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Think Christmas is Tough? Try finding Green Gifts on Hanukkah!

2011-12-19T18:39:20Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

You think buying gifts for one night is difficult?

Try finding 8 gifts for each of the 8 nights of Hanukkah.

If you have two children, like I do, that’s 16, plus all of the other family gifts spread out over the week.

As they say in Yiddish - “Oy Vez Mear” or, as defined by at least one online source, “Oh, woe is me.”

But don’t worry my fellow Jewish holiday shoppers and environmental activists.

NRDC has put together over 50 NRDC Green Gifts you can choose from.

To help you get started, some of my NRDC New York colleagues were kind enough to share some of their favorite Green Gift picks:

What the Frack? You knew that this gift would top our list, right? We're fighting every day to make sure hydraulic fracturing doesn't ruin New York's water, farmland and communites.. Even my 11 year old would appreciate this (assuming he got some other cool stuff.)

BPA-Free Babies. We’re fighting to protect kids from toxic BPA in baby bottles, sippy cups and other children’s items. Our own Senior Attorney Kate Sinding is a fan, both professionally and personally: “I'm a new Mom and attorney and know that toxics don't belong in our products, and definitely not in baby toys and baby bottles. Please join me in helping NRDC get toxics out of children's products -- and off store shelves -- once and for all.”

A Breath of Fresh Air. New Yorkers know how precious clean air is. But not all people in all communities have access to clean fresh air, and kids and the elderly are especially affected. We're fighting for them.

Love Our Lawyers. Someone on your gift list is a lawyer. Maybe your spouse. Maybe your mother. Maybe your son. (There’s a Jewish joke here, but I will let it pass.) Give them a gift of appreciation for their work and ours. Every day the amazing NRDC litigators are fighting the David vs. Goliath battles against pollution and winning landmark rulings that will protect polar bears, our kids' health and our environment.

So don’t make your Hanukkah this year an Eco-Shanda (that is shame, or scandal for you Yiddish novices)

Go View the full Green Gifts Collection here.

With over 50 gifts to choose from, you’re guaranteed to find the perfect present for everyone on your list.

And you’ll feel great you spent your Gelt (I’m not translating this one for you) wisely.

Who is Your Food Hero? Nominate Them for a Growing Green Award by 12/9!

2011-12-02T19:42:23Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Each year, NRDC honors leaders in the sustainable food movement who have advanced ecologically integrated farming practices, climate stewardship, water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility from farm to fork. This leadership takes place in a variety of fields, including food production, food service, retail or restaurants, academia, journalist, policy advocacy and government.

In previous posts, I have written about the importance of sustainable local food for our economy, our environment, and our health.

I also made a call to young lawyers to put their skills to use by joining the growing food movement. Without a doubt we need as many bright minds as possible to fix our broken food system.

But of course there are already many people hard at work. The Growing Green Awards recognizes their successes.

In our work on regional food systems here in New York, we continue to come across many dynamic food leaders— farmers, professors, chefs and food entrepreneurs who are working hard and inventing valuable ways to feed a growing population healthy food grown in environmentally and economically sustainable ways. No small feat.

Do you know someone like this? Someone who has provided innovation and leadership in this growing food movement? If so, nominate them for a Growing Green Award, and help them receive the recognition and support they deserve to continue their work.

For information on how to nominate your food hero by December 9th go to:

http://www.nrdc.org/health/growinggreen.asp

Keeping the 'Pig Out of the Parlor': Can NY Towns Restrict Fracking?

2011-11-03T15:27:07Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

(kikoshouse.blogspot.com)

Tomorrow a State judge in Tompkins County will hear arguments on a small town ordinance that is at the center of a big new issue in New York fracking world – municipal zoning.

The crux of the case is whether the Town of Dryden – a suburb of Ithaca, New York – can invoke its long-standing, delegated powers under state law to regulate how land is used within its borders in order to protect the health of its residents and their property from heavy industrial operations, including hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

A drilling company, Anschutz Exploration Corporation, filed suit claiming that the Town’s recent ordinance prohibiting fracking under its zoning authority is overridden – or “preempted” – by state laws regulating gas drilling.

NRDC is closely watching this case and a similar lawsuit now pending against a zoning ordinance in the Town of Middlefield – a small town of just over 2,000 people outside of Cooperstown, NY. And – along with some key allies – we hope to file a brief as an amicus, or “friend of the court,” in the upcoming Middlefield case and will continue to stay involved in this and other municipal zoning litigation in the future.

In short, NRDC strongly objects to the argument, asserted by the industry plaintiff in the Dryden case that they can begin gas drilling without regard for the comprehensive development plans and zoning laws democratically adopted by Dryden and other towns statewide. For nearly a century, zoning law in New York has given its citizens both a voice in the growth of their communities and the power to keep hazardous industrial activities out of areas where they could do the most harm.

As the prospect of a new type of industrial activity – fracking – may soon become a reality in New York, many towns and villages have taken precautionary measures into their own hands to protect their residents and the places where they live and farm. While some towns already have ordinances which would prohibit gas drilling and other heavy industrial activities in sensitive places such as residential neighborhoods or school zones, there are a growing number of communities, particularly rural or scenic areas, who have made the decision that fracking is unsuitable for the town as a whole, therefore zoning it out completely. The Town of Dryden, a predominantly rural community, decided to do just that.

