Praise, contempt for activist's Broadwater fight

When Gov. David A. Paterson killed the controversial Broadwater project last week on the balmy boardwalk of Sunken Meadow State Park, no one was smiling more broadly than Adrienne Esposito.

State Sen. Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) called Esposito a "heroine" of the three-year Long Island Sound battle. "When she gets her teeth into something, it better not be your butt because ... [she] doesn't let go until she gets what she wants," said the Senate's environmental committee chairman. "She makes her point with credibility, not bombast. It's not just rhetoric, she speaks facts."

The only nonelected official who spoke at Sunken Meadow, Esposito said, "I feel like I'm dreaming. I've dreamed a governor giving that kind of speech. I've dreamed of a bipartisan lovefest like this."

For Esposito, 47, who heads Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Broadwater is her biggest victory. The outcome was even more satisfying, she added, because it seemed that much of the process appeared wired to give the oil companies what they wanted. "At some point, this campaign became more than ... protecting the Sound," she said. "It became about whether public voices could be heard."

With 80,000 members in two states - the group opened a Connecticut office only a year ago - Esposito's group led the grassroots effort that turned out 60,000 handwritten letters and 100,000 petition signatures and got most local officials to oppose the project.

But Froydis Cameron, a Broadwater spokeswoman, said that the liquefied natural gas project also received thousands of letters in support as well as endorsements from heavy energy users like schools and hospitals.

"She [Esposito] claims to speak for all of Long Island," Cameron said. But "people who really worry about energy costs, she obviously didn't speak for them."

Energy expert Matthew Cordaro, a former Long Island Lighting Co. executive, said Esposito is part of a new cadre of professional environmentalists who make a living stirring up battles.

"Environmental activists cannot be viewed as having no self-interest," he said. "This is a business for them, and I don't think that's appreciated or recognized."

But backers say special interests would prefer no foes, much less any equipped to do battle. "It's still David vs. Goliath," said Assemb. Steven Englebright (D-Setauket). "If you're going to put a team on the field, you have to at least give them shoes."

Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, said critics are so shrill because Esposito is never unprepared. "She's a walking encyclopedia," he said.

While Citizens Campaign works statewide and in Connecticut, half its members come from Long Island - mostly paid door-to-door canvassers who also seek signatures on petitions. That force, which swells to 150 in the summer, according to organizers, not only does grassroots education, but funds a $2-million budget that staffs a half-dozen offices and a professional staff of 15 researchers, including Esposito, who makes $61,000 a year.

Some also have criticized Esposito's group for opposing Broadwater but remaining silent on a gas project off the Island's South Shore. Some also question why the group accepted a $3,000 sponsorship from developer Vincent Polimeni, who wants a tunnel under the Sound, for its upcoming gala.

"Their idea of NIMBY is 'Not in millionaires' and billionaires' backyards,'" said Democratic Nassau Legis. David Mejias last year.

Esposito, who lives in blue-collar Patchogue, said Citizens Campaign has no position on the South Shore gas project because it has not advanced far enough. And Polimeni's money, Esposito said, will not tar the group's stance on a tunnel, also noting it would be dug 120 feet under the Sound.

"All you have in this business is your credibility," Esposito said. "And we will base our decisions on science ... and good common sense."