NY Daily News - Endangered Species

By Elizabeth Benjamin

In honor of today's Earth Day Lobby Day event (being held a bit late this year), Gov. David Paterson announced he will issue an executive order to ban bottled water at all state agencies.

Paterson said that "everything to do" with bottled water is "environmentally unfriendly" - from the pollution generated by transporting it to the addition to the waste stream that the empty bottles create.

(Theoretically, the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill will address some of these problems - assuming lawmakers ever work out the kinks and actually enact the measure included in the 2009-2010 budget and signed into law by the governor).

Paterson specifically mentioned "single serving" bottles of water during his remarks to environmental advocates, who responded enthusiastically to his announcement.

The governor's communications director, Peter Kauffmann, later confirmed that the order will also apply to water coolers, which might also include the one pictured here in the LCA room. (It could be in a gray area, however, because it's paid for by the Senate, which is not a state agency).

Kauffmann stressed that the bottled water ban won't go into effect until an alternative source of clean water is identified for public employees to drink. The tap water in the Capitol is potable, but apparently it's going to be tested - just to make sure.

To read the rest of the Daily Politics' blog post, click here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is available without profit for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.