Sustainable Otsego to Field Five Candidates for Otsego County Board

July 15, 2013

PRESS RELEASE/PRESS RELEASE/PRESS RELEASE/

Sustainable Otsego to Field Five Candidates for Otsego County Board

Cooperstown–Sustainable Otsego will hold a press conference at noon 9 July 2013 at 21 Railroad Avenue in Cooperstown, NY, to announce that five candidates – Beth Rosenthal, John Kosmer, Gary Koutnik, Stu Anderson, and Dan Buttermann – will run on the independent Sustainable Otsego ballot line in the general election this fall for seats on the Otsego County Board of Representatives. All will also run as Democrats.

Sustainable Otsego – a political committee and social network promoting sustainable practices in Otsego County, NY – hopes to build on its success two years ago, when it ran four candidates for County Board, three of whom won.

“The Otsego County Board of Representatives,” said Sustainable Otsego Moderator Adrian Kuzminski, “has a crucial role to play in steering Otsego County away from destructive economic practices such as fracking for natural gas and towards a sustainable future of local green industries based on clean and renewable local resources.”

Sustainable Otsego will also present its 10 Point Plan for Otsego County, focusing on agriculture, value-added industries, home rule, resource preservation, and net zero-energy practices, as well as financing for local businesses, broadband for all, and an equitable tax burden.

Below is the full text of the Ten Point Plan for Otsego County, followed by short bios of the candidates:

A TEN POINT PLAN FOR OTSEGO COUNTY

SUSTAINABLE OTSEGO, 2013

1. Support Home Rule to protect our communities and the rural lifestyle of Otsego County.

2. Promote farm-to-market agriculture.

3. Preserve Otsego County’s pure water, our most important asset, for residents, businesses, and agriculture.

4. Find low-interest credit for local businesses and homeowners.

5. Aim at net zero-energy practices and renewables to save money and reduce greenhouse gases.

6. Explore joining scores of other NYS communities who have municipalized their electric grids to lower costs for homeowners and businesses.

7. Bring a state-of-the-art broadband internet system to everyone in Otsego County.

8. Establish a county-wide sustainable comprehensive plan.

9. Ensure that local tax policies do not increase income inequality.

10. Support a sustainable Town of Oneonta Southside Municipal Water Project to increase business and tax revenues.

THE CANDIDATES:

Beth Rosenthal (District 7 – Cherry Valley, Middefield, Roseboom): Born and raised in upstate NY, Beth has degrees in biochemistry and molecular biology. She has been Corporate Travel Advisor for SR Travel Service since 1996. Beth was Roseboom Town Clerk before being elected to the Otsego County Board of Representatives in 2011 on an anti-fracking, pro-sustainability agenda. She is a founding member of Sustainable Otsego, and is Secretary of the Roseboom Historical Association and is involved with numerous civic groups.

John Kosmer (District 8 – Otsego): John build a passive solar house in Fly Creek 5 years ago, locally featured as “the greenest house in Otsego County.” He is a founding member of Sustainable Otsego, and has been outspoken in his resistance to fracking in our area and beyond. John won election to the Otsego County Board of Representatives on an anti—fracking, pro-sustainability agenda. A self-described “sustainable conservative,” John stands for transparency in government and a sustainable future for Otsego County.

Gary Koutnik (District 11, City of Oneonta): Gary has lived in the area since the 1970s, with a career as a school psychologist and special education administrator.  He is involved in amateur theater and has directed two plays for the Catskill Players. Gary has a long history of political activism, from opposition to the Vietnam War to working for anti-poverty groups to being a member of the Otsego County Youth Board. Gary strongly believes that government is essential to redressing the social imbalances of our society. He was elected to the County Board of Representatives in 2011.

Stu Anderson (District 3, Laurens, Otego): Stu grew up on a dairy farm in Chautauqua County, and has an agriculture engineering degree from Cornell. He has been involved in marine system design, USDA marketing, international construction management, and industrial management for Fox Hospital and the Cherry Valley-Springfield School System. Stu was also Codes Officer for the Town of Otego and is currently owner of Anderson Boats Works in Otego. He is also an author with five novels published under the name Stuart E. Anderson available at Amazon.com. Stu has been instrument in organizing opposition to fracking in his community.

