ADIRONDACK COUNCIL
PRAISES GOVERNOR SPITZER, A.G. CUOMO
& ENCON OFFICIALS; CRITICIZES PARK AGENCY & STATE SENATE
IN 2007 "STATE OF THE PARK" REPORT
Comprehensive Review of Government Officials' Actions Over
the Past 12 Months
For more information:
Scott M. Lorey
518-432-1770 (ofc)
John F. Sheehan
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released: Monday, October 29, 2007
ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. - The Adirondack
Council reserved its highest praise for Governor Eliot Spitzer
and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, while offering criticism to
the Adirondack Park Agency and State Senate in its 22nd annual
"State of the Park" report.
The Adirondack Council is a non-partisan environmental research,
education and advocacy organization based in the Adirondack Park.
The Council is funded solely through private donations. It doesn't
accept government grants or taxpayer-funded contributions of
any kind. The Council does not endorse candidates for public
office.
Its annual "State of the Park" report tracks the actions
of local, state and federal officials who helped or hurt the
ecological health or wild beauty of the Adirondack Park over
the past 12 months. The report is released each year before Election
Day.
The illustrated, 24-page, color magazine-style report is available
for free from the Council by calling 1-877-873-2240 or can be
viewed online by clicking here.
"Governor Spitzer's recent appointments to his environmental
agencies turned his already good review into a great review for
his first year in office," said Adirondack Council Executive
Director Brian L. Houseal. "When the report was written,
we had singled him out for praise on seven topics, while having
complaints in only two areas. By the time the ink was dry on
the final publication, he had already corrected one of our two
criticisms by appointing two strong environmentalists to the
Adirondack Park Agency Board of Commissioners - Dick Booth of
Ithaca and Curt Stiles of Tupper Lake.
"Attorney General Cuomo also won praise for his work in
shutting down a coal-fired power plant in Rockland County and
in pressing the Bush Administration to stop trying to weaken
the Clean Air Act," Houseal explained.
"The Adirondack Park Agency continued a several-year trend
of fair to poor ratings in State of the Park," Houseal said.
"We pointed to problems with weak enforcement against blatant
land-use violations, a failure to call for hearings on major
development plans and a decision to allow the very first variance
in APA history for an oversized, back-lit commercial sign outside
of a village.
"The state Senate earned the poorest ratings of all, owing
to its treatment of the Governor's nominees to fill important
environmental jobs and to a rash of one-house bills that would
have encouraged additional motorized traffic on public, Adirondack
Forest Preserve lands."
The Adirondack Council also praised a host of local Adirondack
environmental initiatives in the report's "Tip of the Hat"
section, offering encouragement to the Adirondack Nature Conservancy,
Open Space Institute, Adirondack Harvest, the Adirondack Public
Observatory, the Lake Champlain Basin Program, Paul Smith's College,
author Bill McKibben, the North Country School, Collins Oil Co.,
and the Saranac Waterkeeper.
The State of the Park is published each fall to provide objective
political information to Adirondack Council members in all 50
United States, and to voters in general.
The 9,300-square-mile Adirondack Park is the largest American
park outside of Alaska. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and
Glacier National Parks would all fit inside its borders, with
room left for Rhode Island. The Park is a patchwork of public
and private lands, divided almost equally across the landscape,
allowing more than 100 small communities to thrive alongside
the state's best-protected wild lands and waters. Its public
lands have been protected from logging, sale and development
by the NYS Constitution since 1894. Its private lands are managed
under the Adirondack Park Agency's land-use plan, established
in 1973.
Founded in 1975, the Adirondack Council is headquartered in Elizabethtown,
Essex County, and operates a media and government relations office
in downtown Albany.
|
