Issue Position: Environment

Issue Position

We are in a climate crisis -- changing unpredictable weather and precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, destabilizing ecosystems, and a sixth mass extinction. Here in Tompkins and Cortland counties, we have experienced alternating years of severe drought followed by years of high precipitation with flooding, road and bridge damage, and crop damage. Last year, New York State passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) to reduce our impact on climate change. This policy outlines ambitious climate and clean energy goals and places equity at the center of these policies.

However, real progress in phasing out our use of dangerous traditional fossil fuel energy sources is still too slow to reach our state goals. I will fight for a green transition across key sectors with priorities such as:

Buildings infrastructure - programs to emphasize weatherization and incentivize development with no new natural gas infrastructure

Transportation - investments in innovative systems of electric public transportation

Agriculture - economic support programs that help farmers invest in sustainable farming practices, improve soil quality, and increase carbon sequestration

We must create robust workforce development pathways so that New Yorkers will benefit from the new jobs that will be created and make sure that our environmental programs prioritize and empower disadvantaged communities. Our goals for deploying renewable energy should not compete with the need to preserve New York's prime agricultural soils, but rather they should be developed in a way that boosts our rural and farm economy.

We should also be aware that, historically black and brown families have been redlined out of quality, safe housing. Often pushed to the areas near pollution and factories, lack of clean air and drinking water.

According to a study by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, On average, Black Americans experience about 56% percent more pollution than they generate. For Hispanic Americans it's slightly higher at 63%. However, the opposite is true for White Americans, who actually experience 17% less pollution than they produce.

Public health experts have long known that people who live in areas of heavy pollution are more prone to comorbid diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. A study in April found that people subjected to long term exposure to air pollution are more likely to have a serious case of Covid than those in areas with cleaner air. And black people are more likely to live in areas that are polluted.

New Orleans is a perfect example, you have both the increasing threat of climate change causing entire neighborhoods to sink at the same time houses line what's referred to as "cancer Alley", an 85-mile in Louisiana with the largest concentration of petrochemical factories in the country. City air, dirty water, dirty soil. Poor and marginalized humans dying of cancer and viruses. We have pushed them to those ends.

That is why we must put voices from those communities at the table. We have to be intentional and acknowledge environmental racism, and ensure we put policies in place that work to undo this. We must make sure that green jobs go to those who have been pushed aside by those more privileged and powerful. All humans have the right to clean air and water.

I will work to make sure that implementation programs match the ambitions of State goals, and that our region gets the resources we need to build resilient, equitable, and walkable communities. Our clean water and air are precious natural resources and the foundation of our economy, and they must be protected.

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