Seneca Lake Guardian is an environmentalist advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Finger Lakes of New York state. Seneca Lake Guardian is an affiliate of Waterkeeper Alliance, a major environmental network founded in 1999 by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ^{1 2}

Seneca Lake Guardian has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ³

Background

Seneca Lake Guardian is an affiliate of Waterkeeper Alliance, a major environmental network founded in 1999 by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ^{1 2}

Activities

In 2018, Seneca Lake Guardian acquired Gas Free Seneca as an affiliate. ¹ The leaders of Gas Free Seneca are also the founders of Seneca Lake Guardian. ² Gas Free Seneca was instrumental in defeating a proposed construction project that would have create gas and liquid petroleum storage infrastructure on Seneca Lake. ^{4 1}

Shutting Down Crypto Currency Mining

In December 2021, Seneca Lake Guardian was encouraging its supporters to call New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) and voice their opposition to power plant activation that would support Bitcoin mining in New York. Specifically, it named the Greenidge power plant on Seneca Lake and the proposed Fortistar power plant that would be built in Niagara County. ⁵ In June, 2022, the permit for the Greenidge facility was denied by the state of New York. Later, in November 2022, Governor Hochul signed a controversial piece of legislation backed by Seneca Lake Guardian that declared a two year moratorium on all new cryptocurrency mining operations in New York that would use electricity generated by fossil fuel power plants. Yvonne Taylor, vice president of Seneca Lake Guardian, issued a statement celebrating the legislation and told reporters at Politico that “The crypto industry is going to whine that this is a blow, but it’s not.” ⁶

Closing the Seneca Meadows Landfill

The Seneca lake Guardian has also advocated for the expedited closure of the Seneca Meadows Landfill, the largest landfill in New York. In 2022, the Seneca Lake Guardian launched a public pressure campaign encouraging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to deny a request by Seneca Meadows to extend its operating permits, scheduled to expire in 2025, through 2040. In December 2022, attorney’s representing the Seneca Meadows landfill issued a cease and desist letter in response to alleged defamatory claims made by Seneca Lake Guardian that Seneca Meadows called “baseless claims and fearmongering.” Seneca Lake Guardian refused to retract their statement. ⁷

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

In May of 2021, Seneca Lake Guardian was one of 715 groups and businesses listed as a co-signer on a letter to the leadership of the U.S. House and Senate that referred to nuclear energy as a “dirty” form of energy production and a “significant” source of pollution. The letter asked federal lawmakers to reduce carbon emissions by creating a “renewable electricity standard” that promoted production of weather dependent power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels, but did not promote low carbon natural gas and zero carbon nuclear energy. ³

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. ⁸ 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. ⁹

Seneca Lake Guardian 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.” ¹⁰

Business Coalition

Seneca Lake Guardian has a formal coalition of businesses that supports its mission. It describes itself as “pro-business, pro-economic” despite its opposition to commercial energy projects in the area, and it claims to be “supporting the developing tourist industry around Seneca Lake.” As of October 2022, there were at least 420 members of its business coalition, and it was actively recruiting more companies to join its list. ¹¹

Funding

In 2017, Sustainable Markets Foundation gave Seneca Lake Guardian $34,100 for “climate change” activism. ¹² Other donors to the organization are not known.

Leadership

The Seneca Lake Guardian was founded by Joseph Campbell, Yvonne Taylor, and Mary Anne Kowalski, respectively the president, vice president, and treasurer and researcher of Gas Free Seneca, a similar environmentalist group focused on Seneca Lake. ^{1 2} Mary Anne Kowalski is also a board member of Seneca Lake Pure Waters. ²

1. Shaw, David L. “Gas Free Seneca joins Seneca Lake Guardian, focuses on incinerator.” FLTimes, July 20, 2018. Accessed October 7, 2022. https://www.fltimes.com/news/gas-free-seneca-joins-seneca-lake-guardian-focuses-on-incinerator/article_3caa229e-5a1a-575f-a86d-b6a4a8f85be2.html.
2. “About.” Seneca Lake Guardian. Accessed October 7, 2022. https://senecalakeguardian.org/About.
3. Letter from Center for Biological Diversity et. al. to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Joe Manchin, and Rep. Frank Pallone. “RE: CONGRESS SHOULD ENACT A FEDERAL RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY STANDARD AND REJECT GAS AND FALSE SOLUTIONS.” May 12, 2021. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/energy-justice/pdfs/2021-5-12_600-Group-Letter-for-RES.pdf?_gl=1*1c9h3t8*_gcl_au*MTc3NjM3MTM1Mi4xNjg5OTU1MzAz
4. “Victory!” Seneca Lake Guardian. Accessed October 7, 2022. https://senecalakeguardian.org/Victory-Gas-Free-Seneca.
5. “Call Governor Hochul.” Seneca Lake Guardian, December 8, 2021. Accessed October 7, 2022. https://senecalakeguardian.org/StopBitcoin-mining-fracked-gas-power-plants.
6. Gronewald, Anna. “Hochul Signs Partial Cryptocurrency Mining Ban into New York Law.” POLITICO. Accessed December 14, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/22/cryptocurrency-mining-ban-new-york-00070613.
7. Swift, Rebecca. “Seneca Lake Guardian vs. Seneca Meadows Landfill: Two Sides Fight over Messaging in the Community (Video).” Fingerlakes1.com, December 14, 2022. https://www.fingerlakes1.com/2022/12/13/environmental-group-reacts-to-cease-and-desist-letter-from-landfill-we-will-not-be-bullied-into-silence/.
8. “Nuclear explained.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. Accessed July 25, 2023. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/us-nuclear-industry.php
9. “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/
10. “Group letter to Congress urging Green New Deal passage.” Earthworks. January 10, 2019. Accessed July 27, 2023. https://www.earthworks.org/publications/group-letter-to-congress-urging-green-new-deal-passage/
11. “Seneca Lake Guardian. Business Coalition.” Seneca Lake Guardian, October 2021. Accessed October 7, 2022. https://senecalakeguardian.org/Seneca-Lake-Guardian-Business-Coalition.
12. Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990). Sustainable Markets Foundation. 2017. Part II.