By MICHAEL H. SAHN // We are at a pivotal moment regarding environment protection, and just as we fast-tracked a COVID-19 vaccine, we must act swiftly – relying on science – to reverse global warming. Climate change, and its wide-ranging effects on our business environments and everyday lives, is no less a health risk than the coronavirus. And like COVID-19, it’s a crisis we cannot ignore. In a Dec. 2 speech on the ecological state…
Back stretch: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and the clubhouse turn of our latest socioeconomic sprint. It’s Feb. 12 out there, replete with offbeat observations: choose from National Lost Penny Day, National Plum Pudding Day and Valentine’s Hug Day, a cuddly precursor to the big lovers’ day. They do: Speaking of lovers, it’s also a notable date for same-sex unions – National Freedom to Marry Day, which was actually started by a law firm…
By GREGORY ZELLER // A statewide coalition rallying for “climate justice” delivered high praise Friday for some of the sharpest environmental regulations ever considered by Albany. With the New York State Senate hosting its third legislative hearing in four days on a proposed slate of new and pointed environmental laws (following sit-downs in Albany and New York City), members of NY Renews – a coalition of more than 160 organizations championing environmental policy “grounded in…
By JEFF GUILLOT // It’s been roundly embraced by progressive presidential candidates and panned by conservatives as a pipe dream dripping with bongwater. But regardless of your position on the package of legislative initiatives collectively known as the Green New Deal, Long Island’s longstanding commitment to environmental protection could put us in a unique position to reap the benefits of this dialogue. Regardless of whether or not this idea ever finds its way to the…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Great swaths of the country may still register as “the base,” but a vast majority of Americans break from President Donald Trump on the key topic of climate change. That according to Brookville-based Long Island University, which this week released a new Hornstein Center poll showing nearly 80 percent of Americans are climate-change believers. Not only that, but the poll shows that more than three-quarters of Americans believe humans have contributed…
By GREGORY ZELLER // The state university system’s clean-energy workforce-development efforts have received an eight-digit shot in the arm. A $15 million state investment will bolster SUNY’s clean-energy workforce and training programs, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office, with $6 million heading to specific campus-based efforts – including several on Long Island – and an additional $9 million earmarked for colleges and universities planning apprenticeships and internships with industry partners. The funding is part of…
By GREGORY ZELLER // Governor Andrew Cuomo is hitting the gas on his ambitious environmental agenda. The governor on Friday announced a dramatic acceleration of his energy-efficiency plans for New York State, including a comprehensive strategy to achieve significant greenhouse gas-emission reductions over the next seven years. Targeting annual efficiencies equivalent to the amount of energy required to power nearly 2 million homes, Cuomo’s revamped plan includes $36.5 million in new state investments that, according…
By GREGORY ZELLER // From the Real News file comes a digital milestone for the United States Climate Alliance, a coalition of states committed to upholding the tenets of the Paris climate accord. The alliance – launched in May, just hours after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the worldwide greenhouse-gas action plan – this week flipped the switch on its first website, an online hub designed “to inform Americans on state…
By GREGORY ZELLER // President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to abandon the Paris climate accord has met with swift and punishing reactions from around the globe – with some of the sharpest vitriol spewing from Long Island and New York State. Environmentalist Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Farmingdale-based Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said the president “made America into an international laughing stock as a fossil fool.” Attorney Heather Leibowitz, director of New York…