The outcome of this case does not hinge on the pro or cons of natural gas in our national energy mix, or even the potential impacts of fracking operations specifically. Nor will it determine whether Dryden has the power to zone in general.

Rather, the primary question before the Court is whether Dryden’s traditional ability to zone gas drilling activities has been preempted altogether by the State’s primary gas drilling statute, the New York “Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Law” (OGSML). To put this in a real world context: did State legislators, in passing the OGSML, intend to deprive small towns of power to prevent a gas well from being put next to a preschool?

New York’s highest court – the Court of Appeals – has never taken up the precise issue of how local zoning interacts with this State law. But the Court has previously recognized local power to zone similar types of industrial activity – namely, gravel mining. And courts in other states, including Pennsylvania and Colorado, have concluded that localities can maintain their traditional zoning powers even where state officials get to dictate the technical details of gas and oil drilling operations – for example, the thickness of the cement required for well walls or how to treat contaminated wastewater. (As my colleagues have previously written about, these technical details are currently being hashed out in the State’s draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement and proposed regulations on fracking.)

The U.S. Supreme Court has also had something to say about the power of zoning. In its landmark 1926 case, Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., the high court first established the principle that it is constitutional for municipalities to zone land within their borders to ensure that competing land uses do not interfere with one another. As Justice George Sutherland famously stated in the opinion, an inappropriate use “may be merely a right thing in the wrong place, like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.”

Consistent with this historic ruling, NRDC maintains that New York’s own judicial tradition of supporting a locality’s robust authority to decide where – if at all – a harmful industrial activity will be located within its borders is essential to the time-honored rights and democratic development choices of the State’s rural, urban, and suburban communities.

Or stated another way, if the State regulates the livestock industry, then citizens should be free to keep pigs out of their living rooms.

I greatly appreciate the assistance of Dan Raichel, a legal fellow at NRDC, for help in drafting this blog.

Wanted: Food Lawyers!

2011-10-24T21:04:22Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Today is national food day.

But instead of writing about my favorite recipe, I thought instead I would pass along one word of career advice for aspiring lawyers:

You guessed it: food.

For years, I’ve told law students –who have asked – that climate change law was the future of the environmental movement, and it was the way to go.

I apologize. I was wrong.

Don’t misunderstand me – we still need skilled lawyers who can help address the biggest threat the world has ever faced. And right now, we are not doing so well on this front, legally or otherwise.

However, right now my advice to law students and new lawyers is to consider how you can apply your skills to the fast growing local, sustainable food movement that seeks to fix our broken national food system. (I blogged earlier this year on some of the key health, economic, and environmental benefits from strengthening New York City’s regional food system.)

Of course, the food movement does not need wonky lawyers to offer advice on crop rotation or how to churn butter. What I mean is that lawyers are needed to help cities and regions around the nation write new laws and policies to strengthen their local food systems.

Many cities, including New York, San Francisco, Portland, Chicago and Seattle, are forging ahead to reform their food systems– in large part, in responding to overwhelming public support for such changes.

But if these new laws and policies are to be fully successful lawyers are needed in at least three key areas:

Sustainability Standards: One big opportunity is to help define sustainability standards for local food, especially where it is being touted as healthier or more environmentally friendly than other food. The truth is, of course, that not all local food is equal. An apple from New Jersey that’s doused with pesticides is not better for the environment or your health when compared to an organic (or otherwise sustainably-produced) apple from Oregon just because it was grown closer to home. Thus, we need to define sustainably grown (or raised) local food in our new laws as we look for ways to set concrete benchmarks for increasing food purchasing by city and state governments.
Food Equity: The local food movement is often characterized as elitist and expensive – with critics saying it is an unrealistic option for many citizens. But this is not true. In New York, for example, local food advocacy is considered an extremely high priority among many of the City’s grassroots and environmental justice groups. And food stamp use doubled at the highly successful NYC Greenmarkets between 2009 and 2010. Still, we will need new laws and official policies – and maybe even some targeted litigation— to address the troubling problem of “food deserts” in many low-income communities and communities of color in New York and in cities around the country. Grassroots energy and volunteer efforts alone will not be enough to help these communities overcome the distribution and other barriers preventing them from getting greater access to healthier food.
Scalability: Food writer Mark Bittman has asked whether sustainable farming could help feed the world. I won’t try to resolve this complicated question in this short blog. But we do know that if cities and localities are going to help lead the way to a national approach to a better food system, then we need to design models that are capable of going beyond the incredible, yet small-scale local food efforts cropping up in so many cities. Again, I respectfully suggest, lawyers are very much needed to help work with elected officials and government leaders to draft new laws and policies that will result in large-scale changes to local food systems.

So, don’t throw away (or recycle) your Climate Change Law book or treatise. But start thinking about a new career path in food law.

And to all you foodies: lawyers just might end up being your new best friends.

NYC Enacts New Local Food Laws

2011-08-17T15:10:02Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

While the latest poll numbers show popular support for Mayor Mike Bloomberg cooling off, the Mayor took action today on one the hottest issues in New York City – local food.

Earlier today at City Hall, Bloomberg signed a package of laws that will help increase the amount of fresh, local food available in the city.

This package of legislation is a key component of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's highly praised "FoodWorks" plan, which is designed to significantly overhaul our regional food system.

One bill requires the city to collect and publish "metrics" on how food is produced, processed, distributed, and consumed in the region. These metrics include everything from counting the number of restaurants in the city, to tracking the number of vendors at greenmarkets, to recording how much food is transported by truck or by rail. Having this baseline information can help officials make better decisions about how we get our food and how to improve its impact on public health and the environment.

