Manhattan Mike Allegretti: Liberal Environmental Radical; Closet Industrial Polluter.
In our last story about Michael Allegretti, we spoke about his various addresses, properties and apartments in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and how we thought it was insulting to Staten Islanders for him to presume that simply by moving to Staten Island a few months ago, it makes him an acceptable candidate for our borough. As someone born to a Staten Island family that extends back to the Civil War, I can tell you that when my other Island friends and family have heard the truth about Allegretti’s cynical relocation to our borough, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike have crossed him off their list.
In this latest article however, the New York Conservative is going to expose Allegretti as a liberal environmental radical whose views are aligned with Democrats Mike McMahon, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. We are also going to expose facts about Allegretti that will give all voters in this U.S. House District pause to support him, Brooklyn and Staten Island alike.
According to his biography, Mike Allegretti served as Director of Climate Initiatives for the Partnership for New York City from 2006 to 2007. During that time, this think tank authored a heinous report on fighting climate change in New York City. This report, Growth or Gridlock: The Economic Case for Traffic Relief and Transit Improvement for a Greater New York, was the Partnership’s most highly touted climate initiative. The report’s primary recommendation was for New York City to impose a congestion pricing plan on the taxpayers; in essence a toll on everyone entering the bottom half of Manhattan, as if New York’s record high and pervasive tolls weren’t burdensome enough.
The congestion pricing report was produced and released on Allegretti’s watch, and as a wealthy trust fund kid, he had no need to continue to work for the Partnership as Director of Climate Initiatives if he disagreed with their primary climate change policy initiative. Yet, there were no public disagreements, no letters to the editor, and no resignations on Allegretti’s part, even though the tolls being proposed would hurt middle class people the most.
Next is Allegretti’s affiliation with the Climate Group as Senior Advisor on US Policy, a position held until just before he took residence on Staten Island and declared his desire to be our Congressman. As Senior Advisor for the Climate Group, Allegretti made a series of statements that no good Republican or conservative could agree with, sounding more like a cheerleader for the Democratic Party, its radical environmental agenda, and its powerbrokers in Washington, D.C.
First is the interview from November 6, 2008, where Allegretti was asked about his views on President Obama’s election victory and said, “The election of Barack Obama was truly an historic moment for the United States. It represented a marked shift in direction for US policy, as Obama won the election on a message of ‘change,’ with a defiantly progressive slogan of ‘yes we can.’ But as Obama acknowledged during his victory speech on Tuesday night, now is when the real work begins. Citing a ‘planet in peril,’ Obama reminded Americans that one of the most pressing challenges facing the country is how to address the threat of climate change.” A “truly historic moment”? No Allegretti wasn’t speaking about the racial milestone that was Obama’s election, but as a huge step forward for the country towards radical policies like cap and trade, which threaten to increase the energy costs of American families by thousands of dollars a year. Maybe that’s why Allegretti also deemed Obama’s election “a positive development” for climate change policy on The Climate Group’s website. Coming from someone who now wants to OUR Republican candidate for Congress, that’s despicable.
Then there was Allegretti’s email to the New York Times, where he said, “The passage of the Waxman-Markey bill was a major step for US domestic climate action.” This is the same bill that our liberal Democrat Congressman Mike McMahon voted for!
Imagine the gall of this Allegretti asking Republicans for his vote, while spending the past 5 years working to support new tolls through congestion pricing, raising energy costs by imposing cap and trade and praising the election of Barack Obama as a step forward for radical environmentalism.
What makes these facts even more incredible is Michael Allegretti’s scathing history as an industrial polluter, which has even impacted the people of the 13th Congressional District from whom he seeks votes.
In this NY Times analysis, we learned that Allegretti’s company, Bayside Fuel Oil, a heating oil wholesaler, was cited on 27 different incidences for polluting New York’s waterways with heating oil, a toxic chemical that emits carcinogenetic fumes. And when the EPA announced its intent to consider one of our most polluted waterways become a SuperFund cleanup site, Michael Allegretti’s company opposed the cleanup! It was revealed in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper that Bayside had intended to develop some of its pollution-tainted land into new residential buildings. It was also revealed by the New York Times that Bayside opposed the expansion of a City Park, and instead fought for the construction of pollution-emitting power plant in the middle of Brooklyn.
Worse by far than all of these facts, is the record of air pollution coming from the Bensonhurst Terminal of Allegretti’s company, Bayside Fuel, located at
1776 Shore Parkway within the confines of our 13th Congressional District. That’s right Republican voters; according two US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) databases available online (here and here), Michael Allegretti–who has spent nearly a year asking for your votes–has been poisoning our air year after year with tons of airborne chemicals. These include toxins like hexane, toluene, benzene, xylenes and ethyl benzene.
According to many authorities on toxic chemicals, benzene is a known carcinogen, and has also been shown to cause blood disorders and to impact the central nervous system the reproductive system; toluene may affect the reproductive and central nervous systems; and ethylbenzene and xylenes may have respiratory and neurological effects on human beings.
The fact that industries produced toxic waste comes as no surprise to anyone; recognizing however, that Michael Allegretti–an avowed environmental radical and candidate for office—is the one behind these toxins is outrageous; and it makes Allegretti the biggest, cruelest hypocrite who has ever stepped forward to run for Congress in the history of Staten Island and Brooklyn.
http://www.newyorkconservative.com/archives/staten-island-gop-sends-in-the-clowns/
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michael-allegretti/6/123/5a0
http://www.pfnyc.org/reports/Growth%20or%20Gridlock.pdf
http://www.greenjobs.com/public/industrynews/inews05027.htm
http://www.theclimategroup.org/our-news/news/2008/11/21/major-development-in-us-climate-debate
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/26/the-climate-bill-in-climate-context/?permid=44#comment44
http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters/polluters/new-york/brooklyn?sor
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=31&id=33851
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/nyregion/20power.html?_r=3&sq=allegretti%20-alain%20-chelsea&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&scp=12&adxnnlx=1277910218-/SJgbY7M+RvsfYbmez46XA
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