Suozzi Joins City & County Leaders in Washington, D.C. to Demonstrate & Seek Support for Critical Local Role in National Climate Change Solutions

 Suozzi joins Senators Boxer, Lieberman and Warner to discuss his ‘Green Levittown’ initiative, as part of event highlighting local programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Washington, D.C. – Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi joined Senators Joe Lieberman, John Warner and Barbara Boxer – as well as a coalition of city and county leaders from around the nation – to call for local governments to be included in national climate change legislation and policies.

As part of the April 9 event in Washington, Suozzi discussed Green Levittown, his environmental initiative to turn America’s First Suburb into America’s First GREEN Suburb, by reducing its carbon footprint by 10% by the end of 2008. He also pushed for the passage of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 56% by 2050.

Suozzi is one of 40 local leaders who have come together to form the Climate Communities coalition, a group focused on demonstrating the important role local governments play in addressing climate change and helping ensure that America meets its global warming challenges.

“Local government action is critical to addressing America’s climate change,” Suozzi said. “Climate Communities is helping cities and counties secure the federal tools, incentives and resources needed to make that happen.”

Green Levittown is a key part of Suozzi’s Healthy Nassau campaign, to make Nassau the healthiest county in the nation by the year 2020. The multi-pronged campaign includes specific actions to sustain and improve the county’s environment – preserving and cleaning up the air, land and water – and to improve residents’ overall health.

Healthy Nassau initiatives include preserving wetlands and protecting the groundwater; helping revive the shellfish population to reopen the waterways for clamming and oyster harvesting for the first time in 70 years; creating an organic farm on county-owned land; preserving the county’s few remaining parcels of open space, and banning the sale of invasive plant species that kill off native plants and disrupt ecosystems.

Nassau County operates one of the largest alternative fuel vehicle fleets in New York State. And Long Island Bus, which operates Nassau County’s bus fleet carrying 30 million passengers a year, is the largest compressed natural gas bus fleet outside California.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in February2008 awarded Suozzi with a Certificate of Achievement for his role in reducing vehicle emissions and improving Nassau’s air quality. Suozzi was also named the 2008 Environmentalist of the Year by the New York League of Conservation Voters.

For more information about Climate Communities, see www.climatecommunities.us.

Communities participating in the Climate Communities events in Washington, D.C. include:

Sacramento County, Calif.
City of Inglewood, Calif.
Sonoma County, Calif.
City of East Palo Alto, Calif.
Humboldt County, Calif.
City of Stamford, Conn.
Metro Washington Council of Governments, D.C.
Charlotte County, Fla.
Broward County, Fla.
Miami-Dade County, Fla.
City of Savannah, Ga.
Story County, Iowa
Linn County, Iowa
Village of Northbrook, Ill.
City of Frankfort, Ky.
Howard County, Md.
Montgomery County, Md.
Carroll County, Md.
Washtenaw County, Mich.
City of Wyandotte, Mich.
City of High Point, N.C.
Town of Cary, N.C.
Nassau County, N.Y.
Cuyahoga County, Ohio
City of Cincinnati, Ohio
City of Greenville, S.C.
Collin County, Texas
El Paso County, Texas
Loudoun County, Va.
New Kent County, Va.
Arlington County, Va.
James City County, Va.
City of Lynchburg, Va.
King County, Wash.
Snohomish County, Wash.