million project will help to protect the coast from flooding as it acts as a buffer and reef for different species. We hope to see more projects like this on Long Island and across the state!
Kicking off the LI Sound High School Summit
We were busy in January providing presentations to participating students for this year’s Long Island Sound High School Summit. We have 8 Long Island schools participating and are currently developing projects that they will present at the Summit in May. Students’ projects aim to advance protection and restoration of Long Island Sound and this year include researching how light pollution impacts crabs, conducting water quality monitoring in local embayments, studying the impacts of plastic pollution on local beaches, and more. We are excited to see all the great projects! Thank you to the Long Island Sound Study and the Long Island Sound Futures Funding for their generous support of this program.