Are "environmental agencies being singled out" by Paterson?

A slew of environmental groups are rallying to side with Pete Grannis, the erstwhile Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, who was fired abruptly last night. The groups expressed their concern by releasing a press release full of statements of outrage and by holding a press conference today at which one speaker stated that "environmental agencies are being singled out by Governor Paterson." (That's around 2:17 minutes into the video below.) 

5:30pm update: Oops, Grannis was the head of the DEC, not the DEP. The above post has been corrected.