Suozzi Targets Greenhouse Gas Emissions

LI's 'carbon footprint' to be taken in 'greening' effort

BY WILLIAM MURPHY

February 26, 2009

Nassau and Suffolk counties will jointly develop an islandwide "carbon footprint" to be used to target greenhouse gas emissions and in turn, reduce energy use and improve air quality, officials said yesterday.

The effort will be supported by the Rauch Foundation, which developed the Long Island Index five years ago to provide a statistics-based look at education, taxes, health and other elements of life on Long Island.

"You can't manage what you don't measure. If Long Island is going to get serious about reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, we need to know where they're coming from," Nancy Rauch Douzinas, president of the foundation, said at a news conference at Bethpage State Park with county executives Thomas Suozzi of Nassau and Steve Levy of Suffolk.

There is only partial information about carbon emissions in the two counties, officials said. Nassau completed an emission inventory in 2005, Suozzi said, but it found later that it was not accounting for the methane gases escaping from holding pools at its two sewage treatment plants. In Suffolk, the Town of Babylon finished an emissions inventory last May, officials said.

The project should be finished by mid-2010, according to John McNally, environment project officer for the foundation. He said some preliminary findings might be released earlier as researchers complete work on certain sectors, such as transportation or the waste stream.

Funding for the project is incomplete, McNally said. He said it would cost an estimated $274,000, and the foundation would put up $192,000 initially.