Spitzer Not Facing Inconvenient Truth

Green Party of New York State
MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release: January 4, 2007

For information:
Gloria Mattera, Co-chair, 917 886-4538 or glomatt@earthlink.net
Peter LaVenia, Co-chair, 518 463-8653 or mactyler42@yahoo.com

SPITZER NOT FACING INCONVENIENT TRUTH, GREEN PARTY CHARGES

Albany, NY -- "The timid scope of Eliot Spitzer's proposals to promote sane energy practices does not adequately address the catastrophic effects of the climate change crisis," charged Gloria Mattera, Co-chair of the Green Party of New York State.

"Spitzer is wasting his huge mandate and proceeding with politics as usual. Doesn't he comprehend the significance of the early spring weather he enjoyed on his January 1st inauguration day? "

The time is ripe for significant changes in our state's energy policy. But Spitzer and the rest of the Democratic Party owe too much to transportation, manufacturing, agribusiness and other corporate interests, as well as to developers, to make the necessary changes.

Spitzer's energy plan for renewing upstate New York, released yesterday, calls for making "a concerted effort to increase the number of wind turbines sited in upstate New York and other renewable technologies." But he also wants to "revamp low-cost power programs and look to expand generating capacity throughout the state." Any benefit to the environment gained from Spitzer’s plan to increase renewable technologies would be offset negatively by his increase in generating capacity of traditional polluting sources. These need to be reduced, not expanded -- and eventually eliminated.

"We shouldn’t be talking about more generating capacity," said Craig Taylor, chair of the Green Party’s Eco-Action Committee. "We need to reduce the amount of energy we use today."

In a New York Review of Books article last July, NASA climate expert James Hansen reported that our current rate of energy usage will result in an increase of at least 5 degrees Fahrenheit of global warming in this century and an 80-foot rise in the world’s sea level. Such a rise would inundate New York City and Long Island, and flood the homes of 50 million people in the US. With such a rapid increase in temperature, more than half the earth's living species could become extinct, leading
to widespread ecological collapse.

The people of New York need an energy plan that provides for greatly increased conservation by the state's largest energy users. The state should fund municipalities who want to set up their own renewable forms of energy production, such as geothermal, wind and solar. We need to stop the corruption by which large corporate interests buy the votes of our elected representatives to approve projects that are harmful to the long-term interests of everyone.

The Green Party stands for ecological wisdom, non-violence, grassroots democracy, and social and economic justice.

Green Party of New York State
http://www.gpnys.org