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Saturday,ÊJ anuaryÊ14,Ê2017
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www.SunCommunityNews.com
In SPORTS | pg. 18-19
Ladies hoops take center stage Tight contests, upsets and more
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In opinion | pg. 6
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Not sold on tuition proposal
In Lake GeorGe | pg. 4
Something is stinky
Questions need to be answered
Town questions village’s sewer bill
Trump administration sparks concerns by green groups Incoming EPA chief could mark rollbacks in acid rain recovery By Pete DeMola
pete@suncommunitynews.com
GLENS FALLS — With just weeks until president-elect Donald Trump takes office, environmental groups in the Adirondack Park are expressing concerns over an administration they fear may be hostile to the environment. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, has said he wants to eliminate federal
environmental regulations and reduce the size and scope of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Federal regulations administered by the agency have resulted in significant reductions in the air pollution that causes acid rain in the Adirondack Park, more than 80 percent of which is generated from out-of-state. The roots of recovery stretch back to 1990, when amendments to the Clean Air Act started a cap and trade program for emissions. Since then, depleted fish populations and damaged forests have been resurrected across the region. The president-elect, who takes office Jan.
20, tapped Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to lead the EPA, an organization he has spent years fighting. His oversight, said the Adirondack Council, could reverse decades of recovery. “If acid rain makes a comeback during the Trump Administration, we will lose this newfound protection and everything will start getting worse again,” said Executive Director Willie Janeway. “That would be tragic.” Pruitt, who is involved in numerous lawsuits seeking to reverse environmental regulations in the oil-rich state of Oklahoma, indicated he would overturn one of President Obama’s leading environmental legacies
— the Clean Power Plan, which establishes goals for reducing carbon emissions through a national trading system. While that legislation is aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions, it has the side effect of further reducing the emissions that cause acid rain, including sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. But the program, said Peter Bauer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, has been vilified by the incoming Trump Administration despite being “incredibly successful by using the power of the free market for positive environmental change.” >> See TRUMP | pg. 8
ConoverÊ installedÊ asÊ WarrenÊ CountyÕ sÊ boardÊ chairman
By Thom Randall
thom@suncommunitynews.com
QUEENSBURY — Bolton Supervisor Ron Conover took the helm of Warren County government Jan. 5 as he was installed as chairman of the county Board of Supervisors following a unanimous vote by the board’s members. Conover replaces Warrensburg Supervisor Kevin Geraghty, who stepped down after serving four years as chairman. One of Conover’s first decisions as board chairman was to retain Geraghty as Acting Warren County Administrator, a post he’s held since former administrator Paul Dusek departed last year. Conover is the first board chairman from Bolton since the mid-1970s. In taking on the new role, Conover announced he has split the county’s Tourism & Occupancy Tax Committee into two separate committees as they had existed until last year, cit>> See WARREN | pg. 8