Another bill calls for the creation of procurement guidelines to encourage city agencies to buy food grown or processed in New York State. (Without a change of state procurement law, which the City Council is also calling for in an official Resolution, NYC is currently hindered in encouraging the purchase of food from farmers in neighboring states.)

Two other bills in the package promote urban agriculture and rooftop farming. By helping urban farming to flourish, New York may someday serve as a model for the benefits of truly sustainable, local agriculture.

I had the opportunity to testify on these food bills this past Spring, and now that they've passed, the sentiment is the same: New York has enormous potential to become a national leader in providing sustainable, local food, and these bills are a good first step in reforming our food system. At the same time, as we testified, ultimately the city will need to put in place concrete purchasing targets for buying regional food and define what constitutes "sustainable" food (just because it is local doesn't necessarily mean it is healthy or better for the environment).

Today, Speaker Quinn, the Council, and the Mayor set in motion a long-overdue effort to improve our food system. As one of the largest food buyers in the nation - and second only to the U.S. military in meals served every day – the City has an incredible opportunity to leverage its purchasing to boost access to healthy food, preserve the state's disappearing farmland, and create much needed regional jobs.

We have a few ways you can keep up with our New York work online: Please visit our website at www.nrdc.org/newyork or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Photos: NRDC New York Visits Urban Farms

2011-08-05T17:31:24Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

The last thing the world needs is another blog about local food.

But hold on.

Today’s entry isn’t about the food itself. It’s about warehouse roofs, abandoned baseball fields, and people who looked at empty spaces and saw opportunities usually reserved for sprawling country land.

We’re talking about urban farming and agriculture in New York City.

The idea that regular city dwellers can provide food to their urban neighbors isn’t exactly new, but it’s a budding area that – if done right – can help address some of the basic problems with how our region and others get food. As urban farming continues to grow, cities can move away from merely consuming food and toward producing more sustainably-grown food, conserving resources, providing environmental education, creating green jobs and improving health.

Last year, a study of only 67 of New York’s more than 500 urban farms – totaling just 1.7 acres of farmland – reported that they had produced about 87,700 pounds of food. That might not be enough to sell in bulk just yet, but it shows the city’s amazing potential to produce a substantial portion of its own food right here. And New York City is nowhere near maximizing its urban farming potential.

Over the last several weeks, NRDC New York visited three of the city’s biggest rooftop and urban farms. What we saw was a thriving community – one that can play an enormous role in providing fresh, local food to New Yorkers.

Here are a few photos from our visits. Enjoy!

1. Brooklyn Grange is a one-acre commercial rooftop farm in Long Island City, Queens. Its owners – led by “head farmer” Ben Flanner – grow dozens of crops, including peas, tomatoes, and lettuce in nearly 1.2 million pounds of soil. Once their produce is harvested, it either goes to several NYC restaurants or is sold at local farmers’ markets.

No farm is complete without chickens (and a beehive)!

Check out more photos from Brooklyn Grange.

2. Redhook Community Farm – a project of the non-profit organization Added Value – focuses on empowering Brooklyn’s youth by getting them involved in sustainable community farming. The farm is located on a former baseball field next to IKEA (which houses one of the biggest solar power installations in NYC on its roof, by the way) and operates a farmers’ market on Saturdays.

Since 2003, about 115 teens have helped grow 12 tons of produce that generated thousands of dollars in local economic activity.

Check out more photos from Redhook Community Farm.

3. Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000 square-foot organic vegetable farm overlooking the East River from a warehouse rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Who knew carrots and cucumbers would end up with the city’s best view of the skyline?

The farmers operate an on-site market and pride themselves on being a part of a Community Supported Agriculture program, which connects the city farm to new farmers upstate.

Check out more photos from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm.

These farms aren’t just in the business of growing and selling. All three offer organic practices, educational programs and career and volunteer opportunities that will help make sure future generations of sustainable urban growers take root.

NRDC New York is looking forward to seeing these businesses and others like them succeed, as we explore ways to make sure the city and its surrounding counties become the model for urban farming.

We have a few ways you can keep up with our New York work online: Please visit our website at www.nrdc.org/newyork or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

How green is NYC's new taxi?

2011-05-03T20:38:03Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Earlier today, Mayor Bloomberg announced that New York City has chosen the Nissan NV200 as the winner of its Taxi of Tomorrow competition. The new vehicle – once the final contract is worked out and likely lawsuits are resolved – would become the single model for NYC’s more than 13,000 taxis.

From an environmental perspective, the new design is a step backward from the current hybrid cabs on the road, but the Mayor’s announcement offers some hope that over the next decade, the city will move towards an even greener vehicle: an all-electric taxi.

The Nissan was chosen from three competing designs and unfortunately not one, including the winning taxi, is a hybrid (gasoline-electric) car. Thus, at least in the short term, this decision undercuts Mayor’s efforts to green New York’s taxi fleet by improving fuel economy and reducing harmful tailpipe emissions. Over the last six years, the number of New York City yellow hybrid taxis has climbed to around 4,300 cars – or roughly 35 percent of the total fleet – thanks to the Mayor’s successful efforts to promote hybrid cabs. NRDC played a critical role – alongside the Mayor and Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky – in implementing the reforms that permitted taxi owners to use cleaner hybrids for the first time.

