Catskill Mountainkeeper has launched the Climatekeeper initiative to address the critical problem of climate change because banning fracking alone will not be enough to protect our region and state from the disastrous consequences of a warming planet.   Climate change is arguably the biggest issue of our time and sadly the window in which we can do something about it is closing.

Climatekeeper’s goals are to:

• Educate New Yorkers about just how threatening climate change is and what the consequences will be if we don’t take action.
• Advocate on the local, state and national levels for clean renewable energy and energy efficiency.
• Continue to fight against false solutions such as natural gas that will perpetuate the fossil fuel energy paradigm.

The evidence is irrefutable that mining and burning fossil fuels is contributing to the climate change.  A  January 16, 2014 article in the New York Times on the latest climate report from the U.N. said, “Nations have so dragged their feet in battling climate change that the situation has grown critical and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising….another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve with current technologies.”

It is imperative that we make sure that our elected officials can no longer ignore this reality.  Climate Change is a global issue that requires global action.  To learn what you can do, visit the Climatekeeper section of our website, and share this email with your friends and neighbors.

Is Climate Change Just a Headline or a Personal Call to Action? 

Catskill Mountainkeeper board member Ilene Ferber connects the dots between fracking, climate change and your backyard in this wonderful article featured in Green Door Magazine.  You can read the article, and other great stories in the spring issue Green Door, or by clicking here.

Catskill Mountainkeeper Joins Rural Climate Network 

 Catskill Mountainkeeper joined a network of likeminded organizations working on addressing the pressing issue of climate change in rural communities. Rural, natural resource-dependent communities are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, as they are often those most closely linked to natural ecosystems for their economic, social and environmental well-being. The Rural Climate Network is intended to foster collaboration that will address the complex issues that create rural injustices.

The Rural Climate Network is an excellent resource for the latest developments, actions and projects to address climate change.  Learn more about the work of Catskill Mountainkeeper and our partners across the nation.

Most of New York State’s drinking water comes from right here in the Catskills, and it is renowned for its taste and purity.

Our water is simply amazing, and we need to protect it for all of us who live here, and the 19 million people in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania that rely on water from our Delaware and Catskill wathersheds.

Our Catskill water is so pure, it reaches the taps of New York City unfiltered. Sadly, for the most part, we take it for granted that its purity and supply is being protected with vigilence by governmental regulatory agencies.

In our everyday lives, we just trust the water from our wells or municipal sources is safe and pure.  We also trust that our regulatory agencies are doing their most to protect us from pollution and spills into our water supply.

The truth is that we should be much more watchful and cautious in making sure our water supply is protected.

Case in point: There’s an ongoing environmental disaster involving the water supply of hundreds of thousands of residents in West Virginia that we in the Catskills should be paying very close attention to in terms of protecting our own H2O.

Earlier this month, over 7,500 gallons of a clear, licorice-smelling chemical used to process coal leaked from an old storage tank and spilled into the Elk River.  The accident took place near the largest water treatment plant in the state.

Life came to a halt there with the resulting prohibition on using tap water. Over 300,000 residents of West Virginia were ordered not to drink the tap water. That chemical, Crude MCHM, which is primarily composed of a chemical named 4-methylcyclohexane methanol is very toxic, and there were immediate reports of rashes, stomach aches, and other ailments.

After 10 days, restrictions on using tap water were lifted for most of those affected by the disaster, even though the licorice smell remained. Pregnant women are still being advised not to drink the water, while Governor Earl Ray Tomblin emphasized that tests indicated the water is safe under guidelines set by the US Centers for Disease Control, he also told a press conference he was not aware of a recommendation for home owners to flush their pipes until the smell is not present.

He was not too reassuring when he told residents: “If you do not feel comfortable drinking or cooking in this water, then use bottled water…I’m not going to say absolutely, 100 percent that everything is safe. But what I can say is if you do not feel comfortable, don’t use it.”

Now as West Virginia officials, who are no strangers to environmental spills and lax regulation, scurry to deal with the health disaster, serious questions are being raised as to why there’s so little regulation of the storage of these chemicals-and even worse, why there’s so little knowledge by the Federal government and the medical field about the potential toxicity of chemicals like the one spilled into the Elk River.

What stands out the most from the WV spill is how the Federal and state governments throughout the nation fail to monitor chemicals and their use in terms of protecting our water supplies.

