Image by Heiko Stein from Pixabay
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Highlights
Victory! Celebrating Passage of Connecticut’s PFAS Law
We were thrilled to attend a bill signing ceremony for a new law prohibiting the use of food packaging and firefighting foam treated with toxic PFAS in CT. The law will go a long way to protect human health from PFAS chemicals which can leach out of food packaging, and to prevent contamination of CT waterways from fluorinated firefighting foams. The law also authorizes CT to establish a buyback program to remove stockpiles of PFAS-treated foams that remain in storage at airports, military installations, and firefighting training facilities across the state.
Victory! Suffolk County, NY Passes Honeybee Protection Bill
Honeybees are an integral component of our food web, but unfortunately, global populations of honeybees have declined since 2005. We worked with Suffolk County Legislator Al Krupski to craft and introduce an important bill to prevent exterminators in Suffolk County from exterminating honeybee hives without first calling a beekeeper. Beekeepers can come to resident’s homes, remove the hive and provide the honeybees with a safe home.
Happenings
Voices for Wind
Offshore wind will play a crucial role in allowing NY to reach our renewable energy targets under the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Law. To ensure we meet these important goals, including 9,000MW of offshore wind, we have been working with a diverse coalition of student groups, community stakeholders, elected leaders, environmental experts, labor leaders, and more to voice support for offshore wind on Long Island. We recently compiled short videos from a variety of these prominent “Voices for Wind” in an interactive map, which allows our partners and the public to share why they support transitioning away from fossil fuels to offshore wind in their community. Check out our “Voices for Wind” series today!
Vote Yes For Clean Water and Air!
This fall, New Yorkers will have the historic opportunity to establish the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment into the Bill of Rights of the New York State constitution. We have joined the Vote YES for Clean Air and Water coalition to establish the highest legal protection available under law to protect public health and the environment. This election season, registered voters across New York State will be able to vote YES to guarantee: “Each person shall have the right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” Voting YES on environmental rights will create legal safeguards for New Yorkers to secure clean air and water for generations to come. And we’ll need your help to get the word out to voters from the Adirondacks to the Great Lakes to Long Island Sound and everywhere in between. Click here to learn more about the campaign and pledge to vote YES for clean water and air!
Fighting for Federal Action on PFAS
We joined with U.S. Senator Blumenthal and our allies at Clean Water Action CT last month for a press conference calling attention to the use of toxic PFAS in many cosmetic products. Putting on lipstick and mascara in the morning should not mean increasing our risk of cancer. We are pushing for the adoption of bipartisan legislation prohibiting PFAS from cosmetics at the federal level.
Slash Transportation-Section Carbon Pollution
The transportation sector is the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the NY, CT and the U.S. The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI) is a regional approach to addressing the pollution and climate change emissions from the transportation sector. TCI seeks to improve transportation, develop the clean energy economy, and reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector. TCI would provide green jobs, protect the health of communities, help New York meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets and address climate change. However, New York has yet to commit to the TCI-P. We are urging Governor Cuomo to commit New York to the TCI program! Please sign on and urge Governor Cuomo to support an equitable and sustainable transformation of New York’s transportation sector by committing to TCI.
Fire Island Wastewater Solutions
In July, we were proud to announce the first ever Fire Island Wastewater Solutions Planning & Engineering Study. This critical process was spearheaded by Suffolk County Legislator Steve Flotteron and CCE Executive Director, Adrienne Esposito. Now we can take the first step towards understanding the extent of the Fire Island nitrogen pollution problem and finding solutions that protect our waterways, fisheries, and community. To learn more about this project, check out our press conference here.
Be on the Watch for Harmful Algal Blooms
As the weather begins to get warmer, and we start spending more time outside and lakeside, it is important to be aware of dangerous harmful algal blooms (HABs). HABs pose an immense threat to our communities’ drinking water, public health, outdoor recreation and wildlife! HABs are erupting across NY more frequently and more aggressively—in 2020, over 900 HABs were present in NY waterbodies. If you see a HAB in a lake or waterbody (looks like spilled green paint or pea soup), be sure to avoid it and report it using the DEC Suspicious Algal Bloom Report Form!
Bringing Hydropower to New York
Thanks to everyone who joined last month’s “Bringing Hydropower to NY Forum” to learn about how transporting excess Canadian hydropower to NYC can help us combat climate change and transition from polluting fossil fuel power plants to renewable energy. The virtual event, co-hosted by CCE and the NY League of Conservation Voters, and featuring experts from Hydro-Québec and Transmission Developers Inc., is available here.
Telling the Story of a 20-year CCE Career
We were honored to create a short video for the middle school and high school students of Junior Achievement of WNY as part of their Inspire Career Speaker Series. Check out this video of Brian Smith, CCE’s Associate Executive Director, speak about his two-decade career at CCE!
Highlighting Smart Irrigation Month
July is Smart Irrigation month, and we celebrated by joining members of the Suffolk County Legislature to discuss the importance of water conservation on Long Island. Water conservation is a critical component of protecting our sole source aquifer through the use of conservation measures, especially during peak water usage times in the summer months, and the use of smart irrigation systems. You can check out Adrienne Esposito’s remarks on the importance of water conservation here.