Unfortunately, the city's effort to expand the use of hybrid taxis through strong financial incentives was blocked by federal court rulings that held that the city’s approach infringed on Congress’s authority to regulate air quality and fuel efficiency standards for cars.

Because of these rulings, the city could not select Taxi of Tomorrow designs based on meeting certain environmental and fuel efficiency standards. And that is likely one reason Nissan – as well as the two other finalists, Ford and Karsan – did not offer a hybrid as the first car in their proposals.

Still, there are some gains for riders and drivers:

Double the fuel efficiency of Crown Victorias: The NV200 gets roughly double the gas mileage (25 mpg) of the Ford Crown Victoria, which will soon go out of production.

Electric taxi pilot program: Additionally, Nissan indicated it will be able to manufacture an electric-only version of the NV200 in 2017 and that starting right away it will launch a six-taxi pilot program of fully electric Nissan LEAFs.
Safety & comfort: And it incorporates significant comfort and safety features, including passenger airbags and sliding doors to eliminate the "dooring" of passing cyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles.

But there’s certainly room for improvement: In order to ultimately make the Taxi of Tomorrow program an environmental success, the Bloomberg Administration should keep the existing hybrid taxis on the road as long as possible, focusing first on phasing out the dirtiest cabs. Under the current timeframe, the initial Nissan NV200s would be on the road in 2013 and the entire remaining fleet would be converted by 2018.

At the same time, the Administration must work with Nissan to roll-out hybrid versions of the NV200 over the next few years and then pivot to an all-electric model by 2017. And, of course, there must be mechanisms to encourage taxi owners to buy both the hybrid and all-electric models once they are available. Doing so will allow the city to continue to be a national leader on green taxis, given that San Francisco and San Jose are reportedly poised to adopt their own electric taxi programs.

And while advancing the Taxi of Tomorrow program, the Mayor should also demonstrate his commitment to cleaner cars by supporting the national GO60 MPG campaign to make 60 MPG the standard for ALL new U.S. vehicles – including the yellow taxis – by 2025.

In short – our hope is that Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith’s statement rings true that today they are “announcing not the end of a process, but the beginning.” By taking steps to strengthen the sustainability of the Taxi of Tomorrow program, Mayor Bloomberg will be able to help cement his green taxi legacy and, as stated in his newly revised PlaNYC, help “achieve the cleanest air quality of any big U.S. city,” right here in New York.

We have a few ways you can keep up with New York work online: Please visit our website at www.nrdc.org/newyork or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

My Videoblog: Fracking Lobby Day in Albany

2011-04-12T16:39:58Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Yesterday, I traveled to Albany to join my NRDC colleagues Kate Sinding and Rich Schrader (and hundreds of statewide activists) to lobby on the controversial issue of natural gas fracking. Check out this short videoblog to see how the day went, including a large rally in front of the State Capitol and appearances by some celebrities who lent their support to the day of action.

This is my first videoblog, recorded on my iPhone, so I don't expect to get an Oscar nod like some of my co-lobbyists.

Chromium Litigation Win in NJ Means "More Jobs and Less Cancer"

2011-04-08T19:44:17Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Sometimes you simply need to go to court to protect the health and vitality of your community.

Case in point: citizens now have a stricter, enforceable agreement for the clean up of chromium contamination in a densely populated area of Jersey City – only 2.5 miles as the crow flies from downtown Manhattan.

Last year, NRDC and two community groups – Interfaith Community Organization (ICO) and GRACO – filed a federal lawsuit to compel PPG Industries (a Pittsburgh-based corporation) – to clean up massive quantities of hexavalent chromium that continues to threaten public health and the environment in this New Jersey neighborhood. Hexavalent chromium is a potent carcinogen and was the toxic villain in the film Erin Brockovich.

For more than two decades, officials in New Jersey failed to enforce their orders for PPG to clean up the toxic mess. In short, from the community’s viewpoint, the politics failed.

But the good news is that this week, the citizen plaintiffs and PPG filed a settlement agreement in federal court in New Jersey that will set a new five-year schedule to remove the chromium contamination. We are hopeful that the judge will approve the settlement, which the groups reached after federal courts twice rejected efforts by PPG to throw out the case.

These past court rulings also allowed the plaintiffs to secure a more stringent cleanup level than state officials had previously ordered for this site and others, including another Jersey City site owned by the Honeywell International. The complex litigation was spearheaded by my talented NRDC colleague Nancy Marks and Richard Webster, an attorney with Public Justice.

Yesterday, I attended a very moving celebratory event on a warehouse rooftop overlooking the former production site. The gathering was organized by Joe Morris, an inspiring grassroots organizer with ICO and the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation and a catalyst for the chromium litigation. Representatives of ICO and GRACO, clergy leaders (including Bishop Mark Beckwith from the Episcopal Diocese of Newark), long-time neighborhood residents, and other supporters gathered to give thanks for what this federal environmental lawsuit and settlement – and not the State of New Jersey – was able to ultimately secure for this community.

One of the highlights of the event were remarks by the Reverend Dr. Willard Ashley, Pastor of the Abundant Joy Community Church and a Co-Chair of ICO.

He asked the multi-denomination crowd to be a little Baptist for a few minutes and say “Amen” after each sentence he read.

A few outakes:

“We will have gotten more than 1.5 million tons of carcinogens removed from the environment in the most densely populated county of the most densely populated state in America.”

“Amen.”

