CAZENOVIA — On April 17, Cazenovia launched its 2021 Earth Week (April 17-25) celebration with a “virtual breakfast” with New York State Senator Rachel May.
Moderated by Cazenovia Town Councilor Kyle Reger, the event focused on sustainable energy and climate plans in New York State and the impacts of the plans on Madison County and the Greater Cazenovia Area.
May represents Central New York’s 53rd District, which includes most of the City of Syracuse, parts of Onondaga and Oneida counties, and all of Madison County.
She chairs the Senate Committee on Aging and the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources, and she is a member of the committees on agriculture, elections, environmental conservation, higher education, and cultural affairs, tourism, parks and recreation.
May began her presentation by describing her educational and professional background in sustainability.
She noted that she earned a master’s degree in urban ecology and environmental communications from SUNY ESF, and that she served as the director of sustainability education at Syracuse University prior to running for public office.
May then provided a brief overview of her recent work as a legislator.
Since joining the senate in 2019, May has been instrumental in passing transformative legislation, including the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the nation’s most ambitious climate legislation.
She held the first public hearing on the landmark CLCPA, at SUNY ESF, and served as a member of the working group that helped draft the legislation.
May reported that the CLCPA is now in “full swing,” and that the New York State Climate Action Council and its associated working groups have been meeting regularly and making good progress.
“My colleagues and I are doing everything we can to hold them accountable and make sure that we have put into statute whatever goading they need to hit targets that are meaningful,” she said.
May also noted that on April 19, the environmental conservation committee would be discussing a bill banning the sale of new, non-electric vehicles in New York State by 2035.
“Putting hard targets down is something we are trying to do,” she said. “We have a lot of environmental justice legislation as well, so I do feel like we are [continuing to] really work hard on the climate front.”
The senator also stated that she sponsored legislation last year that closed a loophole in the hazardous waste law, so that NYS could stop hazardous fracking waste from being dumped in landfills or spread on roads, where it can leach into freshwater streams and lakes.
“New York doesn’t do fracking, by the governor’s order, but I learned that Pennsylvania was still sending its fracking waste into New York State,” May explained. “It was going into our landfills and, in some cases, it was being used [in place of road salt]. That fracking waste can have really severe toxins in it and considerable radioactive contamination. That was a really big victory to pass that bill, and I did it with the help of a lot of activists.”
May also sponsored legislation that banned the building of waste incinerators in the Finger Lakes region.
Last year, she was recognized as the “2020 Legislator of the Year” by Environmental Advocates Action for her work to protect clean water, air, and public health.
The senator next discussed the recently passed state budget.
“We managed to start [turning the state] a little bit away from the austerity budgets of the past and towards something more progressive,” she said. “That includes a lot of spending on education and on child care and healthcare and recovery from the pandemic, but it also included shifting the tax burden onto the people who have made a bundle, even during this pandemic, and away from middle-class tax payers and property tax payers. That is a big priority of mine.”
Following her introduction, May responded to questions from the public. The senator addressed a number of topics, including the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA), green energy installations, climate science education, and Bitcoin mining.
CCIA
At the beginning of the Q&A session, Reger requested that May discuss some of the roadblocks to the passage of the CCIA — a bill that would raise $15 billion per year from corporate polluters and use it to create good, green jobs, invest in frontline communities, and build a renewable economy for New York State.
May explained that CCIA is intended to be the companion bill to the CLCPA.
“There is a very concerted effort to figure out how we make sure the climate bill that we passed affects everyone in the state, and especially the communities that have been hit the hardest by air pollution, water quality issues, and climate change in various ways,” she said. “It’s not that easy to do . . . The idea here is to tax the polluters and use the money to pay for [our climate action goals]. Any time you try to put in a new tax, there are roadblocks and the people that would be taxed are very insistent that they are part of the solution and not part of the problem. They have the lobbyists and money behind them to make their case. I would say that’s probably the primary roadblock.”
Protecting farmland
Reger also inquired about the senate’s efforts to balance the state’s goals for energy independence with the protection of agricultural land.