A recent article in the Washington Post’s Health and Science section stated that “It has been 38 years since Congress passed a major piece of legislation regulating toxic chemicals, even though there is no disagreement that the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA, or Tosca) needs an overhaul” and that “”Chemicals in the United States are generally treated as innocent until proven guilty. A company does not have to prove that a chemical does not pose a health hazard in order to introduce it in the commercial market.”

Much like West Virginia, our state is way too lax in regulating chemicals. 

Here in New York State, the controversy surrounding Fracking already highlights the dangerous nature of chemicals used and released in the fracking process, particularly to the water supply, and serves as a reminder of how lax the regulation of chemicals are in our own backyard.  In fact, several of the chemicals identified in the West Virginia spill are manufactured for fracking operations.

In a report issued by Environmental Advocates in May, 2012, a dire warning was issued about the lack of regulation of the oil and drilling process and the flawed exemption of chemicals from being deemed hazardous waste:

“Existing state laws and regulations do not require oil and gas companies to report with any specificity how much waste is being created, its chemical components, or how drilling waste is being disposed. We also discovered that much of fracking’s waste would likely be classified as hazardous waste if it were not exempt under flawed state regulations.”

The lessons of the recent chemical spill in West Virginia need to be learned well, and implemented quickly, here in upstate New York.

It’s just not about potential fracking here in the Catskills, but about a broader, rudimentary need to protect our water supply from chemicals on a day-to-day basis.

Right now, our water supply is woefully underregulated in terms of chemical storage and transportation, and with the boom going on right now in transmission pipes servicing the needs of the oil and gas industries in neighboring states, updated studies and regulations should be mandated immediately.

In a move that bolsters the growing anti-fracking movement, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made headlines last week when he spoke out against fracking: “The science simply isn’t reliable enough. The technology isn’t reliable enough. And there’s too much danger to our water supply, to our environment in general.”

We couldn’t agree more. That’s why we don’t want a New York State Energy Plan that relies more heavily on fracked gas.  Whether natural gas is coming from New York State or neighboring Pennsylvania, it still contributes to climate change and perpetuates the mining and burning of dirty fossil fuels long into the future. Instead of increasing our reliance on natural gas, we should be planning for greater investment in clean, renewable energies such as solar, wind and geothermal. Join us in asking for a safer, cleaner energy future by commenting on the plan today.

We applaud the Governor’s new initiatives on renewable energy and clean technology that are outlined in the plan, including a ten-year statewide solar program that will increase solar power generation ten-fold, and a program to put solar panels on our schools.

But what else is outlined in the plan?  We looked at the 600-page document and found that it relies heavily on burning natural gas and promotes a massive build-out of natural gas infrastructure (an expanded network of pipelines, compressor stations and storage facilities across New York State).

We also found omissions and inconsistencies that will harm New Yorkers.  For instance, the plan projects a 50% reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.  This goal is based on an increase of natural gas use. The calculation outlined to measure emissions is limited to carbon dioxide only, and completely ignores the measurement of methane. Methane is the major component of natural gas, and has been proven to leak throughout the drilling and delivery processes.

The plan asks for having an 80% reduction in overall green house gas emissions by 2050, which is a laudable goal. But we cannot base our calculations to get there by ignoring the impacts of natural gas infrastructure, and the increased methane emissions that would come with it.  We need to demand an energy plan that considers the impacts of all climate-changing emissions, including methane.

“The overall energy policy outlined in the plan guarantees the perpetuation of dirty fossil fuels,” says Wes Gillingham, Catskill Mountainkeeper Program Director, “If gas companies spend billions on a new natural gas infrastructure they will want to see a return on this investment, which would tie us to natural gas for many, many years.”

The public review process of the draft Energy Plan is now underway.  The public has only been given 60 days to comment on the 600-page document, and although there are supposed to be 6 public hearings in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island, none have been scheduled to date.  Originally the statute that governs energy policy stated that the public would have 6 months to review this critical plan, but delays in the release of the document have shut out sufficient public comment.  This is unacceptable.

What we decide today will shape the energy future of New York.  Please join us in two important actions:

1. Click here to sign a letter to John B. Rhodes, the Chairman of the New York State Energy State Planning Board, requesting that the comment period be extended from 2 to 6 months.
2. Click here to comment on the energy plan.  Please tell the Governor:

• Instead of growing our dependence on natural gas, we should be weaning off of it.
• Methane emissions must be measured to more accurately predict how much green house gas we’re sending into the atmosphere.
• Instead of building a massive gas infrastructure, we should be building an infrastructure for clean, renewable energy.

