Alliance for A Green Economy (AGREE) is a left-of-center environmentalist advocacy organization that seeks to end New York State’s use of conventional fuels and nuclear power and to replace them with wind and solar energy. ¹

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Alliance for a Green Economy was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.” ²

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ³ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ⁴

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee of AGREE consists of the following groups: Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club, Citizens’ Environmental Coalition, CNY Chapter of Citizens Awareness Network, Citizen Action of New York, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Peace Action of Central New York, Peace Action New York State, and Syracuse Peace Council. ⁵

Leadership

Tim Judson is board president and co-founder of AGREE. Since 2014, he has worked as executive director for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service. Judson currently chairs the bard of Citizens Awareness Network and led the campaign to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor in Vernon, Vermont. ⁶

Jessica Azulay Chasnoff is the program director of AGREE and co-founder of the New York Energy Democracy Alliance. She also founded PeoplesNetWorks, was an editor at the now defunct online newspaper The NewStandard, and was a contributor to ZNet. Azulay Chasnoff also held a staff position on the Syracuse Peace Council and is currently a board member of Cooperative Federal, a credit union in Syracuse. ⁷

Funders

Financial supporters of the Alliance for a Green Economy include the corporate advocacy arm of environmentalist-minded sportswear manufacturer Patagonia,⁸ Resist.org,⁹ and the New York State government’s Energy Research and Development Authority. ¹⁰

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4. “The Science of Sustainability.” The Nature Conservancy. October 13, 2018. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-insights/perspectives/the-science-of-sustainability/
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6. “Staff,” National Information and Resource Service, https://www.nirs.org/staff/, accessed March 12, 2020.
7. “About,” Cooperative Federal, http://www.cooperativefederal.org/en/board_volunteers, accessed March 12, 2020.
8. “Alliance for a Green Economy.” Patagonia Action Works. Accessed March 27, 2020. https://www.patagonia.com/actionworks/grantees/alliance-for-a-green-economy/.
9. Magnarelli, Tom, and Saif Rahman. “Alliance for a Green Economy.” RESIST, March 14, 2016. https://resist.org/grantees/alliance-green-economy.
10. Kang, Ashley. “HeatSmart CNY Launches Outreach Campaign.” The Stand, December 13, 2018. https://mysouthsidestand.com/more-news/heat-smart-cny-launches-outreach-campaign/.