With a DEC Commissioner in place, the agency's priorities (per loose lipped staffers [1]) appear to include:

• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
• Brownfields
• Recreational use of NYC's watershed land

Apparently, the readers of the blog post [2] on Capitol Confidential were mixed on the news:

"Uh, what about acid rain and the dead lakes in the Adirondacks? Or is that too parochial an issue for a environmentalist with the pedigree of Grannis. Sure it’s not at contemporary and sexy as Global Warming but it is a problem that is happening *today* and has something to do with the state of New York." Comment by Ed Rooney

"Finally someone at DEC who hasn’t been drinking the “machine guns for everyone” and “ignore climate change cuz exxon said so” kool-aids..." Comment by SmokinJoe