Clean Air Coalition of Greater Ravena – Coeymans

Our friends at Beyond Plastics shared this very important bulletin today to help gauge support for something that could help our cause here in Selkirk, Ravena, Coeymans.

Please call Congressmember Paul Tonko and urge him to cosponsor the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act (H.R.2238) today before 5pm to help lessen the chances of end-of-life plastics being one of the alternative fuels that cement companies like Lafarge Holcim could use to run their kilns.

In 2021, NY-20 residents engaged with Rep. Tonko through constituent meetings, rallies, and letters to the editor urging him to cosponsor this essential bill. Representative Tonko has not cosponsored because of his committee assignments – but we think that’s an even more important reason to cosponsor this bill!

Seventeen NY Representatives have cosponsored the BFFPPA, including Representatives Antonio Delgado, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sean Patrick Maloney, and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand  We know we can get Rep.Tonko to join his NY colleagues and take bold action on plastic pollution, but we need your help! Click here to call now!

Plastic pollution is one of the greatest challenges to our climate, health, and water systems. A new report from Beyond Plastics found that emissions from US plastic production will exceed US coal-fired power plants by 2030 without intervention. Representative Tonko is the Chair of the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change – it is imperative that he support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, which would put a 3-year moratorium on new permits for plastic production facilities and put in common-sense measures to reduce plastic production and demand.

Call Rep. Tonko today before 5pm, and share this action with your friends and family in NY’s 20th district: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/call-tonko-bffppa

Efforts are in full swing this week to convince NYS Governor Kathy Hochul to veto a bill sponsored by Democratic Senators Todd Kaminsky and Assemblyman Robert Carroll referred to as LECCLA (Low Embodied Carbon Concrete).

To our delight, a letter written by Beyond Plastics president, Judith Enck, was co-signed by 90+ groups that agree LECCLA is a threat to our community and State. It’s no surprise that cement plants are eager to tout plastic waste as an eco-friendly alternative to burning coal for fuel in their kilns. It saves them big money to do so but this move actually undercuts recycling efforts and worsens air quality.

With the holidays looming, timing is important right now. Sometime soon, the State Assembly (the house that passed the bill first) will send the bill to Governor Hochul and she will have ten days to decide whether to sign or veto the bill. While we’re encouraged by the additional support, including another 150 calls made to the Governor, we need more people and groups on our side!

This just in: A leading statewide trade union called the Associated General Contractors of New York State (AGC NY) that represents contractors and open shop companies are against LECCLA too. They sent the then-Governor Cuomo this letter citing reasons why.

Social Media Outreach

If you agree that LECCLA is a bill that will have negative safety, environmental, and taxpayer impact,  please copy or adapt the sample tweet below:

Today, we’re joining @plasticsbeyond & 90+ organizations in calling on @govkathyhochul to reject false #climatechange solutions by VETOING Assembly Bill A 2591A (a.k.a. LECCLA).

Burning waste in cement kilns is NOT #cleanenergy.

Please feel free to tag any or all of the organizations who have signed on that you can fit, including:
@LWVNYS
@foodwaterwatch@greenpeaceusa
@PlasticPollutes
@nypirg
@Surfrider
@GAIAUS_CAN
@OceanicGlobal
@PAUSEnergy
@350NYC
@CafeteriaCu
@FoodScraps360

Thank you to local ABC affiliate News10 for reporting on an ongoing and potentially dangerous issue in the town of Ravena: fugitive dust. Reporter Anya Tucker interviewed several homeowners today who live within sight of the Lafarge cement plant. Since Halloween, they have complained about a mysterious powdery substance coating their cars, playgrounds, and homes. A substance that is not easy to wash off. The CAC has to wonder what this gritty dust does to the lungs of those that breathe it in? For more on this story, please watch News10.

This week it took a fire to reignite the community to see the dangers inherent in the port of Coeymans becoming a massive transfer station. On the banks of the Hudson River, a large-scale scrap fire at the Port of Coeymans sent acrid-smelling smoke wafting making it hard to breathe for nearby residents. The facility is looking to expand its operations and the conflagration can’t possibly bode well for securing permits and plans. As fate would have it, the CAC asked its members to call Governor Hochul on the same day to throw a match at LECCLA; a bill that would further erode air quality in the RCS school district and beyond. Here’s a sample of what one of our members said to Governor Hochul:

“Dear Governor Hochul,

 My name is Sonja Stark, a self-employed freelancer for a video production company and concerned resident of Selkirk, NY.  I’m also a member of the Clean Air Coalition of Albany County responsible for some of the videos produced that spell out the dangers of burning TDF and RDF at the Lafarge cement plant.  The plant is 5 miles downwind from where I live.  

It’s incredibly important that you vote NO to passing LECCLA.   First and foremost there is no such thing as “low carbon concrete” and the language in this bill greenwashes the process into convincing legislators to vote for it.  

Without a clearly-written definition of low carbon concrete, this bill, inevitably, will lead to the cement industry having the foothold to push for the burning of waste as an alternative fuel to coal in their kilns. This is already being done in several states throughout the country.

Regardless of what cement industries like to say about co-processing or the plumes at their facility, burning waste to make cement is NOT, I repeat, NOT safe, smart, sustainable, circular or holistic.

Burning waste, which the LECCLA procurement scheme would incentivize is like moving a landfill from land into the sky.  Many of the creators of LECCLA, industry insiders, know this.  

This bill would inevitably encourage cement companies to expand their mining, excavation and delivery services of aggregate thereby increasing more truck traffic. More truck traffic means bigger rigs, semi’s and truck trailers and that means more CO2 emissions.  This action further erodes whatever quality of life is left in historic hamlets like the RCS (Ravena/Selkirk/Coeymans) community.  

Studies have shown that even the most state-of-the-art cement stacks are far from clean with hidden emissions like dioxins, furans and organic pollutants emanating from them. Therefore, LECCLA also carries with it the potential to threaten the air, water and soil quality of the Hudson Valley.

Concrete is both the most widely used and the most destructive substance on earth and its benefits mask an enormous danger to the environment.  New York State would be wise to focus on policy-making strategies that reduce our dependence and consumption on cement rather than rewarding companies that make more of it.  

For all these reasons and more, please vote NO to LECCLA.

Thank you for taking my call.” 

After months of research and talking to environmental experts, the CAC stands a firm stand against LECCLA, the Low Embodied Carbon Concrete, and Communities Act. If passed, this bill will crack open a greenwashing scheme for the cement industry to burn “alternative fuels” to make concrete. In other words, paving the way for toxic-emitting hazardous waste, garbage and tires. Learn the facts on the CAC website, call the Governor and sign our petition.