Today, New York voters get to pick a governor, a congressional candidate and both senators, all with the power to help carry strong environmental protections and renewable energy incentives through our Legislature on both the state and national level.

Three of the best candidates for environmental issues happen to be Democrats. But I’m not supporting them because of their party. The Green Party is the closest to having a political party that I can fully support, but unfortunately many of the party’s candidates are difficult to take as serious contenders. The Democratic choices are emblematic of the way their party has successfully incorporated environmentalism into their platform, although their leadership on the issue during the 11th Congress was abysmal.

There is one Green Party candidate, however, who is a suitable option – Howie Hawkins for governor of New York. Although he is unlikely to win against Andrew Cuomo, he is an incredibly strong supporter of environmental issues. Through his campaign, Hawkins has been pushing Cuomo to take a stronger stand on certain green issues, such as hydraulic fracturing, a process by which natural gas drillers attempt to fracture rocks with various liquids to increase the gas output. This is a practice that threatens the integrity of groundwater, and it also makes extraction of natural gas easier and cheaper, which incentivizes the dirty energy generation. Cuomo may not be a huge fan of the practice, but he won’t go as far as Hawkins will to make it outright illegal.

For the 25th Congressional District seat, Dan Maffei has shown himself to be strongly supportive of environmental issues and has upheld a very responsible environmental stance in the past year. Though the measure failed due to Republican obstructionism, he voted for greater offshore drilling regulations and lifting the liability cap on companies like British Petroleum, Halliburtun and Transocean for the Gulf oil spill disaster. When Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) proposed eliminating the Clean Air Act provisions – an idea so radically dangerous and irresponsible that it shocks the conscience – Maffei delivered a strong nay. I feel confident in saying that he will be a solid vote for environmental sanity, seeing as how his opponent, Ann Marie Buerkle, is dangerously ignorant in openly disavowing the theory of climate change, among other things.

For the Senate candidates, Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have solid environmental voting records.In 2008, Schumer was one of the ‘yea’ votes on perhaps the most far-reaching proposal our Congress has had yet on the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. The measure failed to reach the 60-vote threshold to end the debate, but Schumer can be trusted to make the right choices when it comes to the environment. Gillibrand, who has been in office since Hillary Clinton moved on to head the State Department, also has a strong record. In September 2009, she voted to protect our oceans from offshore drilling, a stance that had her at odds with President Barack Obama at the time. Nine months later, 5 million barrels of oil were in the Gulf of Mexico and the local economy was crushed, with biodiversity in the Gulf decimated. She can be trusted to make the right decisions and rely on foresight to try and stop future problems, even when it is politically unpopular.

If you haven’t voted yet today, I urge you to do so. Voting is a right that many countries don’t have and one that should be exercised. Also, regardless of how ineffective third-party candidates might seem after they get elected, their campaigns can change the political landscape, so voting should be done responsibly and sincerely. Remember, if you don’t vote, you don’t count.

Luke Lanciano is a junior political science major. His column appears every Tuesday, and he can be reached at lllanci@syr.edu.

 

Published on November 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm