Sustainable Long Island - formerly Sustainable East End

 

Sustainable Long Island is a monthly series about issues of land use, water and energy resources, transportation and the food industries on Long Island.  

The program is heard on the 3rd Wednesday each month at 6:30 am and 8:00 PM          Programs are repeated on the 2nd Saturday at 9 am on listener powered WPKN 89.5 FM and streaming live on wpkn.org.   

 

Older programs are archived at SustainableEast End.blogspot.com

 

Climate Change Superfund Act - a talk with East Hampton's Cate Rogers

Francesca Rheannon spoke with East Hampton Town board member Cate Rogers about her City and State article calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to include the Climate Change Superfund Act in this year’s state budget. 

Listen here

 

The article Major Oil, Gas and Coal Companies Must Pay Staggering Costs of the Climate Crisis is available here

New York's Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) act

 

The New York Home Energy Affordable Transition or 

NY HEAT Act would lower home energy bills for

 millions of New Yorkers who have natural gas service.

If passed, the the law would direct the state’s Public 

Service Commission to limit the average energy 

burdens of low-to-moderate income households

to 6% of their earnings.

In the recent session of the New York legislature the

 act passed in the Senate but failed in the Assembly.

Legislation to enact the Heat Act will go the State 

legislature again in the upcoming session. 

Advocates are lobbying Governor Hochal to include the

 act in her up-coming budget. 

 

We spoke to Brynn Fuller-Becker of the group 

New Yorkers for clean power

Listen here

 

Funding Waste Water Clean up

 

In 2021 New York state voters approved an amendment to the state constitution.

The Green Amendment guarantees citizens the right to clean air, clean water

and a healthful environment.

 

This summer the Suffolk Legislature refused to put a public referendum on this

November’s ballot to create an eighth of a penny sales tax to fund new septic 

systems and to consolidate the county’s 27 sewer districts.

The nonprofit environmental organizations Save the Sound, Group for the East 

End, and Peconic Baykeeper have told the Suffolk Legislature that failure to take

meaningful action to address nitrogen pollution resulting from outdated

and inadequate septic systems violates the Green Amendment. 

Francesca Rheannon spoke with Bob Deluca of Group for the East End this week.

 

Listen here

more info:  

East End Beacon

groupfortheeastend.org
 

East Hampton Compost

According to East Hampton's Gloria Frazee,

households in the Town throw out $20 million of food each year.

All their food waste is trucked to an incinerator and burned.

That’s a lot of wasted food and a lot of wasted resources.

Composting diverts food scraps from the waste stream

and revitalizes our soils.

East Hampton Compost, an organization headed by Ms. Frazee,

is committed to making composting easy and accessible for everyone 

in the Town.

Host Francesca Rheannon spoke with Gloria Frazee this week. Here is their conversation:

Listen here

 

More info at EastHamptonCompost.org 

Southampton considers Community Choice Aggregation: local control over sourcing electricity

Southampton considers Community Choice Aggregation: local control over sourcing electricity

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with Southampton Town's Lynn Arthur about "community choice aggregation" or CCA.

CCA will give the Town local control over sourcing electricity, allowing for more green power and/or lower electricity prices for residents and businesses.

 Listen here:

 

 

Assemblyman Fred Theile - Reimagining LIPA

 

The Long Island Power Authority – LIPA - was established in 1986 to replace the the failed private Long Island Lighting Company.  LIPA is nominally a public utility, but it has always contracted out its operations to third parties.

In 2014  LIPA  hired a branch of  PSEG  - Public Service Electric and Gas, a New Jersey private utility – to operate the  Long Island utility grid. 

Recently, widespread power outages during Tropical Storm Isaias left hundreds of thousands of ratepayers without power. The debacle led to a call for a re-organization of the Long Island utility.

New York Assemblyman Fred Thiele represents the first district on eastern Long Island. He’s has long been vocal in his support of establishing a new fully public utility to operate the Long Island grid. To that end, he sponsored several bills that were enacted in the previous legislative session, including one establishing a Legislative commission on the future of the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), which he chairs. 

