Support Battery Energy Storage in Southampton

The Town of Southampton is considering, once again, to extend its moratorium on battery energy storage systems, which are a necessary part of our transition off fossil fuels

Make your voice heard at the Southampton Town Board meeting and support ending the moratorium

We are in the process of transitioning from polluting fossil fuels to renewable energy, including wind and solar energy. As part of this transition, we will need to use battery energy storage systems (BESS). These systems provide capacity to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel based generated power and stabilize the grid, thereby providing significant environmental and public health benefits. 

The Town of Southampton placed a moratorium on BESS over one year ago, claiming they needed to create new zoning codes for this technology so it can be permitted safely and effectively. They have had ample time and expert guidance, yet they are still not advancing their codes and are considering extending the moratorium again! 

Please attend the Southampton Town Board meeting on June 23rd at 6:00 PM to let your elected officials know that you support battery energy storage and urge them to not extend the moratorium. 

Southampton Town Board Meeting

When: Tuesday, July 23, at 6:00 pm

Where: Southampton Town Hall, 116 Hampton Road, Southampton, NY

Want to Learn more about BESS before the Town Board meeting? Join us for a “Power Hour” Zoom on BESS this Thursday at 7pm:

In advance of the Town Board meeting, we will be co-hosting a one-hour zoom meeting to discuss some key facts about BESS, its value to our grid, and what you can do to make sure Southampton allows this important clean energy technology to move forward. This is a great opportunity to learn more about what has been going on with BESS in Southampton and ask any questions before coming to the Town Board meeting next week. Join the “Power Hour” on Thursday July 18th at 7pm on zoom. Register here.

Thank you for joining us!

Sincerely,
All of us at CCE

Highlights and Happenings: June 2024

Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay

Help CCE build on our success, and support our campaigns to protect public health and the environment in NY and CT. 
Make a contribution today.

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Highlights

2024 NY Legislative Session Wraps Up 
In June we celebrated major victories. Thanks to your support, we led successful efforts to protect clean water, safeguard the public from toxic chemicals, save vulnerable species, fight climate change, save taxpayers money, and more. Bills that passed the legislature include (most still need a signature from the Governor to become law): 

• Horseshoe Crab Protection Act: While horseshoe crabs have been around for over 350 million years, having survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, their numbers are now dwindling in New York State due to overharvesting. We led efforts to get legislation passed that will ban harvesting of these crabs for commercial and biomedical purposes. Now, we need to urge Governor Hochul to sign this bill into law! 

• Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act, which will allow a Suffolk County ballot referendum to allow the creation of a fund to upgrade sewers and septic systems to protect clean water, is a priority bill that passed and was already signed into law by the Governor. 

• Climate Superfund Act: Holds corporations accountable by requiring fossil fuel companies to pay into a fund that will help New York adapt to climate change. It would generate about $3 billion annually to fund projects to keep communities safe from flooding, protect vulnerable infrastructure, pay for damage from extreme weather, and much more. This bill still needs to be signed by the Governor. 

• Ban on Fracking with CO2: While we fought to ban dangerous fracking that uses water to extract gas (hydraulic fracking) years ago, there was interest in circumventing the ban by extracting gas using carbon dioxide instead. Since this would be just as dirty and dangerous as hydraulic fracking, we supported legislation to ban CO2 fracking. This bill still needs to be signed by the Governor. 

After major campaigns with our coalition partners, bills banning PFAS in household chemicals and the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act passed overwhelmingly in the NYS Senate. While we secured more than enough votes to pass the bills in the Assembly, Assembly leadership failed to allow the bills to come up for a vote. We’ll work to get these bills passed as soon as possible:

Victory! Suffolk County Approves Clean Water Ballot Referendum 
The Suffolk County Legislature passed critical legislation that will allow Suffolk County residents to vote on a Clean Water ballot referendum this November. The initiative would create a unified wastewater management district and allow sales tax to be increased by 1/8 of one penny to create a reliable funding stream dedicated to protecting water resources by expanding and upgrading sewers and installing upgraded nitrogen-removing septic systems. This is a victory 10 years in the making! Now we need Suffolk residents to turn out to vote on clean water this year! As Newsday editorial board stated, “The stars finally are aligning for clean water in Suffolk.” 