Dan Buttermann (District 4, Town of Oneonta): Dan was raised in northern Arizona in a family owned and operated business making and selling hand-made candles.  Dan graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in music, and later from Southern Methodist University with a master of business administration degree.  Dan worked at GEICO Insurance in Tucson, Dallas, and New York, and join NYCM Insurance in 2012.  His community service experience includes associations with the Kiwanis Club, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Collin County, Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP), and Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC). He lives in Oneonta with his wife, Ana Laura, and his two daughters, Malena (born in Dallas), and Layla (born in Oneonta).

Note: Tom Hohensee and Corinna Franck will also run on the Sustainable Otsego line for Otsego Town Board. Other candidates may also file to run on the Sustainable Otsego line for local offices.

Filed under events Tagged with , , ,

PSE Comments on Cayuga coal fired power generating plan in Lansing, NY.

July 15, 2013

Lansing Middle School Auditorium, 6 Ludlowville Road Lansing, New York 14882.

Good news! The Public Service Commission has finally announced the time and location of the public hearing and extended the public comment period until August 16th. 

The Public Hearing will be on Monday, July 29th at 7pm (following an informational session which starts at 6). The hearing will be held at the Lansing Middle School Auditorium, 6 Ludlowville Road Lansing, New York 14882.

It is still crucial that everybody writes public comments. We have been told that the PSC carefully reviews them and will take them very seriously (unlike the DEC who recently “lost” 200,000 fracking related comments!)

To learn more about the repowering proposal before you write your comments or speak at the hearing, Come to an informational session  about the proposalThis Thursday, July 18th at 7 PM in the Unitarian Church of Ithaca. This informational session will be followed by a Q&A session, and delicious refreshments will be provided! Help us promote this event by attending on Facebook and inviting your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/542653555801212/

If you can’t attend Thursday’s session but are still interested in writing a comment, we put together a guide to help you do this: http://bit.ly/1b4xxA8
 
Otherwise you can use this simple form letter from the Sierra Club:  http://bit.ly/177neqf

You can also contact your town board about submitting a resolution or write comments to the Public Service Commission on behalf of an organization or group that you represent.
 

 

With everybody working hard, submitting comments and speaking at this hearing we will shut down this power plant and usher in a lower-carbon future for Cayuga Lake! 

 

Filed under Air Pollution, events, Official Actions--Legislation, judgments,regulation Tagged with , , , , , ,

Enterprise Products Combined Business Profile

July 15, 2013

Enterprise Products Combined Business Profile.

Filed under Industry Research Tagged with ,

EPD Basic Chart | Enterprise Products Partners L. Stock – Yahoo! Finance

July 15, 2013

EPD Basic Chart | Enterprise Products Partners L. Stock – Yahoo! Finance.

Filed under Industry Research Tagged with ,

Registered Water Withdrawals in New York State

July 15, 2013

Registered Water Withdrawals in New York State

– JULY 14, 2013POSTED IN: ARTICLES, DATA AND ANALYSIS

By Karen Edelstein, NY Program Coordinator, FracTracker Alliance

As of April 1, 2013, new regulations 6 NYCRR Parts 601 and 621 in New York State have been in effect that require users of large quantities of water to apply for withdrawal permits. The largest users of water—those with withdrawals of more than 100 million gallons per day—are the first group required to apply. The permit system then adds users on a yearly basis, targeting systems with decreasingly need. In 2014, the target group is users of 10-100 million gallons/day; in 2015, it is 2-10 million gallons/day, and so on. The full schedule is in Table 1, below. There are no fees associated with this permitting process.

In order to assess the geographic impacts of these varying uses, attorney Rachel Treichler submitted a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. FracTracker Alliance assisted her in this effort by visualizing the data. Treichler believes that the new regulations make it virtually impossible for DEC to balance competing needs between large and small users.

In this interactive map, larger dots signify larger withdrawal. Click on each dot in the map to get more information.

