A great way to create awareness is to send letters to your community paper.
Here is a sample letter for you to send. Feel free to write or own or edit this text.
Once you send it, fill out the form so we know you sent it.
Sample Letter to the Editor:
Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.” New Yorkers have a battle ahead of us, meeting the carbon emissions targets mandated by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. At present, we haven’t done the necessary planning to make that happen. Kudos to the Public Service Commission whose job it is to regulate the utilities, for launching the so-called Gas Planning Proceeding. This groundbreaking process will result in an order to the utilities telling them how they must proceed with their mandated service to New York customers.
Governor Cuomo publicly recognized the risks and harms of fracking in 2014 when he enacted the moratorium on fracking. And thanks to grassroots opposition, several proposed fracked gas pipelines have been stopped. But the gas utilities have been relentless in their persistence at expanding gas service to more and more customers during this same period and today only five states in the nation consume more fracked gas than New York. Mounting scientific evidence shows that methane gas from fracking is an accelerant to climate change at a time when we need a suppressant; it’s urgent that we reverse this trend.
The Public Service Commission has a duty to examine the full impact of our reliance on gas and craft an order to the utilities that puts a stop to continued expansion of gas and lays out an orderly decapitalization of existing gas infrastructure. At the same time, the renewable solutions such as heat pumps for heating and hot water must be funded so that they are accessible, reliable, and affordable for all New Yorkers. The utilities are already digging in their heels making an argument for the status quo. The Cuomo administration must stand up to the utilities and take the necessary steps to protect our children’s future. Ike said it best, “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” New Yorkers are in this fight for a livable future and we intend to win