Environmentalists critique waste incineration in CLEAN Future Act
4/7/21 | The Altamont Enterprise Regional
Environmental activists have a bone to pick with Representative Paul Tonko, a Democrat representing the Capital District, over the inclusion of waste incineration in his massive CLEAN Future Act, which aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by 2050, and which he has touted as “bold and urgent federal climate action.”
Tonko, who is chairman of the Environment and Climate Change subcommittee, introduced the 981-page bill early last month together with Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman and Representative Frank Pallone Jr., a Democrat from New Jersey, and Energy Subcommittee Chairman and Representative Bobby Rush, a Democrat from Illinois.
While the bill would address many environmental concerns by establishing clean electricity benchmarks, a carbon mitigation fund, and market reforms, among other things, more than 100 representatives from environmental groups — most from New York — signed an open letter that urges Tonko to drop the allowances made for waste incineration as a source of clean electricity, arguing that the practice doesn’t reduce the necessity of landfills as promised and pollutes the air all the while.