Welcome CCE’s Summer Interns
Summer is finally here! We were very excited to welcome Damaris, Jordan, Jacob, Kathleen, Omi, and Tenley, who will be interning with us this summer. In June, they headed out to several Long Island beaches and street festivals to conduct education on offshore wind. Stop by our tent for environmental updates, plus fun games and prizes all summer! See you in the sun! 

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Happenings

Transitioning to Offshore Wind 
These were some of the big developments in June related to offshore wind development: 

• South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Groundbreaking – We joined NYSERDA, NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and many of our Wind Works NY partners for the ground breaking on Equinor‘s South Brooklyn Marine Terminal Offshore Wind Port. This is a historic milestone for the future of renewable energy in New York City. This 73-acre project will allow us to bring offshore wind energy to the NYC grid. It will provide energy to 500,000 homes and create a thousand green jobs for New Yorkers. 

• Learning More About Battery Energy Storage - As part of NY’s transition to renewable energy, especially offshore wind, we will need to use battery energy storage systems (BESS). These systems provide capacity that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel based generated power, thereby providing significant environmental and public health benefits. We joined our partners for a community meeting in Babylon, on Long Isand, to discuss how battery storage works and the role it plays in our renewable energy transition. We plan on having more community meetings on Long Island, so stay tuned for more info. 

• Global Wind Day – For Global Wind Day on June 18th, we headed down to the Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center for an educational open house on offshore wind. It was great to see many of our Wind Works NY partners and energy experts to answer the public’s questions on NY’s offshore wind projects and the benefits of offshore wind for our communities.

Sewage Solutions for Fire Island 
Our Executive Director, Adrienne Esposito, presented with Cameron Engineering to the Suffolk County Legislature last month on the new Fire Island Sewage Solutions Plan. This is the first comprehensive, community-led plan that brought together federal, state, and local leaders and stakeholder organizations. We worked for the past 6 years to assess the wastewater management needs of Fire Island. Thank you to Steve Flotteron for sponsoring the project and to Suzy Lawrence Goldhirsch and the Fire Island Association for all their input, time, and expertise to create this holistic plan.

PFAS in Everyday Products 
Last month we presented at the Association of Educational Safety & Health Professionals Conference on the threats of PFAS in everyday products and drinking water. PFAS is unnecessarily present in common products such as cookware, dental floss, children’s products, personal care products, ski wax and so much more. The ubiquitous use of these toxic chemicals has led to a variety of adverse human health impacts and drinking water contamination. We work to educate the public about the threats of PFAS exposure and continue to fight to ban these chemicals from the products we use every day. This remains one of our top legislative priorities. 

Paying the Price: Long Island’s Stormy Future 
In June, Newsday hosted “Paying the Price: Long Island’s Stormy Future” — a conversation about the status of Long Island’s shorelines and the challenges we face as a result of climate change and sea level rise. Adrienne Esposito was among the four speakers in this discussion, along with Dr Chris Gobler, Supervisor Dan Panico and Robert Larocca. Stay tuned for when the show is posted and click here for more information. 

Conserving Water in the Summer Heat Wave 
While facing record high temperatures around New York this June, we joined the Long Island Commission for Aquifer Protection for an event on how to conserve water to protect Long Island’s sole source aquifer and protect public health. It’s likely to be a hot summer, so check out the video to learn more. 

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Upcoming: Tackling Plastic Pollution for Plastic-Free July 
The Long Island Sound Coastal Watershed network will be hosting our webinar “Tackling Long Island Sound Plastic Pollution: Plastic Free July”. Join us on July 16th from 12:30p.m-1:30p.m as we hear from expert Rachael Miller as she tells us more about Microplastics in the Sound. Smithtown High School Students Nicole Gullason and Natasha Mishra will discuss their research findings on Microplastics and Algal Blooms in Long Island Sound and Adrienne Esposito will discuss solutions to the plastic crisis. Register now. 

Join Us: Tackling Plastic Pollution in Long Island Sound

Join us for a free “Plastic-Free July” webinar to learn about plastic pollution in Long Island Sound and how to help advance solutions!

CCE and our partners at the Coastal Watershed Network invite you to join a free Zoom webinar for Plastic-Free July to learn about newly identified microplastic “hot spots” in Long Island Sound, research related to microplastics and algal blooms, and solutions to reduce plastic pollution. Participants will hear from the experts and have the opportunity to ask questions.