“Smart growth means urban growth. It means people coming back to the cities and building homes and apartments on some of the thousands of sites in New Jersey that were left behind by the PPGs and the Honeywells.”

“Amen.”

“But smart growth without cleanup is toxic growth.”

Rev. Ashley ended with a line he repeated throughout his homily:

“Our victory is about more jobs and less cancer in Jersey City.”

To this, I can only say…Amen.

Why Can't All Yellow Taxis Be Green?

2011-03-28T14:08:19Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Later this morning at City Hall, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Jerry Nadler will announce new federal legislation that would allow New York City and cities across the country to require their taxi fleets to go “green.”

The Green Taxis Act – supported by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his Taxi Commissioner David Yassky – is a short and simple bill that would modify federal law to give local governments the authority to regulate fuel economy and emissions for taxicabs.

Why do we need a bill like this?

In short, several weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower federal court ruling that essentially blocked New York City’s efforts to expand its popular, hybrid-electric taxi program. Because the previous ruling now stands, the City will have great difficulty in increasing the number of clean air taxis on the streets unless there is a change in federal law.

In 2005, New York City introduced the first hybrid yellow taxis to improve air quality, reduce our dependence on oil, and to help drivers and passengers save money. The Ford Escape Hybrid, now being used as yellow taxis, emits 41 percent less global warming pollution and consumes 41 percent less gasoline than the Ford Crown Victoria cab. And lower fuel consumption can save drivers over $4,700 per year at the pump.

Over the last six years, the number of New York City yellow hybrid taxis has climbed to around 3,900 cars – or roughly 30 percent of the total taxi fleet. But in a ruling last summer, a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled that New York City did not have the power to provide financial incentives to taxi owners to boost the overall number of hybrid taxis. The court ruled that federal law “preempted” the City’s ability to establish fuel efficiency rules for taxis.

The new green taxi bill that will be announced today will in effect “overturn” the federal court ruling by providing localities with clear authority to require better mileage and less air pollution from their taxi fleets – which will boost the quality of life in their communities.

It is only common sense to allow cities like New York to take action to reduce greenhouse gases, improve our health, and help our fiscal bottom line.

NRDC will be behind Senator Gillibrand and Congressman Nadler as they work to pass this bill through both houses of Congress.

And we thank Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Yassky for their determination to green the City’s taxi fleet and set an example of innovative city polices that improve residents' health while addressing climate change and air pollution.

Washington should be encouraging cities to do as much as they can in this fight.

UPDATE:

Here's a picture from the press event:

From left to right: NRDC's Mark Izeman, Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability Director David Bragdon, Taxi Commissioner David Yassky, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, and Rep. Jerry Nadler

Is a Catskill casino still in the cards?

2011-03-03T21:07:06Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

For those wondering if efforts to bring a Las Vegas-style casino to the Catskills in New York is still in the cards, the answer is unfortunately “yes” – depending on what comes next.

By now, casino-watchers have learned that in February, the U.S. Interior Department rejected former Governor David Paterson's bid, in connection with the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe of Wisconsin, to build a massive “off-reservation” gambling complex on 333 acres of land abutting the Neversink River.

Today, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer was quoted as saying that, while he was disappointed by the Interior Department’s decision, he would explore “every possible way to try to bring” a casino to the Catskills.

This could be a tough hill to climb. After all, the Neversink casino is the latest in a series of Indian casino proposals that eventually collapsed after New York governors unveiled them with great fanfare. This is why when Governor Paterson announced the scheme last November, we knew it was a long-shot, because the project faced significant legal hurdles – including the completion of a full and legally required environmental review – before it could gain final approval.

In the end, there's no doubt that concerns raised by environmentalists played a role in turning the tide against the Neversink casino. And the protection of the Neversink River is good news for the bald eagles, ospreys, and other wildlife that live there, as well as for the millions of people who drink clean water drawn from the Catskills region.

But officially, the Interior Department didn't nix it on those grounds. Instead, it based its rejection on two primary rationales: First, that the terms of the 74-page gambling agreement – called a “compact” – submitted to the feds exceeds the scope of law enacted by Congress to govern Indian casinos. And second, that there are serious questions about the legal viability of a separate land settlement agreement between New York and the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe inexorably connected to the proposed gambling compact.

So while the Interior Department’s rejection was a huge setback for the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe and the State, there is still an opening for this tribe or another tribe to come back with a new Catskills casino proposal that can somehow overcome these and other federal hurdles.

Further, it appears that the owners of the state’s racinos – which are a mix of horse racing and casinos – are planning to seek an amendment to New York’s Constitution to allow them to operate full-blown casinos with blackjack, roulette and other table games. (Right now, New York’s eight non-Indian racinos are limited to video slot machines and other video gambling games.) This also would not be easy. Any such amendment would have to be approved by two consecutive Legislatures, and then by voters statewide.

(Credit: Markus Ortner, Flickr)

But perhaps the latest setback for casino proponents can trigger a rethinking of how best to encourage much-needed economic development in the Catskill region. As I’ve written before, NRDC takes no position on gambling, and we strongly support the rights of Indian tribes to pursue economic self-determination.

But we believe that instead of pushing massive casinos, we should encourage sustainable development which draws strength from the Catskills' outstanding natural resources, all-season outdoor recreation opportunities, historic villages, and rediscovered downtowns – such as the hugely successful Bethel Woods or the Center for Discovery, which is the largest private employer in Sullivan County. Drawing on successful economic development models from other rural areas around the country, we should promote hiking, camping and fishing and other type of eco-tourism, expand universities in the region, and nurture new green energy and clean tech businesses.

