August 14, 2009
STATE BAR ASSOCIATION COMMENDS GOVERNOR PATERSON FOR
ISSUING AN EXECUTIVE ORDER SETTING GOAL TO CUT GREENHOUSE GAS BY
2050
Directive In Line With Recommendation of State
Bar’s Task Force Report on Global Warming
New York State Bar Association President Michael E. Getnick (Getnick,
Livingston, Atkinson & Priore, LLP of Utica and of counsel to
Getnick & Getnick of New York City) today commended Governor David
A. Paterson for recently signing an executive order that sets a goal to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in New York by 80 percent below 1990
levels by the year 2050. The administration’s directive is
in line with a key recommendation of a recent State Bar Task Force on
Global Warming report on how to address global climate change.
“The executive order signed by Governor Paterson represents
another important step in working to address the effects of climate
change caused by greenhouse gas emissions,” said President
Getnick. “The State Bar, through the excellent work of our Task
Force on Global Warming, has been in the vanguard of proposing
common-sense solutions to this urgent problem. I am pleased that the
Governor has taken action and I look forward to partnering with him in
the future to help provide our children and families with a cleaner,
more sustainable environment for generations to come.”
In April 2009, the State Bar’s Task Force on Global Warming
issued a report entitled “Taking Action In New York On Climate
Change: Report of the New York State Bar Association Task Force on
Global Warming” that contained several recommendations that would
curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the impacts of climate change
on the health of our planet with little or no impact on state and local
government budgets. The report endorsed a statewide target of cutting
greenhouse gas emissions by the same amount as the goal set out in the
Governor’s Executive Order.
Chaired by Michael B. Gerrard, Esq., professor and director of the
Center on Climate Change Law at the Columbia University School of Law,
the task force was established by Immediate Past President Bernice K.
Leber (Arent Fox LLP) in June 2008 and includes experts from the fields
of climate change, law, academia, business and good government advocacy.
The Association’s House of Delegates adopted the task
force’s report during their quarterly meeting this
April. The full report can be viewed at http://www.nysba.org/globalwarmingtaskforcereport.
The 76,000-member New York State Bar Association is the official
statewide organization of lawyers in New York and the largest voluntary
state bar association in the nation. Founded in 1876, State Bar programs
and activities have continuously served the public and improved the
justice system for more than 130 years.
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