From the Capitol Pressroom -- Environmentalists are urging state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul to include a fleshed out cap-and-invest program in New York’s budget, but the details may get left on the chopping block. Catskill Mountainkeeper Deputy Director Katherine Nadeau explains why legislative action is needed now, including to create a rebate program designed to make the green transition more affordable for low-income New Yorkers.

From the Gotham Gazette -- As Governor Kathy Hochul and the Legislature continue to hammer out the details of the overdue $230 billion state budget, there are major climate and energy policies at stake that environmental advocates say are crucial to meeting New York’s climate goals.

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From Politico -- Thousands of New Yorkers escape the sweltering heat of the concrete jungle each summer by fleeing their Brooklyn brownstones and Upper West Side co-ops and driving west on Route 17, the winding highway leading to the cooler air of the Catskill Mountains.

“We’re spending a billion dollars on 47 miles of highway expansion that don’t need it, pumping an additional 2 million tons of greenhouse gasses” into the air through 2050, said Ramsay Adams, the executive director of the Catskill Mountainkeeper, a local environmental advocacy group fighting the widening project. “If it moves forward the way it seems to, it’s going to be a problem. It’s going to be an issue that I think a lot of us are gonna take up in the courts.”

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From Politico Pro -- Environmental justice groups who spearheaded the push for a landmark climate law mandating emissions reductions in New York are at another pivotal moment as they fight to shape the funding program to achieve those ambitious targets.

“All eyes are on the budget,” said Katherine Nadeau, the deputy director for Catskill Mountainkeeper, a member of the NY Renews coalition. "We know this is a major priority for the governor in this budget."

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From the Albany Times Union--“The best way to keep the Catskills thriving when you’re out in the woods during this time of year is to stay on the trail and choose trails that were constructed for people to be out on,” Catskill Mountainkeeper Deputy Director Katherine Nadeau said. “If you’ve got the right footwear, if you’re prepared, the best thing to do is walk right through it. It’s mud season. Enjoy.”

Check out Mountainkeeper's page with tips and trick for handling mud season and read the full article at the Albany Times Union.

Ramsay Adams for the Albany Times Union: “If you build it, they will come.” This saying is true whether you’re describing fans flocking to a baseball diamond or cars clogging highways. And for New York, that’s a problem.

Read the full piece at the Albany Times Union.

From the River Reporter: Sign the Catskill Mountainkeeper petition telling President Biden and United States Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to keep “bomb trains” carrying highly explosive liquefied natural gas (LNG) out of our communities. 

Transporting LNG by train is extremely dangerous—just 22 rail cars carrying LNG contain the energy equivalent of a nuclear bomb. These trains expose residents to air pollution and bring volatile, explosive cargo within throwing distance from families’ homes. The margin for error when transporting LNG by rail is paper thin, and even the slightest accident would result in tragedy.

From Mid Hudson News -- Terramor Outdoor Resort has pulled its plan to develop a glamping resort along Route 212 in the Town of Saugerties.

Ramsay Adams, executive director of Catskill Mountainkeeper...termed the company’s decision “great news for the neighbors and all those who care about the water and wetlands that would have been destroyed or injured by this project.”

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Kathy Nolan, MD, for the Poughkeepsie Journal — Those who don’t learn from history generally repeat it.

That’s what worries me as we continue to learn more about neonicotinoid pesticides or “neonics,” the nicotine-like chemicals that are now the most used insecticides nationwide. Specifically, I’m haunted by the echoes of our unfortunate history with DDT—the long-banned neurotoxic insecticide whose multigenerational harms to wildlife and people we are only still beginning to appreciate.

Kathy Nolan, MD, is Catskill Mountainkeeper's Senior Research Director, president of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, New York Chapter, a member of the Ulster County Legislature, and a pediatrician. Read her full opinion piece at the Poughkeepsie Journal.

From the Times Union: SAUGERTIES — With more than 500 campsites in the U.S. and Canada, no one knows camping better than Kampgrounds of America. Now, the world’s largest camping company is hoping to tap into the growing glamping market with Terramor Catskills, a 77-acre wooded property in Saugerties near the town border with Woodstock. But the project is not without controversy.