Webinar details:
Date: Tuesday, July 16
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Where: Via Zoom (register here)

Speakers/Topics:

• Rachael Miller, Founder of the Rozalia Project: Microplastic “Hot Spots” in Long Island Sound

• Nicole Gullason and Natasha Mishra, Students at Smithtown High School West: Connection between Microplastics and Algal Blooms

• Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director at Citizens Campaign for the Environment: Individual, Corporate, and Policy Solutions to Reduce Plastic Pollution in the Sound

Thank you for joining us!

Sincerely,
All of us at CCE

Want to Learn More about Battery Energy Storage?

Join us for a free community meeting on battery energy storage and its role in Long Island’s transition to renewable energy 

New York is a leader in the fight against climate change, with targets of 70% renewable energy by 2030 and carbon neutral electricity by 2040. We are in the process of transitioning from polluting fossil fuels to renewable energy, including wind and solar energy. 

As part of this transition, we will need to use battery energy storage systems (BESS). These systems provide capacity that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel based generated power, thereby providing significant environmental and public health benefits. They will also help stabilize the energy grid as we move towards achieving our state energy mandates, powering thousands of homes and bringing significant economic benefits to our region. 

Join us and our partners to learn how large-scale battery storage works and the critical role it will play in transitioning us away from polluting fossil fuel power plants. We will have a presentation followed by a Q&A.  Register here

When: Wednesday, June 26th at 7:00 pm

Where: Christ Episcopal Church, 12 Prospect Street, Babylon, NY

Thank you for joining us!

Sincerely, 
All of us at CCE

PROTECT OUR GREAT LAKES!

Pretty lake photo Image by Ilona Ilyés from Pixabay

Tell Congress to pass the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 

The Great Lakes supply millions of New Yorkers with their drinking water, provide habitat for wildlife, and support billion-dollar industries such as tourism and fishing. To help protect and restore the health of the lakes, Congress established the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) in 2010. The GLRI has funded thousands of projects to clean up the lakes—protecting drinking water, cleaning up toxic pollution, fighting invasive species, and more. 

Despite our progress, more work remains to protect and restore the health of our Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 will extend the successful program for another five years—authorizing $500 million annually. We need our federal representatives from New York State to fight for passage of this critical legislation as soon as possible—email your representatives today!

BACKGROUND

New York’s Great Lakes basin covers 42% of the state’s surface area—second most among all Great Lakes states

The Great Lakes are a natural wonder of the world that hold 20% of the world’s fresh water supply. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Niagara River, and the St. Lawrence River comprise over 700 miles of shoreline in NYS. The Great Lakes provide four million New Yorkers with drinking water and support a multibillion-dollar tourism, fishing, and recreation economy.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative 
Established by Congress in 2010, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) was created to fund projects to protect and restore the health of the Great Lakes—cleaning up toxic pollution, restoring important habitat, fighting invasive species, reducing pollution from farms, and more. To date, the GLRI has funded more than 7,563 individual projects totaling over $3.7 billion and has greatly improved the quality of life in the region. New York State has received over $270 million to support hundreds of restoration projects. 

The GLRI is not only restoring the health of our Great Lakes, but it is also providing major economic benefits. Throughout the Great Lakes region, every dollar invested in restoration provides $3 in economic returns to the regional economy. In Buffalo, where the GLRI is supporting the cleanup of the Buffalo River and other important projects, the return is even higher—providing a 4-to-1 return on investment!

Threats to the Great Lakes Ecosystem Remain
Despite progress to protect and restore the Great Lakes in recent years, the health of Great Lakes remains threatened. Examples include:

• Toxic legacy pollution: Only one of New York’s six toxic hot spots (known as Areas of Concern), which were identified back in 1987, has been cleaned up.

• Invasive species: Invasive carp sit on the doorstep of the Great Lakes. If established in the lakes, they would decimate the ecosystem and the multibillion-dollar fishing industry.

• Emerging Contaminants: Emerging toxic pollutants, such as PFAS “forever chemicals,” are being found in Great Lakes waters and contaminating drinking water.

Congress Must Continue Progress to Restore the Great Lakes
The GLRI program is authorized through 2026, and unless action is taken by Congress, the program will expire in 2027. Recently introduced in the Congress, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2025 would reauthorize the GLRI program for an additional five years. The GLRI Act of 2025 would provide $500 million annually, from 2027-2031. 

Thank you for taking action.

Sincerely,
All of Us at CCE