While federal and state governments set emissions control policies and our State makes decisions on the siting of power plants, it is critical that Suffolk County participate in the development of a comprehensive energy plan. The plan should outline the County’s projected energy needs and contain a strategy for meeting those needs in an environmentally sound and economically feasible manner.
Regarding air quality, Suffolk County, and the entire New York metropolitan region, qualifies as a non-attainment zone under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA’s”) new particulate matter standards (PM2.5) and ozone standards. The EPA has classified fine particulate emissions as “likely carcinogens” and linked them to a higher incidence of asthma and other lung ailments. Though new EPA guidelines will reduce emissions from many mobile sources of pollution in future years, the County and municipalities should act promptly to reduce diesel emissions from government fleets and encourage private fleets to do the same. Similarly, the government should play a leading role by making its own facilities and operations energy-efficient and by establishing policies that encourage the private sector to follow suit. This is especially important given that average household electricity consumption on Long Island increased 15 percent over the past six years.
- Set a cap of 500 parts per million for the allowable level of sulfur in home heating fuel for 2005 and 2006 and 15 ppm thereafter.
- Mandate that government agencies and departments make energy-efficient purchasing decisions (model legislation on New York City’s Local Law # 30 of 2003).
- Promote the use of renewable sources of power locally, in both the public and private sectors (e.g. opt into Long Island Power Authority’s (“LIPA’s”) Green Choice Program, which is available to municipalities, businesses and consumers, or convert governmental facilities to wind, solar, and/or geothermal-generated electricity).
- Implement the recently passed bills requiring that the County purchase an increasing percentage of its energy from renewable sources.
- Work to ensure that proposed energy facilities such as Broadwater, the Long Island offshore wind project, and the Caithness project receive rigorous environmental review.
- Sign on to the Clean Energy Leadership Task Force to learn about clean energy alternatives and the myriad federal, state, power authority and utility programs that provide funding and offer technical expertise.
- Create a “Green Parks” program to make park operations environmentally efficient and less polluting. (Review and utilize the lessons learned from the County’s Blydenburgh Park pilot project and LIPA’s Final Report.)
- Require all construction vehicles used on government construction projects to use ultra-low sulfur fuel and install the best-available technology for particulate emission filtering (model legislation on New York City’s Local Law 77 of 2003 and the corresponding regulations).
- Require government agencies and departments, and certain contractors, to purchase recycled or synthetic motor oil (model legislation on New York City’s Executive Order #33).