Yellow: 0.0001-0.5 million gal/day
Light green: 0.5001-2 million gal/day
Dark green: 2.001-10 million gal/day
Medium blue: 10.001-100 million gal/day
Dark blue: >100 million gal/day

Until the adoption of these permitting requirements, water withdrawals in New York were governed by riparian rights determined by case law. Riparian rights are correlative–they fluctuate depending on the needs of other users and the amount of water available. Although the new regulations affirm that riparian rights will not be affected by the granting of permits, there is concern that users granted permits for stated amounts of water usage may be reluctant to adjust to the needs of other users in times of water scarcity. In New York State, both the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) have strong regulatory authority over withdrawals, and the new New York regulations provide that withdrawals subject to permitting by these commissions are exempt from the permitting requirements of the regulations. Comparable commissions with authority to regulate water withdrawals do not exist in the Great Lakes watershed, which includes the Finger Lakes Region, or in the other watersheds in the state, and in these watersheds, the permitting requirements of the regulations are the only generally-applicable water permitting requirements.

Currently, New York State has an abundance of water—there is certainly enough to go around to meet domestic and commercial uses. However, with climate change, continued population growth, and the potential for an uptick in hydrofracking throughout the Marcellus and Utica Shale region, the possibility for New York State being asked to sell or export our water increases considerably.

Under the current system, even by 2017, withdrawal permits will not be required for daily use under 100,000 gallons. While cumbersome, it would not be difficult for a typical hydrofracked site to sidestep any withdrawal permitting process if the water were removed over the course of several days by several different private haulers, particularly if the water were hauled any distance. It is conceivable that the gas drilling industry could readily exploit this loophole in the regulations.

Table 1. Dates by which Application for Initial Permit Must Be Completed

June 1, 2013 Systems that withdraw or are designed to withdraw a volume of 100 million gallons per day (mgd) or more
Feb. 15, 2014 Systems that withdraw or are designed to withdraw a volume equal to or greater than 10 mgd but less than 100 mgd
Feb. 15, 2015 Systems that withdraw or are designed to withdraw a volume equal to or greater than 2 mgd but less than 10 mgd
Feb. 15, 2016 Systems that withdraw or are designed to withdraw a volume equal to or greater than 0.5 mgd but less than 2 mgd
Feb. 15, 2017 Systems that withdraw or are designed to withdraw a volume equal to or greater than 0.1 but less than 0.5 mgd

Filed under DEC, Environment, Maps, Water Tagged with , , , , , , , ,

20130710-Energy-Sector-Vulnerabilities-Report.pdf

July 14, 2013

20130710-Energy-Sector-Vulnerabilities-Report.pdf.

Filed under climate chqne Tagged with , ,

Pictures: Acres of devastation from Williams gas pipeline explosion in Alabama

July 10, 2013

Pictures: Acres of devastation from Williams gas pipeline explosion in Alabama.

Filed under Accidents, Pipelines, Risk, Shale Gas Development-Hydrofracking, Spills-Accidents-Suits Tagged with , , ,

Air pollution and lung cancer incidence in 17 European cohorts:

July 10, 2013

lungcancer.pdf.

Air pollution and lung cancer incidence in 17 European  cohorts: prospective analyses from the European Study of  Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE)

Ole Raaschou-Nielsen, Zorana J Andersen, Rob Beelen, Evangelia Samoli, Massimo Stafoggia, Gudrun Weinmayr, Barbara Hoffmann, Paul Fischer,

Mark J Nieuwenhuijsen, Bert Brunekreef, Wei W Xun, Klea Katsouyanni, Konstantina Dimakopoulou, Johan Sommar, Bertil Forsberg, Lars Modig,

Anna Oudin, Bente Oftedal, Per E Schwarze, Per Nafstad, Ulf De Faire, Nancy L Pedersen, Claes-Göran Östenson, Laura Fratiglioni, Johanna Penell,

Michal Korek, Göran Pershagen, Kirsten T Eriksen, Mette Sørensen, Anne Tjønneland, Thomas Ellermann, Marloes Eeftens, Petra H Peeters,

Kees Meliefste, Meng Wang, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Timothy J Key, Kees de Hoogh, Hans Concin, Gabriele Nagel, Alice Vilier, Sara Grioni,

Vittorio Krogh, Ming-Yi Tsai, Fulvio Ricceri, Carlotta Sacerdote, Claudia Galassi, Enrica Migliore, Andrea Ranzi, Giulia Cesaroni, Chiara Badaloni,

Francesco Forastiere, Ibon Tamayo, Pilar Amiano, Miren Dorronsoro, Antonia Trichopoulou, ChristinaBamia, Paolo Vineis*, Gerard Hoek*

Summary

Background Ambient air pollution is suspected to cause lung cancer. We aimed to assess the association between

long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and lung cancer incidence in European populations.

