Earlier this week, Senate Republicans put forth legislation (S.7594-B) which would create a gas tax "holiday" from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I and many of my Democratic colleagues voted against this legislation because it is bad fiscal and environmental policy that will only result in windfall profits for oil companies and no real relief for consumers. My colleagues and I understand New Yorkers have been hit hard by rising fuel costs. However, what we need are not gimmicks, but carefully thought out policies that will create long-term solutions to the growing energy crisis facing our state and decrease our dependence on foreign oil.

S.7594-B, introduced by Senator Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), would exempt gasoline and diesel from the State's excise tax, Sales Tax, and Petroleum Business Tax, from May 23, 2008 to September 2, 2008. These taxes are currently used to provide funds for highways, roads, bridges, and mass transit. By suspending the taxes the Senate Republicans will create an estimated $600 million budget gap for these necessary services.

SIBRO CIVIC & SOUTH BEACH CIVIC

are hosting a SPEAK OUT AGAINST CONGESTION PRICING event

SUNDAY, April 6th at 7:00 PM

Xavarian High School
7100 Shore Road
Brooklyn, NY 11209

Please come and speak out so that our elected officials in Albany can know how New Yorker's REALLY feel about this plan before they vote.

Steve Harrison is having a press conference tomorrow at 2pm at the Staten Island Ferry (Staten Island side) to discuss his position on congestion pricing. Steve has stated that he does not oppose congestion pricing, but he does oppose THIS congestion pricing plan. You can read more about his position on our website: www.steveharrisonforcongress.com.

Please support us by attending this conference and telling your friends and neighbors to join us as well.

Interested in a discussion online about carbon emissions and real, science-based solutions to global warming? This comes from the Union of Concerned Scientists:

A Target for U.S. Emissions Reduction

Join Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel for free web seminar on the analysis for determining “A Target for U.S. Emissions Reductions.” Following a presentation on the findings, will be a Q&A session.

Date: February 20, 2008
Time: 2:00 pm (EST)
Click here to RSVP. Directions on how to join will be emailed to you.

Substantial scientific evidence indicates that an increase in the global average temperature of more than two degrees Celsius (°C) above pre-industrial average (i.e., prior to 1860) poses severe risks to natural systems and human health and well-being. The European Union as well as climate legislation moving through the U.S. Congress both employ 2°C as a guide for policy goals.

What issues matter to you? National defense? The rights of working class Americans? Seniors issues? A woman's right to choose? The environment?

On all of these issues, New York Republicans are out of touch with America. Most Americans want a strong national defense, support the rights of working class Americans, women and seniors, and place a high value on the environemnt. New York Congressional Republicans have the wrong priorities on national defense, support Halliburton profits but not a minimum wage increase, want to privatise Social Security, place the rights of pollutors over the environment and the health of Americans, and oppose a woman's right to choose.

Interesting morning, isn't it. The trains are all flooded. The tracks between Lawrence and Court in Brooklyn lost power due to flooding. My co-worker was stuck getting from Governor's Island. Sewage was backing up in my apartment (despite my building's $300,000 sump pumps, but at least the pumps kept the backup from becoming the fountaining river it used to be). The research facility I work at in Manhattan is flooded in the basement (I don't have access to the animal facility, so I can't check it, but it is in the basement!) and the elevators are out. And Brooklyn, technically speaking, had a tornado.

There's really no time left for debate. NYS has to decrease our dependence on, and use of, petroleum-based products. We also must get a better handle on decreasing solid waste because NYC has no good answers about where to move it or how to get rid of it—in particular environmentally dangerous items.

One way to do both, at least in part, is to ban styrofoam and polystyrene products. And this week I have introduced a bill to do just that.

Picture styrofoam, and you picture a product produced from petroleum that takes up to 500 years to fully disintegrate, which is devastating to our environment. Think about this--that cup you may have grabbed a quick drink from on July 4th will outlive you by hundreds of years.

Fully 30% of the waste currently in landfills is from various Styrofoam products. We put so much Styrofoam into our waste stream, that the cups just Americans toss each year would, if laid end to end, circle the globe more than 430 times. That is 1,369 tons of Styrofoam every day—and Styrofoam is not exactly a heavy product.

Liza's Note:
Please welcome to our humble blogdobe the fierce Ms. Debra Cooper, NYSDems Comittee Chairwoman for the Upper East Side.

She attended yesterday's now infamous "insult to truth" testimony on how she didn't for a minute mislead the public in believing that there was no potential harm in the toxic dust spread about New York City by the collapse of the Twin Towers.

Debra does and amazing job at capturing more than just the soundbites. As she said to me in the email that came with this post, not only did Todd Whitman dance "around her statements about the City government's responsibility for the safety of the first responders, especially in terms of their use of respirators. Unlike her prior statements, today in the hearing she did not make any direct accusations that the City and Guiliani did not do the right thing."

An observation that, as Debra noted later and asked me to share with you, points to Whitman's further coverup in an attempt to help Giuliani's bid for President.

Thanks Deb for covering this for our readers.

Every day between May and October, from noon to ten or eleven at night, an ice cream truck drives through my neighborhood. It has all the persistence and inevitability of rats in the subway, with the considerable added aggravation that it's loud and pollutes the air.

Of all retail platforms in New York City, the common ice cream truck is perhaps the most inefficient and the most degrading to the common interest. This particular example, which I suspect is common enough elsewhere in the Five Boroughs, is everywhere in the summer, advertising its presence through an incredibly loud, endlessly repetitive tinny jingle broadcast from speakers inevitably turned up to full volume. In my neighborhood, if it's summer, you'll get at least ten hours of the Mister Softee jingle at full blast during daylight hours.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his first public appearance since announcing switching from the Republican Party to being an independent, a press conference celebrating the alleged success of his 311 program, to showcase his policy creativity to the media.

Bloomberg’s aware that his leaving the Republican Party would confirm to the media, his current constituents and potential presidential voters, that he’s pursuing an independent Presidential candidacy, despite saying wink, wink, I’m not running, and knew the world be watching his first appearance after making public his official political independence. This is why Bloomberg is using a press conference honoring 311, a program that he is particularly but unjustifiably proud of, as the location of his personal Presidential Debutante Ball.

Bloomberg hoped touting 311 success would perpetuate the myth that he’s a non-partisan problem solver. But the emperor has no clothes. 311 is useless.