May responded that the budget includes funding for a task force designed to review the issue of farmland protection in the context of green energy production.
According to May, the committee — which will include farmers, local government officials, and individuals involved in tourism — will serve as a watchdog to ensure that the implementation of solar and wind energy projects is not “gobbling up our best farmland or destroying the quality of life for people in rural areas.”
May added that the committee would also consider the fact that there are farmers who want the revenue associated with siting solar projects on their lands.
Green energy installations on state lands
The senator next addressed a question about Senate Bill S659, which would allow the state to provide leases or easements for siting or connecting renewable energy installations on portions of the state’s forested lands.
May highlighted the fact that while oil drilling is permitted on state lands throughout New York, green energy installations are not.
“I would like to prohibit the drilling, and I certainly don’t want to see us ravaging state forests or something like that, but these are lands that we ought to be able to at least investigate using for the constructive purpose of green energy,” May said.
She also noted that significant environmental impact assessments are not required to drill for oil on state lands.
“This bill would include that piece, [so] I think it would be a much more responsible way to do what we are already doing, as well as potentially doing things that we need to do in the future,” May said.
She also added that she is in favor of eliminating subsidies for gas and oil companies.
Climate science education
May next received a question regarding Senate Bill S596, which would require the commissioner of education to make recommendations to the board of regents relating to the adoption of instruction in climate science in senior high schools.
The purpose of the bill is to ensure that New York’s high school students learn the science behind climate change, including the greenhouse gas cycle and the state’s new commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
May said the bill is particularly important to her because of her experience as Syracuse University’s director of sustainability education.
“My job was primarily training the faculty to teach about climate change,” she said. “It was dismaying how many people were really not literate about this very critical issue in our world. This bill would just essentially require the state education department to create a unit within the earth science curriculum to address climate change. It’s fairly limited, partly because there are so many mandates on what teachers have to do already . . . But I do think it’s critical that this be part of the curriculum.”
May added that she has a separate bill about teaching the social dimensions of climate change such as environmental justice issues and historical issues, among others.
She also noted that a couple of her colleagues have bills that advocate for integrating climate science instruction into grades K-12.
“There are lots of ways to approach it,” May said. “It is not clear yet which one will rise to the top, but I am a very strong proponent of making sure our kids and their teachers have the background to at least understand the fundamentals of this issue.”
Bitcoin mining
May concluded her presentation by bringing attention to the environmental impacts of Bitcoin mining.
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that was created in January of 2009.
Bitcoin mining is the act of creating new Bitcoin. The mining is performed using sophisticated, high-powered computers that solve complex computational math problems.
According to May, the process is enormously energy intensive.
The senator said she learned about the issues associated with Bitcoin mining during a meeting with the Seneca Lake Guardian environmental group.
“There is an old coal-fired power plant on Seneca Lake that was decommissioned years ago, and then it was bought by this company that turned it into a gas-fired power plant, and now they are using it exclusively to run these Bitcoin mining machines,” she said. “It is taking huge amounts of water out of the lake and putting hot water back in. It is burning a lot of natural gas . . . It doesn’t go into the grid at all, so it isn’t under any kind of regulation by the power authority or even under the Climate Action Council’s purview . . . As we try to decommission fossil-fuel burning power plants, there is going to be a very strong financial incentive to just turn them into Bitcoin mining operations. It’s going to undermine all of our [carbon reduction] efforts.”
May said she is working from multiple angles to address the issue. She also encouraged the audience to help raise awareness about Bitcoin mining once a bill has been put together.
Throughout her presentation, May encouraged residents to direct any additional comments and questions to her Syracuse office at 315-478-8745.
She also urged citizens to meet with their elected officials, to present legislators with clear and concise action items, to submit letters in support of or opposition to specific bills, to vote in local elections, and to run for office themselves.
To learn more about May, visit nysenate.gov/senators/rachel-may/about.
To view the full schedule of Earth Week activities and educational opportunities, and to register for events, visit unitedclimateaction.org.
