The world of politics is a dark one. Sure, nobody is perfect, and many people let the perfect be the enemy of the good when it comes to candidates. We need to remind ourselves that politicians – sorry, elected officials – are people too and they’re not perfect and will fall short because, as people, we all do.
That said, politics is a world of game-playing, hobnobbing, and deal-making, some for more honest efforts than others, but it’s occasionally sprinkled with a touch of deceit, hypocrisy, and selfishness.
Steve Englebright (D-Setauket) did more than just sprinkle those attributes into his current campaign – he dumped them all in.
Steve Englebright was a Suffolk County Legislator from 1983 until he was elected to the Fourth Assembly District in 1992. He served in Albany for thirty years, all of which were in the majority party as a Democrat, and he even rose the rank of Chair of the Environmental Conservation Committee. Englebright made the environment the focal point of his tenure in Albany, going as far as sponsoring a ban on hydraulic fracking in New York State and sponsored legislation that banned commercial fishing of menhaden and baitfish.
The recent shark attacks have been attributed to his legislation, as larger-than-usual schools of fish have attracted sharks that have inadvertently attacked swimmers this summer and last summer. While many would not try to contest ocean territory from sharks, it seems like a fairly logical conclusion that banning fishing leads to increased shark presence. Even if it is a laudable and valid goal in terms of environmental protection, legislative oversight is the real problem. When asked about the consequence, Englebright simply said: “I’m not sure that one could have predicted there would be the seriousness that this has become.”
We’re assuming that Steve is also unsure of how his business ventures while chair of the powerful environmental committee, a position he assumed in 2015.
Documents that have recently been obtained by The Messenger show that Steve not only denied residents of his state an economic booster shot through oil and gas fracking, but he actively benefitted – or at least tried to benefit from it – through his personal investments.
Each year, members of the State Legislature must file a financial disclosure form with the Legislative Ethics Commission. In addition to a salary obtained from teaching at Stony Brook University, while an Assemblyman, and dealing in real estate in Prince Edward Island, Canada, Steve was investing in oil field redevelopments in Kansas and Texas – while he was serving in the Assembly on a staunchly pro-environment record.
In 2013, Steve sponsored Assembly Bill 6451, an act to enact the “look before you leap act of 2012” relating to the “imposition of a 5 year moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing for the purpose of conducting an investigation of the effect of hydraulic fracturing.”
The purpose of his bill was stated as: “This bill seeks to place a 5 year moratorium upon hydraulic fracturing in New York State in order to learn from the fracking experiences of other states, and particularly neighboring Pennsylvania, and requires the state university centers at Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook to conduct an investigation into the cumulative impacts of hydraulic fracturing across the country, which is necessitated by the exemptions granted to the oil and gas industry from major federal environmental laws that protect our air, lands, and water.
The justification for the bill is stated as: “The relatively new drilling method known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, carries significant environmental risks. Among the adverse environmental impacts associated with fracking such as heavy truck traffic, road building and site clearing, the process itself involves drilling into the earth and pumping millions of gallons of water under high pressure into the ground that is mixed with sand and laced with industrial chemicals which the industry is not legally bound to disclose. The poisonous fluid fractures the shale and releases natural gas deposits for collection. In addition to the chemically laden water pumped into the drill site, highly corrosive salts, carcinogens like benzene and radioactive elements like radium all can occur naturally thousands of feet underground and combine with the frocking fluids to create millions of gallons of highly salinated toxic wastewater.”
Steve also went out of his way to use Pennsylvania as an example from which to learn about the potential dangers of fracking, singling out then-Governor Tom Corbett (R):
“Next door in Pennsylvania there has been a doubling of active wells from 36,000 in 2000 to 71,000 in 2010. Governor Tom Corbett has been quoted as saying Pennsylvania will become the next Texas of the gas industry. He has recently given new powers to the Secretary of Community and Economic Development that give authority to override Environmental Protection and other agencies if he thinks they are slowing Marcellus explosion, despite over 1400 violations of environmental lain that DEP cited against gas drillers just last year.”
Apparently, the prospect that Pennsylvania would “become the next Texas of the gas industry” was just so tempting for Steve that he had to go to Texas – and Kansas – to cash in on the deal himself.
His financial disclosure forms from 2012, 2013, and 2014 show his Great Plains investments with one company, Red River Securities, being slammed for fraud and misleading investors in 2017. Steve stipulates in the 2014 form, shortly before his ascension to the chairmanship of the Environmental Conservation Committee, that he sold his Kansas venture and that the two Texas ventures were inoperable and that his actual ownership had ended.
So, Steve thinks that hydraulic fracking is so terrible that it needs to be banned in New York, but subjecting the residents of Kansas and Texas to such environmental hazards is fine as long as he can make a quick buck?
Moreover, even if no one is in direct harm from such practices, is the climate any better off? Steve dedicated his final years in Albany to putting the state on the path to carbon-neutrality. His entire tenure was about the environment. His business ventures in oil fracking weren’t during his time at the County Legislature in the 1980s, nor were they in his formative years in the Assembly; this was ten years ago.
But even if this was somewhat removed from his recent activity in Albany, Steve landed a nice donation from a scandal-plagued chemical company. He received $1,000 in a campaign donation just this December for his run for the County Legislature this year.
Eyeing a comeback to the Legislature, Steve, 77, is asking the same people who denied him a thirtieth-year in Albany to send him to Hauppauge. Anthony Figliola (R-East Setauket) is putting up a severe fight for the Fifth District, once a Democratic stronghold that now finds itself squarely in the eye of the political hurricane.
Steve received $1,000 from Eastman Chemical Company, a Tennessee-based “independent global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of advanced materials, chemicals and fibers for everyday purposes.”
The Tennessee Lookout said in 2022 that “for nearly a decade, the Eastman Chemical Company has been emitting unsafe levels of sulfur dioxide into the communities surrounding its Kingsport, Tenn. plants in violation of national air quality standards…The coal-fired plants are the source of the sulfur dioxide emissions, which can damage human respiratory systems and contribute to acid rain.” The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Air Pollution Control Division had been working with the EPA for nine years to lower the sulfur dioxide release around Eastman’s facility in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Why would this chemical company, who appears to have contributed to some chemical spills of varying toxicities, endorse not only an ardent supporter of the environment, but one from Setauket for a local county race?
Overall, it seems that “Mr. Environment” flirted with the prospects of a new form of technology to benefit himself, while simultaneously cheating residents of his own state from a much-needed form of economic innovation. Additionally, he invested in fledgling oil companies financed by a shady firm.
Steve Englebright needs to publicly address the disclosures and the contradiction with his own values and espoused passions. Additionally, the New York League of Conservation Voters (NYLCV), by far one of the most politically active and prominent environmental and social welfare organizations, needs to review their endorsement of Englebright for the race in the Fifth District for Suffolk County Legislature.
We understand that some elected officials occasionally fall short, but Englebright’s conduct while in the Assembly seems intentionally self-motivated and signals a clear betrayal of values and dishonesty to his constituents.