Has it been long since you wanted to tell someone to “Go take a hike?”
That’s something we love to do at Catskill Mountainkeeper.  Our trail systems, and even our backcountry roads, in Sullivan County and the Catskills are some of the best in the nation.And over the last year, Trailkeeper.org, part of our Trailkeeper Network® initiative, has been a big part of our work to promote eco-tourism.  Trailkeeper.org is a great online resource for hiking trails and local area attractions and amenities in Sullivan County that has drawn the attention of eco-friendly tourists, and encouraged them come to our area.

Amendment passed in  New York State and we are likely to be the site of at  least one casino, we can’t forget the importance of promoting eco-tourism in our Catskill Mountain region.  That’s not only in terms of preserving our beautiful, but fragile ecology, but also in attracting potentially millions of non-gambling tourists to stay and spend in our region.

 

 

or send a check to: Catskill Mountainkeeper, Box 381 Youngsville, NY 12791

Compressor Station on Federal Road, Erin, NY

Certainly the gas industry is betting that he cannot.  They have been quietly drafting plans to cover our state with an infrastructure to bring natural gas to market – with much of it projected to be shipped overseas where the prices are higher.  This is why it is so important for you to take immediate action and submit your comments today on the prosposed regulations which would permit Liquified Natural Gas facilities of any size throughout the state.  Our colleague, Sandra Steingraber, has once again made this process streamlined and effective with herReturn of 30 Days: The Infrastructure Regs. She will be collecting comments for the 30 day period and then submitting them to the New York State Department of Conservation.

The gas industry’s plans to create a massive infrastructure in New York means that the people who would be affected by drilling are not just those who live in the upstate areas where fracking might be approved, but EVERYONE who lives near a toxic and potentially explosive pipeline, compressor station, or Liquid Natural Gas storage facility.  There are currently over 53 proposed or approved gas infrastructure projects across the State, including several in New York City and its suburbs.

To keep natural gas in a highly pressurized state for travel through pipelines, compressor stations are located every 40 to 100 miles along the route to market.  Compressor stations have been documented to cause air, water and noise pollution.  Studies from air around compressor stations have shown extremely high levels of carcinogens and neurotoxins.  Lisa Jackson, former Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said in relationship to other fracking infrastructure, “You are going to have huge smog problems where you never had them before.”   High levels of ozone (smog) have been shown to have a direct correlation to an increase in asthma and other respiratory diseases. You only need to look to Pennsylvania – where gas companies have constructed over 450 compressor stations in five years - to see how quickly and extensively gas drilling can impact communities.

The full picture of the complexity and invasiveness of this infrastructure in New York has yet to emerge, but we are seeing a very disturbing pattern; industry scrambles to build a massive web of pipelines, compressor stations, and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facilities to reach new markets here and overseas so they can drive up the price of gas.  We must prevent the industrial build out of New York State, which threatens hundreds of communities. 

This coming year will be the most critical in our fight and will determine once and for all whether or not New York will get fracked.  Right now we are asking you to take action on three issues:

#1 – The Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)’s insufficient proposed regulations to govern Liquid Natural Gas plants in New York State.  Comment period deadline November 4, 2013.

#2 – Plans to use abandoned salt caverns under Seneca Lake for natural gas storage.  Comment period deadline October 16, 2013.

#3 – The Port Ambrose Liquid Natural Gas port that would connect ocean-going ships to proposed on-shore infrastructure. Although the scoping comment period has ended, Governor Cuomo can still veto it.

To help you take action on these three issues, our colleague Sandra Steingraber is replicating her tremendously successful campaign for commenting on New York State’s fracking regulations and will send you an email once a day for the next Thirty Days when you sign up to participate.  She will explain each issue and offer the background science so that you fully understand why building this infrastructure is so wrong for New York. Please make your first comments now! 

Mark your calendars to come to the public hearings and rally in Albany on October 30th from 10 am – 12 pm to comment on the the NYS Liquid Natural Gas regulations.

As we’ve said, the coming year will be the most critical in our fracking fight.  In addition to participating in this campaign, we strongly urge you to educate and involve your friends and family.  Please send them this email and ask them to join us.