Newsletter #16: Doggedly Sustaining the Status Quo
“Sustainability Month” at Cornell
Newsletter #16, April 30, 2025
Dear Cornell on Fire,
April was “Sustainability Month” at Cornell, and it was frankly unbelievable. Here’s a roundup of Cornell’s real, unexaggerated accomplishments over the course of the month:
Sustaining their Gas Plant’s Right to Expansion. Cornell got a jumpstart on Sustainability Month by lobbying to indefinitely expand their use of fracked gas in a presentation to the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI) on March 28. Faced with the fossil-fuel phaseout on new construction mandated by Ithaca’s green energy code, Cornell’s Sustainability and Energy Transition teams have tirelessly lobbied for a carveout. Their goal? To ensure that Cornell can keep expanding load at their gas plant on the false pretense that gas-fired heating generates less emissions than building electrification.
A recent white paper by faculty experts and Cornell on Fire pointed out that Cornell’s methodology and conclusions are both incorrect and replicate Big Oil’s misinformation. Rather than correcting course, Cornell staff invented new arguments to support the foregone conclusion that their gas plant should be free to expand burning fracked gas. At their March 28 presentation, the Cornell team deployed contradictory lines of reasoning to advance this narrative. The last straw was the Sustainability Director’s proposal for unequal treatment under the law: the correct method of “long-run” rates would apply to all of Ithaca’s standalone buildings, such that they are required to comply with the law, whereas the unconventional (and incorrect) method of “future short-run” rates would apply to Cornell’s district energy system, such that they are exempt from the law. This proposal: (1) is preposterous because it embodies a double standard; (2) is doubly preposterous because it proposes an incorrect method for Cornell; (3) is self-contradictory because it clashes with the simultaneous claim by Cornell’s Associate Vice President of Energy and Sustainability that long-run rates are invalid “hypothetical [carbon] offsets” (not true).* Expert observers who followed these proceedings were boggled.
Sustaining Their Inadequate Climate “Action” Plan Against the Student Assembly’s Evidence. On April 8, Cornell’s Sustainability Director partnered with President Kotlikoff to issue a nonresponse to the Student Assembly’s unanimous passage of Resolution 20 to improve Cornell’s climate action plan. The resolution documented evidence for and called for remediation of the university’s misleading emissions reporting, attempts to exempt itself from Ithaca’s energy code, continued overconsumption and high-carbon activities, and lack of climate leadership.
In response, the Sustainability Director rolled out a series of PR talking points while pointedly ignoring the resolution’s factual statements about the university’s outsized carbon footprint, misleading emissions reporting, and inadequate climate action. For instance, she disingenuously boasted that Cornell faculty “played a key role” in “contributing their expertise to understanding and addressing the state's climate challenges.” Yet she herself co-authored the dissenting opinion to oppose the methane emissions reporting standards advocated by those very same Cornell faculty and now written into NY law. Well aware of this fact, the authors of the Resolution stated that “a comprehensive emissions baseline inventory should include all significant emission sources, such as methane.” This was painfully ignored. The Sustainability Director concluded by deflecting from the institution to individuals, volunteering to help students “identify barriers” to their own “low-carbon lifestyles.”
Sustaining fossil turf: “Tall Grass, Small Gas,” meet “All Gas, No Grass.” Cornell used to launch their “Tall Grass, Small Gas” initiative in “No Mow May,” but it’s now “No Mow April” due to warming temperatures. Accordingly, this month Cornell refrained from mowing select campus lawns to reduce equipment gas use (yes, Cornell’s equipment still runs on fossil fuels). Cornell reports that, “Just based on reduced fuel use, the tall grass initiative reduces Cornell’s CO2 emissions by a total of 9,700 pounds [or 4.85 tons] per year.”
Yet all month long, Cornell has also continued working to expand fake grass fields across campus. These carbon-intensive plastic fields are made from petrochemicals, helping to sustain demand for fossil fuels. Hence, we dub Cornell’s artificial turf program “All Gas, No Grass.” Cornell’s three newest artificial turf fields alone (excluding existing fields) will increase Cornell’s CO2 emissions by 159-450 tons of CO2 per year.* That means Cornell is annually emitting up to 93 times more CO2 from three new fake grass fields than they’re reducing from all their no-mow lawns combined.* Cornell makes much of the trivial emissions reductions from “tall grass,” while remaining silent about the large emissions increases from “all gas” turf.*
Looking back on “Sustainability Month” at Cornell, we can safely conclude that it was a raging success in sustaining the status quo. If we rely upon institutional actors for climate action, we are doomed.
The only way forward is for ordinary folks to begin cordially disrupting fossil fuel business-as-usual. Join us at 11:15am this Friday, May 2 to begin studying our options. This unusual public lecture with Bill McKibben and Kevin Young is not to be missed!
Your partner in business-unusual,
Cornell on Fire
*Asterisks indicate where supplemental notes can be found by scrolling to the bottom of this page. You can like this post and others on Instagram.
Correction: We initially stated that the University’s response to Student Assembly Resolution 20 “disingenuously boasted that ‘Cornell faculty played a key role in the New York State Climate Impacts Assessment’” while opposing recommendations from those very same faculty. However, the specific faculty working on state-level emissions reporting standards have been involved in New York climate efforts beyond the Climate Impacts Assessment itself. Thus, the more relevant quotation comes from the University’s immediately subsequent claim that Cornell faculty “played a key role [in] contributing their expertise to understanding and addressing the state's climate challenges.” Cornell faculty have worked extensively on state climate challenges through the New York Climate Act (or the CLCPA) and the New York State Climate Action Council, as well as the New York Climate Impacts Assessment - yet Cornell administrators refuse to implement their recommendations on emissions reporting.