Its goal, according to the commission’s website, is “to develop and present to the legislature an action plan for implementing a true public power model for residents of Long Island and the Rockaways. This means LIPA would directly provide electric service to the more than three million residents and thousands of businesses in its service area without contracting out that responsibility to an investor-owned, for-profit utility.”

The bipartisan commission is currently holding public hearings and has formed an advisory committee of resident stakeholders. It hopes to be ready to transition LIPA to a true public utility when the current contract with PSEG-LI is up in 2025. Reimagine LIPA, A coalition of grassroots groups, is supporting that transition.

Host Francesca Rheannon talked with Mr. Thiele last week.

Listen here

                   

Here is more information about Reimagine LIPA    

Newsday looks at pros and con's of public power 

Commision must take a fair look at future of LIPA

Build in Kind - Jaine Mehring

 Over – development in East Hampton and other east end towns is the subject of Jaine Mehring’s blog “Build.in.Kind.com”.

Mehring writes: “Aggressive building is of a scale and in a style far out of proportion and context with the character of the surrounding streets and neighborhoods.

A surge in lot subdivisions is driving rapid densification where there had been a sense of open space. 

The effect on our natural  resources is severe, as each year, miles of woodlands, dune land, wetlands and native vegetation are excavated.

It compromises quality of life for human residents and is devastating for our wildlife and biodiversity;

Francesca spoke with Jaine Mehring this week.  Here is the  conversation:

Listen here

Affordable Housing for Sag Harbor meets opposition

 

Eastern Long Island and in particular the South Fork Towns of East Hampton and Southampton have a housing crisis.

 

People who work there in schools, hospitals and the service industry can't afford to live there.

 

Eastbound morning traffic and westbound evening traffic - known as the 'Trade Parade' is glacial.

 

Last week voters in 3 east end towns approved a measure designed to help finance affordable housing  by taxing a portion of first time home sales.

 

But there are obstacles to achieving the goal of constructing affordable dwellings—not least of which is finding sites where building new housing and retail space doesn’t harm the environment or surrounding businesses and residents.

 

In historic Sag Harbor village, where home prices and store rentals have climbed in recent years - a proposal for 79 affordable apartments above retail space in the downtown area has met with opposition from residents concerned with environmental and other impacts in the area.

Host Francesca Rheannon talks with Sag Harbor resident Katherine Levy.

 

Listen here

More Information about the Sag Harbor affordable housing proposal can be found in the article Affordable Housing Pitched in Sag Harbor  in the July 8 2022 issue of the East End Beacon and  the East Hampton Star 

and 27east.com

--------------------------

Community Housing Funding for the East End

On Long Island's East End, schools, hospitals and other public services rely on a workforce that can’t afford to live where people work. Rents can easily reach $6,000 or more for a two bedroom house–and that’s just for the nine months of the off season. Year-round housing is even more difficult to find. With summer housing out of reach to anyone except the wealthy, year-round workers find themselves without housing just when rents are the least affordable.

 

As a result, the daily so-called “trade parade” of workers driving in from the west adds hours to long commutes – and people have been quitting their jobs in droves: teachers, health care workers, firefighters, police, shop clerks, local government staff and more. Help wanted signs are everywhere, with fewer workers willing to brave the commute or able to afford the rents.

 

On November 8 voters will decide on legislation that would allow the towns of 

East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island and Southold to each establish a Community Housing Fund funded by a half percent addition to the existing 2% real estate transfer tax that funds the Community Preservation Fund.

 

Last year, State legislation authorizing the Fund was signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul. The bill was sponsored by State Assemblymember Fred W. Thiele, Jr. and his counterpart in the State Senate Anthony Palumbo.

 

The legislation mandated that Towns would have to first adopt a Community Housing Plan and a local law establishing the fund. That’s already happened. But a final step remains: a referendum by the voters to approve the legislation. That’s on the ballot November 8. 