Methods This prospective analysis of data obtained by the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects used

data from 17 cohort studies based in nine European countries. Baseline addresses were geocoded and we assessed air

pollution by land-use regression models for particulate matter (PM) with diameter of less than 10 µm (PM10), less than

2·5 µm (PM2·5), and between 2·5 and 10 µm (PMcoarse), soot (PM2·5absorbance), nitrogen oxides, and two traffic indicators.

We used Cox regression models with adjustment for potential confounders for cohort-specific analyses and random

effects models for meta-analyses.

Findings The 312944 cohort members contributed 4013131 person-years at risk. During follow-up (mean 12·8 years),

2095 incident lung cancer cases were diagnosed. The meta-analyses showed a statistically significant association between

risk for lung cancer and PM10 (hazard ratio [HR] 1·22 [95% CI 1·03–1·45] per 10 µg/m³). For PM2·5 the HR was 1·18

(0·96–1·46) per 5 µg/m³. The same increments of PM10 and PM2·5 were associated with HRs for adenocarcinomas of the

lung of 1·51 (1·10–2·08) and 1·55 (1·05–2·29), respectively. An increase in road traffic of 4000 vehicle-km per day within

100 m of the residence was associated with an HR for lung cancer of 1·09 (0·99–1·21). The results showed no association

between lung cancer and nitrogen oxides concentration (HR 1·01 [0·95–1·07] per 20 µg/m³) or traffic intensity on the

nearest street (HR 1·00 [0·97–1·04] per 5000 vehicles per day).

Interpretation Particulate matter air pollution contributes to lung cancer incidence in Europe.

Funding European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme.

Filed under Air Pollution, Health Tagged with , , , , ,

Local Audubon group takes aim at pipeline » Local News » The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY – otsego county news, delaware county news, oneonta news, oneonta sports

July 10, 2013

Local Audubon group takes aim at pipeline » Local News » The Daily Star, Oneonta, NY – otsego county news, delaware county news, oneonta news, oneonta sports.

Filed under Pipelines, Shale Gas Development-Hydrofracking, Stop the I81 Pipeline, Suits Tagged with , , , , ,

FERC BILL H.R. 1900–urgent

July 10, 2013

HR1900, “The Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act” comes before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today.

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 7:28 AM, s winkler <winklersh1@gmail.com> wrote:

It’s not just the 24 gas infrastructure projects currently planned for New York whose effect on our state would be devastating.

BUT NOW THIS:

HR1900, “The Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act” comes before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today. This bill would fast track approval for all interstate gas pipelines, requiring FERC to process applications within one year.

TERRIBLE, DANGEROUS BILL!

Citizens cannot POSSIBLY react fast enough to an obtuse FERC process as it is, now they want to cut the time for a pipeline review basically in half! bill text here:

Bill Text – 113th Congress (2013-2014) – THOMAS (Library of Congress)

We wrote about this bill in May: Super Scary Legislation and Deals Now we need to kill it!

NYC Congressman Jerry Nadler sits on the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials  EMAIL AND CALL NADLER TODAY!!!!

Email Me | Congressman Jerrold Nadler In DC: 202-225-5635  In Manhattan: 212-367-7350In Brooklyn: 718-373-3198

Call YOUR congressional rep today also:

Find Your Representative · House.gov

Testimony on the bill from Delaware Riverkeeper head, Maya van Rossum:

docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF03/20130709/101102/HHRG-113-IF03-Wstate-vanRossumM-20130709.pdf

We need to follow up and track who votes in favor of this bill. Reps must be held accountable.

THANKS!!!

Clare Donohue

http://www.saneenergyproject.org/

Citizen Radon Watch

Sierra Club NYC/Atlantic Chapter  347-452-9594f

Filed under events

← Older posts

Newer posts →