And let’s not forget about food. The huge surge of interest in local food provides the Catskills with a unique opportunity to revitalize its agriculture production and establish itself as a central part of greater New York’s “foodshed.”

Even longtime Times Herald-Record columnist Barry Lewis – who favors a Catskills casino – agrees it's time to move on and start focusing on “revitalizing our main streets” and other achievable and critical economic development projects.

So here’s hoping that our elected officials will remember what Kenny Rogers sang in “The Gambler” – “You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run."

How the Big Apple Can Go Local

2011-03-01T18:39:15Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

New York City is known worldwide as “The Big Apple.”

But we might have to start calling it “The Big Locally Grown Apple” if the City Council adopts important new legislation that would help bring more locally produced food into the City.

One proposal would encourage City agencies to purchase food that is grown, produced, harvested, or processed in the state and would hold agencies responsible for reporting how much of the food they buy is local. Another would call on the NYS Legislature to amend state law to extend local buying preferences to food from “the New York region,” including New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. (For complicated reasons, NYC’s purchasing authority comes from state law.)

I had the opportunity to testify before the Council, both to show NRDC’s support for these kinds of initiatives and to make a few recommendations for how they could be stronger. In short, we suggested that the Council amend the proposals to help make sure the food purchased is not only local, but also sustainably grown, and that there are concrete targets for how much local food the City must buy (assuming it's cost competitive) in the coming years.

The local food issue is one of the hottest environmental issues regionally and nationally – and these bills come on the heels of Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s well-received “Foodworks” plan, which emphasizes the need to launch a new full-blown strategy to strengthen our regional food supply.

And rightly so. If New York reforms its food system, the environmental, economic and public health benefits would be enormous. Here are a few reasons why:

New York’s farmers need a boost. Less than 20 percent make more than $100,000 per year, and they earn roughly half as much per acre as farmers do nationally. Increasing demand for local food would promote agricultural growth (which would raise farmer salaries) and have a multiplier effect on job creation. For example, for every job on New York’s dairy farms, an additional 1.24 jobs are created elsewhere.

Local food systems help protect the environment. The sad truth is that nearly 70 acres of farmland in the state are lost every day to development, meaning a million acres have been buried under cement and asphalt over 60 years. The rapid loss of farmland could be particularly devastating to New York’s unfiltered drinking water, since well-managed farms can help buffer our precious watershed from inappropriate development.

We need access to fresher, more nutritious food. Nearly 3.3 million New Yorkers lack access to healthy foods, and those living in low-income areas are disproportionately affected. This problem is most visible in the New York City school system, where almost half of the children in kindergarten through eighth grade in 2008 were found to be overweight or obese. Studies show that produce loses about 40 percent of its nutritional value only three days after it’s harvested – thus, a piece of fruit farmed in the Hudson Valley and eaten shortly after on Hudson Street in Manhattan would likely have more nutritional value than one that takes days to be shipped from Oregon.

New York has enormous potential to become a leader in providing sustainable, local, healthy food to people who need it most, and we’re excited that the City Council is taking steps to improve our food system.

Mark Ruffalo and Josh Fox to Congress: We Have a Fracking Problem

2011-02-18T22:26:00Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of traveling with actor Mark Ruffalo and “Gasland” director Josh Fox to Washington, D.C., to lobby on the issue of hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) – a highly controversial technique used to extract natural gas. Fracking has been linked to contaminated water, exploding wells, and other environmental and health risks around the country.

We wanted our trip to drum up some media attention for the risks fracking poses (aided by the pre-Oscar buzz – Mark is up for best supporting actor in “The Kids Are All Right” and Josh Fox’s “Gasland” is nominated for Best Documentary). But we also wanted to elevate the issue with key members of Congress and call for the passage of national legislation that would revoke the troubling statutory exemptions fracking now enjoys under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act and several other federal environmental laws.

Here’s my travel log for the day – a first-hand glimpse of what it is like to lobby with celebrities in D.C.:

5:00 a.m.: Wake up to catch 6 o’clock train to D.C. Briefly feel like a hero until I see throngs of New Yorkers flowing into Penn Station to go to work early.

6:00 a.m.: Coincidentally bump into Mark and Josh on the Acela train. Mark looks very sharp in suit. Surprised how few people on the train recognized him (that would not last too long).

8:50 a.m.: Arrive at Union Station. Learn that this is Mark’s first time ever in Washington!

8:55 a.m.: Meet up with Trish Adlesic and Matthew Sanchez, a producer for and the editor of Gasland, respectively, along with Jessica Ennis from Earthjustice (who arranged the lobby visits) and Dusty Horwitt from the Environmental Working Group. Head to Hart Senate Office Building.

9:12 a.m. (roughly): Women staffers blow kisses to Mark from behind glass doors of unnamed senator’s office. Realize this won’t be just any normal lobby day.

9:15 a.m.: First lobbying meeting of the day with Senator Al Franken. Yes, he was funny, but also very tuned in to the concerns surrounding fracking.

10:00 am: Press conference with Congressmen Maurice Hinchey, Rush Holt, and Jared Polis in front of the Capitol to announce plans to reintroduce federal legislation – known as the “FRAC” Act – that would federally regulate this drilling technique. Enjoying the absolutely beautiful day (high of 64) and realize Mark’s star power revving up when I see a Hill reporter ask for his autograph. Mark asserts that fracking is not safe and, based upon 2008 data, actually led to a rise in unemployment in those areas where fracking has taken place.

