Groups Renew Call on NY Governor to Ditch Executive Order That Would Rollback State Agency Regulations

• by Environmental Advocates of New York

ALBANY, NY (12/16/2009)(readMedia)-- Environmental Advocates of New York and other environmental groups today released a letter renewing their call on Governor David Paterson to repeal Executive Order 25. The order, signed in August, would allow a handpicked group of top aides to revise or repeal state regulations considered outdated or overly burdensome to businesses. The Department of Environmental Conservation posted its call (http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/59720.html) for public input on rules and regulations to revisit and/or repeal earlier today. Click here for a copy of the letter the groups sent to the Governor.

"Executive Order 25 creates an unpopularity contest for regulations and rules that have been publicly vetted, signed, sealed and delivered," said David Gahl, Policy Director, Environmental Advocates of New York. "For New York's state agencies, this review process is duplicative, burdensome, inherently biased, and subject to undue political influence. It would allow a committee of political appointees, chaired by the Secretary to the Governor, to repeal legally adopted rules and requirements carefully designed to protect the health, safety, and welfare of all New Yorkers. If Governor Paterson doesn't dump this mandate, everything we hold dear could be at risk-from our drinking water to our natural heritage, and so much more."

"Under this Executive Order, powerful, well-connected lobbyists with access to the Governor's office will get a second chance at weakening or dismantling regulations that they were unable to stop during the public review process," said Laura Haight, Senior Environmental Associate with NYPIRG. "The Governor's office should not be in the business of rewriting the rules for special interests."

The new Regulatory Review and Reform Program will put an added burden on overstretched state agencies, many of which will be forced to re-open regulations that have gone through multiple rounds of public review as required by law. The Governor has not provided any comprehensive analysis indicating that there is a need for the Executive Order, which identifies its first-round regulatory targets as the departments of Agriculture and Markets, Environmental Conservation, Health, Labor, State, and Taxation and Finance, and the State Liquor Authority.

Forty environmental and public health groups renewed their call on Governor Paterson to rescind the order in a December 9th letter, including: Adirondack Mountain Club, Arbor Hill Environmental and Justice Corp, Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition, CDOG, Citizen's Campaign for the Environment, Citizen's Environmental Coalition, Clean New York, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, EarthJustice, Environmental Advocates of New York, Finger Lakes Zero Waste Coalition, Fishkill Ridge Caretakers, Inc., Grassroots Environmental Education, Greenwich Citizens Committee, Inc., Healthy Schools Network, Inc., Hudson Highlands Land Trust, Long Island Drinking Water Coalition, Long Island Environmental Voters Forum, Natural Resources Defense Council, Neighborhood Network, New York Public Interest Research Group, New York State Committee on the Highlands Coalition, New York Trout Unlimited, Orangetown Environmental Committee, Parents Against Lindane, Putnam County Coalition to Preserve Open Space, Riverkeeper, Inc., Rochesterians Against the Misuse of Pesticides, Scenic Hudson, Serpentine Art and Nature Commons, Inc., The Nature Conservancy New York, Time Equities, Inc., Tioga Peace and Justice, Trout Unlimited Leon Chandler Chapter, Vision Long Island, W. Haywood Burns Environmental Education Center, West Branch Conservation Association, West Canada Riverkeepers.

The Executive Order is duplicative of New York State's established regulatory review process. State agencies have long been required under the State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA) to consider business impacts in their reviews. In addition, the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform (GORR), created in 1995 under Governor Pataki's Executive Order 20, routinely reviews draft regulations before they are published for public comment to ensure that they are not excessive or unduly burdensome. In addition, SAPA requires all existing state regulations to be reviewed every five years.

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