A Sierra Club event held Thursday at SUNY-ESF focused on ending New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s approved bailouts for the coal industry.

The Sierra Club, one of the U.S.’s largest grassroots environmental organizations, spoke at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Attendees picked up handouts about the negative effects of coal burning. Coal burning is responsible for one-third of the United States’ carbon pollution, 13,000 premature deaths each year and more than $100 billion in annual health costs, according to the Sierra Club.

The rally began with every person in the room stating his or her name and favorite “wild place.”

David Alicea, Sierra Club’s upstate organizer and a graduate student at SUNY-ESF, said though he is from the city of Syracuse, his favorite wild place is the beach.

Rachael Christman, a Sierra Club intern and sophomore environmental sciences major at SUNY-ESF, said the environment has always fascinated her. Her favorite wild place is the mountains.

Christman spoke first on the statistics of coal’s impact on New York state’s environment.

Twenty-two percent of the state’s power is from renewable energy, though New York has the technology to make that value 100 percent, Alicea said.

“Imagine a room full of people. Half of us use renewable energy, the other half don’t. We still support the other half’s aging technology economically,” Alicea said.

Alicea added that with support from organizations like the Sierra Club, solar power capacity has increased from 2 percent to 4 percent and wind power capacity has increased from 4 percent to 10 percent.

Sierra Club held a hearing in New York City with a turnout of 50 people urging Cuomo to end coal bailouts and make the Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative a reality, Alicea said. REV is an initiative also under Cuomo that aims to regulate changes that promote more efficient use of energy, deeper penetration of renewable energy resources such as wind power and solar power and wider deployment of “distributed’ energy resources, among changes in other areas, according to the New York State Department of Public Service website.

At hearings, volunteers present testimonies that would show Cuomo’s administration the public’s support for renewable energy. The testimonies do not have to be technical, but emotional, Alicea said. He instructed speakers to “ground your statement and say why you personally care about the issue.”

“I think I am definitely going to try to go testify,” said Maizy Ludden, a Syracuse University freshman majoring in biology and food studies. “I have always been big on environmentalism, and this is a good way to get involved in a grassroots movement to pressure the government to make change.”

The talk ended with a question-and-answer session and the passing around of a petition for the transition to renewable energy.

Published on November 8, 2015 at 8:56 pm

Contact Anjani: asiman@syr.edu