(l to r) Mark Ruffalo,with Congressmen Polis and Hinchey and Gasland Director Josh Fox

11:45 a.m.: Fourteen-minute lunch in the bowels of the Senate office complex. Great salad bar and second iced tea of the day (very key)! Wolf down my lunch and talk to French TV journalists who follow Josh around all day with a hand-held camera and that fuzzy microphone at the end of a long pole. (Apparently, fracking is becoming a big issue in France right now. Who knew?)

12:00 p.m.: Meeting with staffers from Senator Kerry’s office (and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee). Josh says in meeting that the push for clean, renewable energy “is the civil rights movement of our generation” – a theme he will return to several times during the day. I am moved by beautiful metal bust of the late Senator Edward Kennedy at far end of the ornate conference room.

12:52 p.m.: Very fast meeting with staffer from Senator Gillibrand’s office.

1:10 p.m.: Meeting with staff from newly-elected Senator Manchin of West Virginia’s office. Pleasantly surprised when the Senator himself shows up 10 minutes into the meeting.

1:46 p.m.: Friendly meeting with staffer from Senator Schumer’s office. Schumer was lead co-sponsor of the FRAC Act last year.

2:25 p.m.: Meeting at office of newly-elected Congressman Tom Marino, whose district covers Dimock, PA – a rural town where gas drilling has industrialized the rural landscape and caused significant damage to people’s property and lives.

2:51 p.m.: Hustle off to next meeting with Congressman Rush Holt. Trailing behind Mark. I once again hear the familiar, hushed, “isn’t that what’s his name…” from staffers/visitors in the hallway.

2:52 p.m.: Meeting with Congressman Holt himself. Cool decorations/posters/books in cramped office. Holt is really smart and impressive and nice. He is also one of the leaders of the House’s Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition.

3:29 p.m.: One of Josh's messages he repeated throughout the day is that a recent EPA study estimates that greenhouse gas emissions from fracking are nearly 9000 times what EPA used to think they were.

4:23 p.m.: Last meeting of the day with very nice staffer from Senator Harry Reid’s office. Everyone dragging a touch….

5:10 p.m.: Rush over in cab with Mark to meet Suzanne Struglinski from NRDC’s D.C. communication team at Good Stuff Eatery. She arranged for a national newspaper to interview Mark and helped make the day a success. Take picture of Mark and waitress on iPhone and send it to her with subject “my boyfriend.” She can’t wait to send to her family….

6:15 p.m.: Arrive at E Street Cinema for free D.C. screening of Gasland. Event co-sponsored by NRDC, Earthjustice, the Environmental Working Group, and Food and Water Watch. Ramsay Adams from Catskill Mountinkeeper – a leading group on this issue – is also there. NRDC founder John Adams, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama this week, welcomes the crowd and introduces Mark, Josh and Trish.

9:30 p.m.: Film very well-received and interesting Q & A session ends the evening. Even though I’ve seen the movie multiple times, I am still taken aback by the power of its message.

9:45 p.m.: Low key after-party at Gordon Biersch, a nice D.C. brewpub. Time to catch up a touch with NRDC’s Rob Perks and Melissa Waage, who did tremendous job in arranging the Gasland screening on tight timeschedule. Thanks!

11:01 p.m.: Go to Bed.

But even though I went to bed (and slept soundly after marathon 18-hour day) this issue has not been put to rest – far from it. Fracking remains a very controversial technique and, despite great lobbying efforts by Mark and Josh yesterday, passage of new federal legislation will be an uphill battle. (Putting aside all the work that needs to be done at the state and local levels in the coming years.) Still, it was a successful day and helped to shine more light on this contentious drilling process.

A New Year's Resolution: Spare the Neversink River from a Gigantic Casino Project

2010-12-23T17:23:08Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

The New York City Council held a hearing last week about Gov. Paterson’s surprise bid, on behalf of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe of Wisconsin, to build a Las Vegas-style casino on the banks of the Neversink River – one of the most important rivers and freshwater ecosystems in North America.

You may be asking why New York City’s law-making body would concern itself with a proposed development site in the Catskills, roughly 90 miles away? The truth is, this mega-project – or any others like it – could put our city’s clean drinking water and local food supply at risk.

I had the opportunity to testify at the hearing, called by Environmental Committee Chair Jim Gennaro – who over the last year has forcefully spoken out against proposed fracking for natural gas in the New York City watershed.

Before outlining some of the concerns we voiced at this hearing, it is important to underscore that NRDC strongly support the rights of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe and other Indian tribes to self-governance and the pursuit of economic self-determination. And NRDC has a long history of working side-by-side with Indian tribes around the country.

Thus, NRDC’s concern is simply about the appropriateness of building a mega-complex on a fragile ecological gem.

(The Neversink River; photo by Daniel Case)

The complex would be built on 333-acres of forested buffer land along a one-mile stretch of the Neversink River. In the Tribe’s most recent proposal unveiled a few years ago, they sought to build a complex that would include a 580,000-square-foot casino, a 750-room hotel, and 9,500 parking spaces at this Neversink River site.

As I testified at the hearing, a casino of this size would have enormous implications for the river itself and two important natural resources situated in the Catskills – New York City’s “watershed” and “foodshed.”

