Please Become a Signatory to a Very Important New Coalition Letter to End New York's Addiction to Fossil Fuels/More Front-Page Coverage for our Kill the Pipelines Campaign

Urgent Action Request. Please become a signatory to a self-explanatory NEW: Coalition Letter Which Requests That Governor Cuomo End New York's Addiction to Fossil Fuels

Our Kill the Pipelines Campaign just received extensive banner headline, front-page coverage: FRACKED GAS HIGHWAYS: Pipelines feed demand, rattle neighbors

Greetings,

Many thanks to all the incredibly dedicated Fractivists across New York, the rest of the nation and from as far afield as Indonesia who are working with laser-focus to thwart the proposed Constitution Pipeline that would transport fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania to the Empire State.

Bravo. I applaud all your emails and unrelenting on-message phone banking. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

Use our latest Quick Action Guide and keep calling Governor Cuomo at 518 474 8390. The proposed 124-mile Constitution Pipeline could receive a Section 401 Water Quality Certification required for construction any day.

The Governor has not responded favorably to our requests. If he were inclined to require his Department of Environmental Conservation to DENY the Section 401 WQC application for the proposed Constitution Pipeline, he likely would have done so by now.

We must crank up the political heat. With that goal in mind, I am pleased to let you know that we are opening up an extremely important new policy front in New York's war against fossil fuel pollution. It encompasses everything we have worked so hard to achieve in the last six and a half years.

Governor Cuomo Must End New York's Addiction to Fossil Fuels

Until now, with all respect, Governor Cuomo has talked a great deal about climate change, but has actually done very little to halt it.

Please become a signatory to a new coalition letter designed to resolve that problem: Coalition Letter Which Requests That Governor Cuomo End New York's Addiction to Fossil Fuels

The Governor's proposed 2016 agenda, Built to Lead, states, "Since taking office, the Governor has created and pursued the most aggressive environmental and sustainability agenda of any state in the country to mitigate climate change."

Really? According to NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority), wind, solar and geothermal renewable sources met a measly 1.1% of New York's total primary energy requirement in 2013.

Including hydropower generated by plants that average 50 years old, New York's primary consumption of energy from renewable resources totals less than 10%.

With due deference, that is not much to crow about.

Moreover, the nation as a whole has achieved about the same pathetically low rate of primary consumption of energy from renewable resources after a lot of similar talk without much action.

See pages 45 and 13: Patterns and Trends - New York State Energy Profiles: 1999-2013

While energy activists call for a 100% renewable energy economy, Governor Cuomo has authorized huge new fossil fuel projects that will perpetuate New York's addiction to oil and gas for decades to come.

These include the Spectra Energy Corp. New Jersey - New York Expansion Project natural gas pipeline, the Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) natural gas pipeline and the Danskammer natural gas/oil-fired power plant, to name only a few.

If Governor Cuomo wants to be lauded as a climate change leader, Fractivists must require him to slash fossil fuel burning. We must not allow him to promise a "new energy economy" while permitting more gigantic fossil fuel projects.

New York on the Verge of Vastly Expanding Burning of Fossil Fuels

Due to historic low prices, abundant natural gas is cannibalizing oil, coal and nuclear power generation across New York. We must halt all new infrastructure proposals or our state will become locked into massive fossil fuel consumption for the next half century.

According to Power Trends 2015, a report by the Independent System Operator:

"projects using natural gas (gas-only and dual-fuel units capable of using either natural gas and/or oil) account for 56 percent of New York's generating capacity (emphasis added)."

"More than 70 percent of all proposed generating capacity in New York are natural gas or dual fuel power projects (emphasis added)."

Power generation constitutes approximately 40% of New York's total primary consumption of energy. If new fossil fuel power plants are built, it would be harder than ever for renewable energy alternatives to expand in our state.

What We Must Require Governor Cuomo to Do in 2016

For all these reasons, we must require Governor Cuomo to:

1) kill all proposed natural gas pipelines and infrastructure projects that would increase fossil fuel consumption by denying Section 401 Water Quality Certifications required for their construction;

2) stop all coal-fired power plant conversions to natural gas and new fossil fuel power plants that would perpetuate our state's addiction to fossil fuel for decades to come;

3) maximize energy efficiency and minimize energy demand by funding unprecedented building insulation, weatherizing and retrofitting programs;

4) prohibit all forms of shale fracking, notably "gelled" propane; and

5) halt highly polluting oil and gas production that has contaminated New York for nearly two centuries.

Conclusion

For decades, energy activists promised a rosy future of clean wind, solar and geothermal energy. Unfortunately, their strategy to supplant fossil fuels with renewable alternatives is a dud because they failed to halt oil and gas production that skyrocketed to the highest levels in 40 years due to shale fracking.

Merely extolling the virtues of renewable energy alternatives has not stopped our nation from becoming ever more reliant on fossil fuels. Clearly a better plan of action is desperately needed.

Fractivists must require New York to become the first state in the nation to end its addiction to fossil fuels by rejecting an "all of the above" energy policy that condones consumption of gargantuan new supplies of fracked natural gas and oil.

In the last six years, our campaign's highly coordinated data research, policy advocacy and coalition building efforts played a key role in prohibiting proposed shale fracking. As a result, we are on the verge of halting all oil and gas production after 200 years of polluting activity.

Fractivists must build on our successes to require Governor Cuomo to kill all proposed fossil fuel pipelines, power plants and infrastructure projects in New York. That would allow our state to minimize future energy demand by enormously increasing home insulation, weatherization, retrofitting and and energy efficiency efforts. That would accelerate the transition toward renewable alternatives.

Built to Lead, the Governor's proposed 2016 agenda, actually declares in no uncertain terms:

"The least expensive and most effective way to meet our state energy goals is simply to reduce the overall energy consumption of New York's homes, businesses, and institutions by making them more efficient. Increasing energy efficiency also lowers utility bills for customers and enables businesses to reduce their operating costs (emphasis added)."

This policy is extraordinarily sensible, beyond dispute and ready to be implemented across New York. Yet, Governor Cuomo's proposed 2016 budget includes zero funding to insulate, weatherize, retrofit and increase the energy efficiency of New York's more than eight million housing units in any meaningful way.

See page 79: Built to Lead - 2016 State of the State

The policies outlined in our new coalition letter could alleviate and eliminate New York's reliance on polluting fossil fuels.

Please become a signatory: Coalition Letter Which Requests That Governor Cuomo End New York's Addiction to Fossil Fuels

Keep slugging. Thanks so much for all your immense help. More very shortly.

Cheers,

Walter