Catskill Mountainkeeper Supports Governor Cuomo’s Call for a Ban on Single Use Plastic Bags, Calls for Fees on Other Single Use Bags

LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY – Sunday afternoon, Governor Cuomo announced his commitment to a ban on single use plastic bags in the executive budget as well as a pledge to expand the state’s bottle deposit laws.

November 15, 2018

As economic pressures mount, Catskills’ farms are threatened with closure. FarmHearts, a fund to support family farms, steps in to fill the gaps and the community rallies to support.

Livingston Manor, NY – Catskill Mountainkeeper released a new video about the urgent crisis facing Catskills family farms.  Every day, our region’s small farmers face an uphill battle to produce products sustainably. These farmers are unable to compete with industrial megafarms, have been abandoned by the agricultural co-ops that are supposed to protect them, and are crippled by a broken federal milk pricing system--the tragic result is that many of our small farms are being driven out of business. Mountainkeeper produced the video to build support for a critical new resource to help farmers succeed: the FarmHearts fund.

HeatSmart Ulster•Sullivan (HeatSmart U•S), a state-supported community campaign to help our local home and business owners increase energy efficiency and choose clean heating and cooling systems. Read Catskill Mountainkeeper's press release launching our campaign!

DRBC Release Misleads Public with Underreported Comment Numbers

For Immediate Release: April 10, 2018

National environmental organizations, anti-fracking groups, community organizations, and residents announced today that their members had submitted at least 40,000 comments to the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) in support of a full ban on fracking and all drilling-related activities, including wastewater treatment and water withdrawals. The coalition also submitted a letter signed by 126 groups, representing millions of members, making the same demand.

MEDIA RELEASE

June 13, 2018

The Invasive Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Threatens Catskills’ Keystone Species. Without the Hemlock, Catskills forests, streams, and wildlife will suffer

Livingston Manor, NY – Catskill Mountainkeeper has released a new video highlighting the plight of the hemlock tree—the keystone forest species in the Catskills—as an invasive insect called the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (HWA) ravages the trees, sucking the life out of the hemlocks and causing them to die prematurely.

The video, which features vivid drone footage of the Catskills forests and interviews with HWA experts Mark Whitmore, a Forest Entomologist at Cornell University, and Vern Rist a Plant Pathologist and owner of Healthy Plants, Consultation & Service, helps viewers understand what the HWA is and how it kills the hemlocks. The six-minute film details the destruction the HWA can do while also discussing a solution— the introduction of beneficial predators—which scientists are using to fight the HWA. It closes with a call to action for people to become citizen scientists and join with researchers in collecting data about infestations that help determine hot spot locations where we can fight this voracious bug.

April 24, 2018

Livingston Manor, NY – Today the New York State Assembly again passed the Climate and Community Protection Act, a bill that establishes and codifies necessary climate pollution reduction goals, ensures that environmental justice and low income communities long left behind are put front and center in the transition to renewable energy, and prioritizes solid, sustainable jobs.

The following response is attributable to Wes Gillingham, Associate Director.

“Yesterday more than 1,500 people from every corner of New York State marched in Albany asking legislators and the Governor to stop all natural gas infrastructure, move to 100% renewable energy sources, and make polluters pay for the health and environmental impacts their climate pollution has on New Yorkers each and every day. Today the Assembly again led the nation, passing the Climate and Community Protection Act (CCPA). Catskill Mountainkeeper thanks and applauds Assemblyman Englebright and Speaker Heastie for leading our government in the right direction. Now the New York State Senate and Governor Cuomo need to pass and enact the bill so NY can begin a just transition to a new energy paradigm.”

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MEDIA STATEMENT

April 20, 2018

Livingston Manor, NY – Earlier today Governor Cuomo announced that New York State will dramatically ramp up efforts to hit higher energy efficiency goals.  The following response is attributable to Ramsay Adams, Executive Director

“Governor Cuomo’s announcement that New York will dramatically ramp up energy efficiency targets, including those for utilities, is the type of news we need right now. In the face of a climate crisis, New York must lead the way and this type of goal setting, when followed by strong accountability measures, can help ratchet down New York’s climate change emissions while creating jobs. Further, the focus on ramping up investment in, and participation by, low to moderate income New Yorkers and environmental justice communities is critically important, and we applaud the announcement.  I applaud Governor Cuomo for driving New York State forward on these ambitious energy efficiency goals.”

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Livingston Manor, NY – In response to Governor Cuomo and Comptroller DiNapoli’s announcement that New York will cease new investments in oil and gas companies and develop a plan to invest the Common Fund in clean energy technologies, Catskill Mountainkeeper issued the following statement, attributable to Ramsay Adams, Executive Director.

"Governor Cuomo's announcement that he and Comptroller DiNapoli will cease investing New York's pension in dirty, dangerous fossil fuels is exactly the type of leadership we need. It sends a strong message to the industry that we will not continue to support companies that are killing us and destroying our climate. Now New York needs to take the next bold move: funding the future by charging polluters for their emissions and investing revenues in our communities and renewable energy.

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