Climate Action Now Event | Climate Action Party: Save the Hudson! - Riverkeeper

Climate Action Now Event | Climate Action Party: Save the Hudson! - Riverkeeper

New York residents only, please!

The deactivated Indian Point nuclear power plant, now run by Holtec, wants to discharge 1 million gallons of radioactive waste into the Hudson River as early as August. The dumping will release into the air and waterways an element called tritium that can increase the risk of cancer and lead to miscarriages and birth defects.

Unbelievably, there is no law forbidding that behavior. We’re going to change that! Assembly Member Dana Levenberg and Senator Pete Harckham have introduced legislation that would ban such dumping into the Hudson. The bill (A7208/S6893) passed the Senate. It will be considered in a special session of the Assembly.

The Hudson River serves as a drinking water source for more than 100,000 New Yorkers. As one of New York’s “natural wonders,” the 315-mile-long river provides access to fishing, swimming, and other forms of recreation for many. The river should be protected for countless reasons, and it is currently under threat.

Join us on Monday Night, June 19th at 7 pm (ET) to hear from the bill’s sponsors and expert environmental litigator Richard Webster in a conversation moderated by Food and Water Watch’s Santosh Nandaba. And then TAKE ACTION using the free Climate Action Now App to make sure the bill passes in the Assembly.

About Our Featured Guests

Richard Webster is an attorney with over 20 years of experience concentrating on environmental litigation, in addition to 10 years of experience as an environmental consultant and expert. He has litigated in federal courts around the country, as well as state courts in New York and New Jersey. He has represented numerous environmental groups and municipalities on a wide variety of issues, including nuclear safety, pollution, permit issuance, and land use. He is also a member of New York’s Decommissioning Oversight Board which oversees the decommissioning of Indian Point.

Assembly Member Dana Levenberg serves as the Representative for New York’s 95th Assembly District. In the Assembly, she serves as a member of the Environmental Conservation, Corrections, Housing, Libraries, and Local Governments Committees. She previously served as the Ossining Town Supervisor, where she focused on building healthy communities—economically, environmentally, physically, and mentally—all through a lens of equity.

Under her leadership, Ossining became a leader in local environmental initiatives, including becoming home to the largest solar canopy in Westchester County.

Senator Pete Harckham was elected to the New York State Senate in November 2018, and re-elected in 2020 and 2022—the culmination so far of a distinguished career in public service. Currently, he is chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.

Well-regarded as a champion of the environment, Harckham helped pass the toughest climate protection legislation in the nation and also introduced legislation, later enacted, requiring all new passenger car and truck sales to be zero emission by 2035 and allowing municipalities to build solar canopies and jumpstart community renewable energy projects. Earlier this year, Governor Kathy Hochul placed Harckham’s landmark wetlands legislation protecting Class C streams statewide, which will safeguard fragile drinking water resources, into her 2023 State Budget. Additionally, Harckham has been a leading voice to hold the utilities accountable in the wake of failed responses to natural disasters.

Courtney M. Williams, PhD brings over a decade of experience researching cancer and the molecular mechanisms of disease to parse the emerging data on the health and environmental impacts of pollution from energy infrastructure and shale gas development. She has worked closely with local, state, and Federal officials to educate them on the public health issues surrounding fossil fuel infrastructure, industrial pollution, and climate change. In 2019 she was honored to participate in the Consultation on Climate and Universal Periodic Review for the UN High Commission for Human Rights. She currently sits on the City of Peekskill Conservation Advisory Council and represents Peekskill on Westchester County’s Climate Action Planning Institute.

About Our Moderators

Santosh Nandabalan is a Senior Organizer at Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action. He runs campaigns to move our state and nation off fossil fuels, protect access to clean, affordable water and healthy food and elect real climate leaders at all levels of government. He’s organized several legislative and issue-based campaigns including fighting fracked gas projects like the Danskammer and Gowanus plants, winning legislation to move new buildings off fossil fuels in New York and, now, is leading organizing efforts with the Stop Holtec Coalition to keep radioactive waste from getting dumped in the Hudson River. Prior to his role as a climate organizer, Santosh was a union organizer at SEIU.

Tim Guinee, President of Climate Action Now, has been a veteran in numerous climate campaigns around the country, most notably as the Legislative Coordinator for the New York Climate Reality Chapters Coalition. Former Vice President Al Gore awarded Tim the Alfredo Sirkis Memorial Green Ring Award for his work on the climate crisis.

Sponsors

The Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter is a vital part of the Sierra Club, the country’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. The Atlantic Chapter represents 43,000 members statewide and is dedicated to protecting New York’s air, water, communities, and remaining wild places.

R?iverkeeper protects and restores the Hudson River from source to sea and safeguards drinking water supplies, through advocacy rooted in community partnerships, science, and law.

The Climate Reality Project New York State Coalition is a group that was set up with the purpose to connect members across the state for joint action and friendship. In addition to coordinating an annual retreat, the coalition has several working groups which leverage our scale at the state level.

The Host

Climate Action Now is the creator and publisher of Climate Action Now, the leading app for citizen climate advocacy. App users take exponentially more action than users of conventional climate advocacy tools. The average app user takes 10 actions a day. In the last two years, users have sent over 1,000,000 messages to political and business leaders demanding climate action.

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