New York
promoted to primary 7/14
NY tag NYC city node
taking lead on fracking, public pension divest oil
renewables
bloomberg soda, guns (Tesla?)
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AZ makes all students elegible, no dems; same day NY sez free college for under 100K$
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California already passed a resolution calling for the reversal of Citizens United in 2012, but some residents want to go further. Voters will now decide on the Overturn Citizens United Act, which asks lawmakers to “use all of their constitutional authority … to overturn Citizens United v. FEC and other applicable judicial precedents.”
Meanwhile, Washington could become the 18th state to join the call for an amendment. Initiative 735 will appear on the state’s ballot in November, having received nearly 340,000 voter signatures.
80 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats oppose Citizens United.
Cindy Black, campaign chair of WAmend, the coalition promoting the initiative, explains how efforts to get the state Legislature to support a constitutional amendment became derailed. “Unfortunately, there were a lot of folks that didn’t want to sign on, in particular on the Republican side, that were defending Citizens United.”
About 93 percent of the signatures for I-735 were collected by volunteers.
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/in-new-york-republicans-and-democrats-join-forces-to-overturn-citizens-united-20160629
Nationwide, 80 percent of Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats oppose Citizens United, according to a 2015 Bloomberg poll.
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17th for 28th:
New York is the first state with a Republican-controlled chamber to call for an amendment, though only two Republicans supported it.(The last vote that gave the Senate effort a majority came from Democratic Sen. Todd Kaminsky, who was recently elected to the chamber, replacing Republican Dean Skelos, who was removed from office upon a felony corruption conviction.) New York now joins the ranks of 16 other states which have done so through resolutions and ballot initiatives. More than 700 municipalities across the country have also passed resolutions, including 21 in New York.
On Wednesday, Assemblymember James Brennan, who led the effort in his chamber, said in a statement, “When we think about the intent behind campaign finance laws, they are supposed to protect our democracy from corruption while preserving the integrity of our elections. Citizens United has done the opposite. By allowing corporations the same rights as individuals, campaigns across the country are being fueled by obscene amounts of money. This has to stop. I call on Congress to do the right thing and pass a constitutional amendment to right this wrong.”
In the Senate, there were four letters with largely the same language. Twenty-four Democrats signed one letter. The five-member Independent Democratic Conference signed the same letter, albeit separately. Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins signed one independently. The Republicans, Sen. Phil Boyle and Sen. Kemp Hannon, signed their own version with slightly different language.
“There is motion now in Republican-controlled legislatures to support an amendment,” said Jonah Minkoff-Zern, co-director of the Democracy Is For People campaign at Public Citizen, a nonprofit group that led a coalition of advocates calling on state lawmakers to support an amendment. “The state legislature also needs to follow through and pass state reform,” he added.
Public Service Commission (PSC) voted to approve New York's Clean Energy Standard Monday, making an enforceable commitment to Gov. Cuomo's goal of sourcing 50 percent of the state's power from renewable energy by 2030.
a monumental step forward in ensuring the governor achieves his ambitious 50 percent by 2030 renewable energy goal," Lisa Dix, senior New York representative for the Sierra Club, said.
"Governor Cuomo has shown his commitment to climate leadership by moving New York and the nation, towards a renewable energy future, while at the same time creating thousands of jobs across the state, protecting ratepayers from volatile fossil fuel prices and improving New Yorkers' public health and environment."
Today's decision comes after more than a six-month process that began in December when Gov. Cuomo instructed the PSC to ensure that New York powers 50 percent of the electric sector with renewable energy by 2030. After the PSC's initial proposal in early 2016, more than 11,000 New Yorkers submitted comments and hundreds came out to the public hearings hosted across the state supporting the governor's proposal for an enforceable renewable energy target.
In addition to the Clean Energy Standard order, New York is also moving forward on developing the state's offshore windportfolio. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is expected to release an offshore wind blueprint to lay out a long-term statewide plan for developing this invaluable resource. Recently, NYSERDA announced its intent to bid into a federal leasing process for New York's Wind Energy Area and the Long Island Power Authority announced its support for building New York's first offshore wind farm and the largest offshore wind project in the country, 30 miles off the coast of eastern Long Island.
Making a long-term commitment to a pipeline of offshore wind projects will be crucial to achieving the governor's 50 percent by 2030 goal while also establishing New York as the regional offshore wind hub—supercharging the state's economy by bringing high-paying, local jobs and manufacturing opportunities to local communities.
"With today's order and recent actions on Governor Cuomo, Governor Cuomo is clearly setting New York as a climate and renewable jobs leader," David Alicea, organizing representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, said.
"We look forward to working with his administration as they develop these policies and a long-term large-scale offshore wind plan to build a robust renewable energy economy for the state
http://www.ecowatch.com/new-york-approves-clean-energy-standard-50-from-renewables-by-2030-1954654514.html
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http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/17/indian-point-leak/
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http://www.alternet.org/fracking/two-small-towns-win-huge-legal-case-fracking-will-many-others-follow
NY court
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http://www.alternet.org/print/news-amp-politics/how-one-state-senate-just-screwed-whole-nation
Edward McAllister
NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp has agreed to release more than 13,000 acres of land leased for oil and gas drilling in New York state as a ban on fracking extends into its sixth year, a statement from lawyers involved in the case confirmed on Monday.
The Oklahoma-based company agreed to terminate the leases in Tioga and Broome counties in the southern portion of the state, ending a two-year legal battle with over 200 landowners, according to law firm Levene Gouldin & Thompson, which represented landowners.
The impending deal was reported by Reuters last month.
Chesapeake had been appealing a federal court ruling in November that stated the company could not use a state ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, as a reason to declare force majeure and extend leases beyond their expiry without offering landowners better terms.
Some landowners, who signed their leases during the last 13 years before a U.S. drilling boom boosted land prices in gas-rich areas like New York, had been calling for a release from the leases to seek more lucrative deals from other energy firms. Other landowners are now opposed to any drilling on their land altogether.
Chesapeake's decision to now drop the leases is a sign of energy firms' growing frustration over operating in the Empire State, where most drilling has been on hold since 2008. It is also an indication of how the Oklahoma-based company is reining in spending after years of aggressive acreage buying left it with towering debt.