Sierra Club

National environmental leaders will take out ad space in the New York Times, and Times Union tomorrow to publish their an open letter to Eliot Spitzer and lawmakers urging them to support Mike Bloomberg’s 2030 plan.

“Gridlock contributes to smog and acts as a brake on economic growth. Business as usual is not a plan for the future, especially for a city that is expected to grow by nearly a million people in the next twenty years,” says the letter, written by the heads of the Environmental Defense, Sierra Club and Natural Resource Defense Fund, according to an advance copy.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s plan is bold, to be sure. But it’s also achievable. It could serve as a model for cities across the country and throughout the world.”

The letter concludes: “The next step is for leaders in the state legislature, city council and the metropolitan region to take the proposed plan and turn it into reality. Before it’s too late.”

Which is sort of an echo of today’s Daily News editorial.

The full letter is after the jump.  read more »

The government is looking to sell the largest space of forest land in decades, about 300,000 acres to be exact, to pay for rural area services like schools and roads. But, environmentalists and lawmakers are not happy.

"Basically, they're selling the foundation to pay for the mortgage," said Eric Antebi, spokesman for the Sierra Club. "These lands really belong to future generations and shouldn't be sold to the highest bidder. There's no reason why the world's biggest economic power needs to sell parkland to make ends meet." >

San Francisco ChronicleNational Park History - Riva Froymovich  read more »

How nice that everybody is now in favor of "campaign finance reform"-even George W. Bush.  read more »