Hasten the move toward a fossil-free future:
Join us this Friday!
DON’T MISS IT:
Join us at 11:15am this Friday, May 2, for an unusual public lecture led by renowned scholar-activists Kevin Young and Bill McKibben: “HOW TO DISRUPT FOSSIL-FUEL BUSINESS-AS-USUAL.” Location: Cornell University’s Uris Hall Auditorium (and live stream). Learn the strategies behind intersectional climate and justice movements that WON, and celebrate those movements today. Learn more and RSVP here. An intersectional event co-sponsored by Cornell on Fire, TIAA-Divest, Fossil Free Cornell, the Coalition for Mutual Liberation, Cornell YDSA, the Cornell Chapter of the AAUP, Extinction Rebellion Ithaca, and Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island.
Engage the Wider Movement:
Tomorrow! May Day: National Day of Action on May 1. At 4:45: Gather at Bernie Milton Pavilion on the Commons. Come early if you can. 5:00: Art performance, march to Dewitt Park. Bring your signs! Pro-worker encouraged! 5:30: May Day celebration at Dewitt Park. Music, food, speakers, and fun ‘till 7pm! See the flyer here. Cornell on Fire will be tabling during the celebration at Dewitt Park from 5:30-7:00 pm. Come visit us!
Monday, May 5: Vigil for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Awareness Day, 7:30pm at the Ag Quad. Join the Native American and Indigenous Students at Cornell (NAISAC) for a vigil to raise awareness about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, including women, girls, two-spirit, and relatives across Turtle Island. Together we will honor those we have lost, stand with their families, and call for justice for our thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to attend. Attendees are welcome to bring a poem, words of strength, or a story to share during the vigil. To show support, pre-order a shirt to wear on May 5th here.
Join concerned citizens and scientists in opposing Cornell’s artificial turf field expansion plans despite an ongoing lawsuit. Make your voice heard during public comments to the Town Planning Board on Tuesday, May 6 (6:30pm, in person at Town Hall or via this Zoom link). Write to Zero Waste Ithaca (info@zerowasteithaca.org) or connect@cornellonfire.org with questions.
Extinction Rebellion Climate Vigils 11am every Saturday at Chase Bank - the worst bank on Earth - at the East end of the Ithaca Commons.
In case you missed it. Catch up on our latest work:
Check out our latest communications:
Check out our latest actions:
Sign the call to decarbonize Cornell!
Read the Earth Day information packet we shared with over 70 decision makers working with the Town and City of Ithaca, Tompkins County, and Cornell University. This information was shared in support of Ithacans’ Earth Day demand for Cornell to comply with Ithaca’s green building code.
Read the press coverage of our activities over the last month.
Thank you for reading this far and engaging in the number-one frontline for climate action: your attention.
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES
*On Cornell’s changing arguments for an exemption from Ithaca’s fossil-fuel phaseout:
The Cornell Energy Team has repeatedly changed their public presentations in response to the white paper, without going so far as to adopt the correct methodology (which would find their gas plant should in fact comply with Ithaca’s fossil-fuel phaseout). For instance, in response to the white paper authors’ observation that Cornell’s “short-run rate” methodology is wrong and replicates Big Oil’s misinformation, the Cornell team introduced an alternative construct of “future short-run rates” on March 28. This is an unconventional construct with no known use case, but Cornell staff expects it will paint their gas plant in a positive light. White paper authors pointed out that one problem with using any short-run methodology, “future” or otherwise, is that it would exempt everyone in Ithaca from the fossil-fuel phaseout, not just Cornell. It was to address this snag in their argument that the Sustainability Director put forward the claim that Ithaca should deploy two separate methodologies: the wrong one for Cornell (a district energy system) and the right one for the rest of Ithaca (standalone buildings). The Cornell Energy Team still has not addressed the fact that short-run methodology (“future” or otherwise) is the incorrect choice for modeling consequential emissions associated with building electrification. Evidently, Cornell is not overly concerned with crafting a coherent argument as long as they can convince local decision makers to exempt their power plant from Ithaca’s fossil-fuel phaseout.
*Supplemental note on GHG emissions from an artificial turf field:
Across its life cycle of construction, maintenance and final removal, a single artificial turf field has been estimated to produce a total of 527-1500 tons CO2e, depending on features of the analysis and field. The lower estimate was provided by Magnusson and Macsik (2017) who estimate that for “the construction, maintenance and final removal of artificial turf, the GHG emissions was 527 ton CO2 equivalents.” The upper estimate was provided by consultants for FIFA from Eunomia Research & Consulting Ltd (2017), who produced an environmental impact study finding that the life cycle emissions from an artificial turf pitch are 1500 tons CO2 (see summary of findings at Climate Action Moreland). Assuming the average turf life cycle of 10 years (fake fields need to be replaced every 8-12 years), this equals an annual GHG cost of roughly 53-150 tons per year of use. Cornell is currently on track to install 3 new artificial turf fields, totaling 159-450 tons CO2e per year. This figure excludes carbon emissions from the multiple fake fields already installed on campus that will also be replaced every 8-12 years.
*On no-mow lawns:
The ecological benefits of no-mow lawns are now questioned, according to one Cornell researcher.
*Additional harms of artificial turf fields:
Aside from the carbon emissions, each artificial turf field also dumps massive microplastic waste into the air, water, and soil while exposing humans and environments to toxic chemicals including heavy metals and PFAS “forever chemicals.” Embarrassingly, Cornell representatives have misrepresented these facts before the Ithaca Planning Boards while propagating questionable information from manufacturers and industry lobbyists. Read our blog posts here, here, and the petition calling for credible science here.
Newsletter #16 originally published on April 30, 2025.
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