 

This week I spoke with Sean McLean, managing partner of the development firm "MPACT Collective" about his experience with affordable housing development in the town of Southampton, New York.  The firm is focused on addressing development with a commitment to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Mpact Collective is working with the village of Sag Harbor on similar plans for affordable housing–plans that approval of the referendum will make much easier.

  LISTEN here

 

Build.in.Kind: Jaine Mehring on overdevelopment

 

Over – development in East Hampton and other east end towns is the subject of Jaine Mehring’s blog “Build.in.Kind.com”.

Mehring writes: “Aggressive building is of a scale and in a style far out of proportion and context with the character of the surrounding streets and neighborhoods.

A surge in lot subdivisions is driving rapid densification where there had been a sense of open space. 

The effect on our natural  resources is severe, as each year, miles of woodlands, dune land, wetlands and native vegetation are excavated.

It compromises quality of life for human residents and is devastating for our wildlife and biodiversity;

I spoke with Jaine Mehring this week.  Here is our conversation:

Listen here

Long Island Native Plant Initiative

Francesca Rheannon talks with Polly Weigand of the Long Island Native Plant Initiative at The Sisters of St. Joseph in Brentwood, Long Island. 

The Plant Initiative is an all volunteer organization of non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, nursery professionals, and citizens with a mission to protect the genetic integrity and heritage of Long Island native plant populations.

 Listen here:

more about the long Island Native Plant Initiative 

Anne Rabe - New York Public Interest Group on Climate Legislation

According to the New York Public Interest Research Group - or NYPIRG:

New York's Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law three significant climate bills this month that help place New York in the national forefront on energy efficient standards, expansion of geothermal renewable energy, and a just transition for geothermal and solar union jobs.

The laws are

the Advanced Appliance & Buildings Standards Act,

the Utility Thermal Energy Network & Jobs Act

and a bill that will require prevailing wages for solar panel renewable energy jobs. 

Other legislation supported by NYPIRG but not passed yet include the 

all electric buildings act, it would require that small buildings be all-electric by 2024and also a law to require more electric car charging stations.

Host Francesca Rheannon talked recently about this legislation with Anne Rabe the environmental policy director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Listen here

East Hampton Coastal Assessment and Resilience draft Plan

As sea level rises East Hampton will transform into a series of islands by 2070.

That’s the conclusion of the town’s Coastal Assessment and Resilience draft Plan issued this month.

As reported by the East Hampton Star, the draft plan is meant to guide implementation of policies and projects to reduce the town’s vulnerability and facilitate adaptation to a changing environment.

The Plan was prepared by consultants to the Town, including Alison Branco, the Nature Conservancy’s acting director of climate adaptation who co-chairs the CARP planning committee.

Host Francesca Rheannon spoke with Alison Branco this week.   

Listen here

Draft plan text

East Hampton Star on CARP

Change-E-Hampton NY

A group of East Hampton residents say they are alarmed by global warming and in particular about species collapse. 

They say that our lawn culture is poisoning us and insects in our yards  and killing the planet.

They are calling for habitat restoration and healthy yards, which means

re-imaging our landscape together with our landscapers.

Francesca Rheannon spoke this week with Gail Pellett of Change-E-Hampton NY, organizer of the group.

 Here is our conversation

Renewable Heat Now Campaign

 

Renewable Heat Now is a campaign organized by several organizations including the Alliance for a Green Economy, New Yorkers for Clean Power, Earthjustice, and the New York Public Interest Research Group.

 The groups have joined together to accelerate the adoption of ground-source (or geothermal) and air-source heat pumps to reduce the amount of fossil fuels used to heat and cool our homes and workplaces in New York state.

Host Francesca Rheannon talked recently with Billi Roberti of Huntington - an activist with the campaign.

Listen here:

More about the Renewable Heat Now campaign can be found on-line at RenewableHeatNow.org