Sustainable Otsego is a loose, minimally structured network of local activists and supporters who seek to promote sustainable practices in the rural Leatherstocking region focused on Cooperstown and Otsego County, New York. Its’ listserv provides a forum for the discussion of sustainability issues.

Their website included links to expert opinions, products and chemicals fact sheets and current events. as of 2025, their domain has been sold but they are on Facebook and regularly update.

Plan to Convert NYS to 100% Renewable Energy by 2030

Featured item from their website: Rob Jordan. Researchers map out an alternative energy future for New York. 12 Mar 2013. Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

A study, co-authored by Stanford engineer Mark Z. Jacobson, outlines a path to statewide renewable energy conversion, and away from natural gas and imported fuel.

About Sustainable Otsego. 19 Jan 2013.

OUR MISSION:

Sustainable Otsego is a social network and political committee dedicated to promoting sustainable practices and to running candidates for local office in the Leatherstocking region including Otsego County, NY.

We rely on three guiding principles for public policy:

1. Sustainability.

Conserve local resources while shifting to renewable practices in all areas of production, distribution, and consumption — especially in energy, manufacturing, and agriculture.

2. Economic Independence.

Replace imports wherever possible with locally produced products; develop local sources of capital for local businesses — the more dollars are retained to circulate locally the greater our prosperity.

3. Home Rule.

Democratic local communities are the best stewards and rightful beneficiaries of their own natural resources; local control over local resources to promote local businesses is essential to a productive, sustainable economy.

STRUCTURE:

We are not a traditional decision-making membership organization, but a loose social network managed by our Moderator. Through our listserv and website and political activity we provide various platforms for sustainably-minded individuals to take action on a variety of issues.

HISTORY:

Sustainable Otsego was founded on 23 June 2007 at a meeting called by the Moderator, Adrian Kuzminski.

Those present included: Jim Dalton, Antoinette Kuzminski, Adrian Kuzminski, Dick de Rosa, John and Linda Kosmer, James Herman, Beth Rosenthal, Kathleen Gordon, Hugh MacDougall, Jim Kevlin, Andy Minnig, Dotty Hudson, Michael Whaling, Ed Danielski, and Rebecca Weil.  

At that meeting we agreed on the following points: “1) that the group take a countywide perspective, without precluding more specific issues; 2) that it function as an informal nimble advocacy group, doing its best to help press solutions to certain chronic problems, particularly where action seems otherwise lacking; and 3) that individual members take the lead on some specific issues . . .”

When we were founded our main concerns were with peak oil, energy descent, relocalization, and their consequences — all continuing vital issues. We were the incubator for the Kid Garden started by Antoinette Kuzminski at the Cooperstown Central School; we brought in a series of public speakers on sustainability topics; we promoted a county sustainability plan.

In 2008 the prospect of fracking for natural gas in our region of NYS became apparent. We took the lead in investigating the consequences of fracking for our area and were the first to alert the public by presenting our initial findings in a series of community panels in early 2009, including presentations by James Herman, Ron Bishop, and Colleen Blacklock.

We put together a large compendium of materials related to fracking, entitled “Frack Facts,” largely thanks to James Herman, and we were the co-founders, along with Otsego 2000, of the Coalition Against Unsafe Drilling, which has since coordinated local resistance to fracking by scores of local groups.

During this process we established and expanded the Sustainable Otsego listserv, which now has several hundred subscribers. The listserv has played a vital role in disseminating information about fracking and sustainability issues in our area and beyond.

Other activities have included co-sponsoring an early screening of GASLAND with a presentation by Director Josh Fox, as well as numerous lobbying efforts in Albany, including organizing a June 2012 press conference of municipalities which had banned fracking, writing op-eds and letters to local newspapers, participating in numerous rallies, and testifying at hearings held by the state legislature and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. We have also played an important role in mobilizing public opinion to support Home Rule bans and moratoria by local municipalities on fracking.

In 2011 we turned to electoral politics, and registered as a political committee with the NYS Board of Elections. That year we recruited 11 candidates to run for local office — at the town and county level — on an independent Sustainable Otsego ballot line. 7 of those 11 candidates won, as did a number of other candidates we endorsed. As a result we have been able to influence local politics on a variety of issues from fracking, to planning, to health care, to solid waste, among others. Our current platform for local candidates in up com ng elections can be seen here.

In 2012 we sponsored a day-long conference, “Meeting the Energy Challenge for Otsego County: Local Solutions, Local Control, Local Jobs.” Our struggle against the threat of fracking to our region has not only reinforced our commitment to promoting sustainable practices, it has produced a larger, more informed constituency in favor of such practices.

Today, as we move forward, we have three main areas of activity: promoting sustainable living, engaging in political action, and responding to environmental threats to our communities. We invite all those who share our values to participate in our efforts.

See: In Pursuit of Sustainability

See: un-naturalgas.org

See: U.S. EPA Initiates Hydraulic Fracturing Study | Meeting | EPA Science Advisory Board (SAB)

See: Cornell 2011 Energy Conference

See: Addressing the Environmental Risks from Shale Gas Development

See: Onondaga Nation of Iroquois Confederacy Takes On Fracking

See: Incite: An independent advocate for the environment. | Gas Pains