SUNY Plattsburgh Students to Vote on Green Energy

EAC will hold a press conference and rally on the Green Energy Initiative at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 4, at Amite Plaza, located in front of the Angell Campus Center on Rugar Street in Plattsburgh.

Passing the Green Energy Initiative would create an optional $3 student fee per semester for all SUNY Plattsburgh students, which would go towards purchasing increased renewable energy resources and carbon dioxide emissions credits.  EAC said the fee is expected to raise $20,000 per year and would eventually have a significant impact on our energy consumption footprint. SUNY Plattsburgh would be the second college in New York to initiate such a program.

EAC collected signatures from five percent of  SUNY Plattsburgh students who support such an initiative. This was a significant feat at a college with more than 6,200 full- and part-time students. The Student Association recently certified the signatures as valid and collected in accordance with its bylaws.

This proposal was recently endorsed by 2006 Plattsburgh Mayoral candidate Kevin Duniho, and by Plattsburgh City Councilman Bill Provost who represents many SUNY Plattsburgh students in the Sixth Ward of Plattsburgh. It was also endorsed by the Environmental Science Club, the Plattsburgh State Campus Democrats and Progressives (a student organization), and more than 100 students on Facebook.

More information about the Green Energy Initiative at SUNY Plattsburgh is available online at www.votegreenenergy.org , or by calling Sarah Wharton at 607-222-8225 or Andrew Arthur at 518-564-6501.

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The Environmental Action Committee (EAC) of SUNY Plattsburgh was formed in 1968 to address major environmental issues locally, nationally and globally. It has worked with the New Land Trust Ecofarm in Saranac since 1972 and continues to work on a variety of environmental issues both on and off campus.

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