5:39
The New York state budget enacted last week includes a number of environmental investments, including record levels for the Catskills. Nonprofits in the Catskills and other parts of the Hudson Valley praise the legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo for funding a number of environmental initiatives.
Deputy Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper Katherine Nadeau is cheering the level of investment in the Catskill Park and region. The budget continues Environmental Protection Fund, or EPF, funding at $300 million.
“Out of that, we’ve got $500,000 coming in to the Catskills for the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Project, which is a project of Cornell University to try and beat back this nasty, invasive pest which threatens to decimate the Catskills and the hemlocks there, so that’s huge,” Nadeau says. “We’ve got $1.5 million for visitor safety and wilderness protection in the Catskill and Adirondack Forest Preserve. And that’s going to be huge because we have just seen visitor
3:37
In part three of his four-part State of the State, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo outlined plans to grow the green energy economy. Naturally, that’s welcome news for environmentalists, who want to see actions meet words.
Cuomo announced on Wednesday a number of solar along with on- and offshore wind projects. He also committed to phasing out fossil fuels, which caught the attention of Food & Water Watch Northeast Region Director Alex Beauchamp.
“The thing I was most excited in the entire speech is the governor said the exact right thing on fossil fuel power plants, right, saying, we need to replace dirty fossil fuel power plants with clean energy, and I think he said no ifs, ands or buts,” says Beauchamp.
4:12
Democratic New York Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney joined environmentalists and local lawmakers on the banks of the Hudson River Monday to celebrate his resolution that further protects the lower portion of the waterway.
Congressman Maloney, of the 18th District, was at Plum Point in New Windsor. He says his legislation to permanently ban oil barge anchorages from Yonkers to Kingston is now law.
“Of all the things that I’ve been able to do working in partnership with others in Congress, I think this is perhaps one that makes me most proud,” Maloney says. “This is a lasting achievement that will mean so much, not just today or tomorrow, but for generations to come.”