Last year during the campaign, I vowed to be the greenest Attorney General New York State has ever had. As we commemorate Earth Day, I'm proud to report our progress in reaching that goal, and reaffirm our shared commitment to protecting New York's environmental resources.
As part of this obligation, I've pledged to sue the federal government if it does not commit, in 30 days, to conducting a full, transparent environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling, including the potentially harmful hydrofracking practice in the Delaware River Basin.
Before opening the door to gas fracking in a water source that provides approximately 50 percent of the drinking water used by over nine million New York residents and visitors every day, we must do everything we can to fully assess the impact of this technique.
This is one part of our all-levers approach to protecting New Yorkers' air, water and soil.
This week, we argued before the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the right of states to sue five polluting power companies to force them to reduce carbon dioxide emissions -- the leading cause of climate change.
We're leading the fight for safety at Indian Point and other nuclear power facilities by challenging a decision by a federal commission that allowed the storage of high-level radioactive waste for at least 60 years after their closure without assessing the public and environmental impacts; calling on federal regulators to include seismicity in the scope of review for the relicensing of Indian Point; and filing a petition to force Indian Point to comply with fire safety regulations.
We've sued out-of-state power plants that are polluting our air, and led a coalition of attorneys general from Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Massachusetts, against efforts in the U.S. House of Representatives to remove critical environmental regulations that protect New York communities from toxic pollution.
And that's just the beginning.
Every New Yorker has the right to clean air, safe drinking water and healthy communities to raise their children -- and you can rest assured that I will aggressively protect that right, not just on Earth Day, but every day.