Risks to the river: The most obvious impact would be to the river and surrounding ecosystem. Construction could lead to a rise in the river’s temperature – which could be a death sentence to trout and globally rare aquatic species living in what’s known as the birthplace of American fly-fishing. And chopping down trees to build the casino and parking lots could threaten the bald eagle, osprey, and other wildlife living there. Not surprisingly, the last time this project was proposed, the U.S. EPA wrote that filling in the wetlands would have “unavoidable adverse impacts on the aquatic ecosystem” of the river.

Risks to the water supply: The Catskills “watershed” supplies on average 90 percent of the water supply for 9 million New Yorkers each day and is one of the last remaining unfiltered drinking water supplies in the country. Induced growth and traffic from even one casino could overload roads and affect water quality in the nearby Rondout and Neversink Reservoirs, which are roughly 10-12 miles away from the site. This is not just NRDC’s conclusion. One of most respected traffic consultants in the Northeast concluded in 2006 that, “the Catskill region, with its existing infrastructure, is unsuitable for the development of the proposed casinos.”

Risks to local food supply: A lesser-known fact is that the Catskills region is also a core part of New York City’s “foodshed” – that is, the area in and around the city that supplies us with our much-in-demand “local food.” Our local foodshed, like our watershed, is a critical economic and environmental resource that must be fiercely protected. Indeed, New York City Speaker Christine Quinn noted in her recently released “Foodworks” plan that we need to launch a new full-blown strategy to strengthen our regional food supply and undertake “a conscious effort to support our regional farmers.” And this push can’t start soon enough. An average of 70 acres of farmland are lost in New York every day and, over the past 50 years, over a million acres of local farmland have been buried under cement and asphalt. Why build massive new development projects in the Catskills that would further threaten the hundreds of farmers who provide food to our region?

One final point: at the hearing, I called on the New York City Council to press state and federal officials to undertake a full and legally required environmental review process before any decisions are made. Right now, it appears that the Tribe and some of its backers want to rely instead on draft environmental assessments that were undertaken more than four years ago. Not only are these reviews outdated, but they also are severely flawed. Among other things, they failed to adequately assess the impacts of the casino on the river and properly analyze the traffic impacts of building at least three casinos in the region (which is the current plan).

In sum, this controversy is not about gambling or casinos. It is about ensuring that the city’s upstate watershed, the overall Catskills ecosystem, and our local food supply is not compromised. In its current form and in this ecologically sensitive location, the proposed casino project simply poses too many unacceptable risks.

Gov. Makes Official Casino Announcement - Legal Hurdles & Environmental Troubles Remain

2010-11-22T23:00:51Z

Mark Izeman, Senior Attorney and Director of the New York Urban Program, New York

Last Wednesday, I wrote about Governor Paterson’s surprise bid to build a Las-Vegas-style casino on the banks of the Neversink River, one of the most important freshwater ecosystems in North America. Not only could this casino pose a threat to New York City’s nearby water supply, because the Neversink is also a major tributary to the lower Delaware River, it also could pose risks to the drinking water of Philadelphia and millions of other downstream users.

According to unofficial reports last week, Paterson was seeking to allow the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe of Wisconsin the rights to build a massive casino along a one-mile stretch of this famed river (the birthplace of fly fishing) in exchange for settling pending land claims against New York. To make this deal work, Paterson was also seeking to use rarely used provisions of federal law that allow gambling on “off-reservation” Indian lands. Today, he made his announcement official – but it was significantly toned down from the buzz going around Albany last week.

As I outlined last week, the Governor’s plan is a long-shot and he doesn’t actually have the authority to approve this project on his own. First, the casino still requires a full environmental review under federal law to assess the heavy traffic, air and water pollution, as well as the destruction of the beautiful landscape, that this proposal would bring. Second, the federal Interior Department would have to agree to take the land into “federal trust” and approve gambling at this Catskills site – even though it rejected essentially the same proposal at the same Neversink River site three years ago, and there’s no indication that the Interior Department has changed its position. And third, because the deal settles outstanding land claims against New York State, it would need to get separate approval by Congress, federal officials and the New York State Legislature – hardly an easy task.

Over the last five days, Paterson’s proposal has faced overwhelming opposition– environmental and non-environmental – to this atrociously located casino. As the New York Times wrote in an editorial on Saturday:

“Gov. David Paterson of New York has only a few weeks left in office. But that hasn’t stopped him from making a bad deal with an out-of-state Indian tribe to build a casino in the Catskills.... The deal will need a revised environmental impact statement and approval from the federal Interior Department. And it will almost certainly go through the courts. Those hurdles are really the only good news about this whole last-minute Catskill deal from a departing Governor Paterson. “

Despite this chorus of opposition, the Governor is still forging ahead in the remaining 40 days he is in office.

In one press release issued today, he announced the signing of a so-called “compact” that would govern gambling operations at any future casino on the Neversink River. But the Governor is making empty promises -- he does not have unilateral authority to sign-off on gambling at this site. Only the federal government has this power and there are no indications that they are ready to approve this controversial plan.

And, in a second press release, he announced the signing of a land claim settlement agreement with the Tribe. However, this agreement – which must be finalized before any casino can be built – is far from being a done deal because it still requires congressional, state legislative and federal approvals.

In short, Governor Paterson can’t green light this casino on his own. And the fact remains that this is about as terrible a location to build a gargantuan casino like this as one can imagine.