Albany Update: Blue Wave Brings Green Potential

 

2019 presents both peril and promise for New York as we tackle two cataclysmic forces — the increasing severity of climate change and the unhinged policies of President Donald Trump. 

 

With comprehensive reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and 13 United States federal agencies warning that there is a narrowing 12-year window to limit a complete climate catastrophe, the urgency to act has never been greater. In stark contrast to this call to action is the Trump administration’s push to increase smokestack and tailpipe pollution as Midwest crops wither, Southern states flood and the West Coast burns.

 

In New York, there is promise. The much heralded “blue wave” crashed over the NYS Senate in the fall elections, breaking 10 years of gridlock with a decisive 39–24 seat advantage for progressives. Sierra Club volunteers worked tirelessly across the state to elect leaders we knew were not only committed to protecting the environment but also resistant to influence from special interest money. We know that when power shifts, so does the dirty money in Albany.

 

In 2009, the last time there was a troika of Democratic control of the Senate, Assembly and governor’s office, opportunities to advance meaningful reform and environmental protection were squandered over concerns for hanging onto power in a sea of special interest money. Inevitably, power reverted to conservative hands after less than two years of over-caution, corruption and inaction.

 

This time around it feels different. Twenty-five percent of the incoming 2019 Senate is completely new, representing an historic turnover of seats not seen in more than a century. The Independent Democratic Conference, the eight break-away democratic senators who ceded Democratic control of the Senate to Republicans in exchange for committee chairmanship salaries and perks, lost six seats in the primaries to committed progressives and dissolved as a body. With a new 7-seat majority, Andrea Stewart-Cousins becomes the first woman president of the NYS Senate and brings with her a reputation for progressive values, and an ability to organize and legitimize a diverse Democratic Conference. For the first time, the “three men in a room” negotiations will include a woman. There are hopes that her leadership style will infuse more light into the typical in-the-dark negotiations.

 

With the prospects of breaking the legislative log jam in 2019, senate leaders have already announced a number of important priorities, such as election reform, codifying reproductive rights, criminal justice reform, gun control, increased funding for education and improving our healthcare system — which they intend to pass in the coming months. There have been fewer commitments regarding climate change or the environment. This may be largely because the legislative solutions to addressing threats of a warming planet are onerous and require vast societal changes as we adapt to a carbon-free future. With an eye on maintaining control of the Senate through 2020, when the ruling partly draws electoral maps, political leaders may be gun-shy of passing anything that will be perceived as raising taxes or causing hardship for voters. The recent “yellow vest” rebellion in Paris provides a precautionary tale for those that wish to mitigate climate change without protecting disadvantage communities and organized labor.

 

But New York law makers should be equally wary of an increasingly engaged electorate that is watching the unfolding climate crisis in real time. Inaction may be as politically costly as maintaining the status quo. 

 

Over the past three legislative sessions, the NYS Assembly has passed the Climate and Community Protection Act — a bold initiative that will codify the state’s climate goals in a way that uplifts our most disadvantaged communities and workers as they transition to a 100% renewable energy economy. With a progressive Senate in wait, it will be interesting to know if Assembly passage in year four will be as simple. The Sierra Club, along with 150 other environmental justice, labor and social justice groups, will be flooding the halls of the Capitol until the CCPA reaches the governor’s desk. Along the way, there are many other legislative priorities that have languished over the past decade for which we feel we can find some meaningful advancement, if not enactment.

 

Single-use plastic bags are an environmental menace — littering our parks, despoiling our communities and clogging our waterways, all with the potential to strangle and poison wildlife. Sierra Club supports legislation that will prohibit the distribution of thin-film plastic, single-use carryout bags to consumers while imposing a 10-cent fee on all reusable paper bags distributed in NY. Governor Cuomo prioritized a plastic bag ban last year but failed to get the Assembly and Senate to come to an agreement by the end of session. 

 

This concept (as found in last year’s budget bill) would require the largest generators of food waste — supermarkets, restaurants, cafeterias, etc., to donate excess food and recycling food scraps (compost) in a way that drastically reduces landfill/incinerator burden, feeds the hungry, reduces GHG emissions and returns organic material to our soils.

 

Current New York fishery permits allow for the harvest of menhaden using large nets called “purse seines” that have the capacity to catch hundreds of thousands of menhaden and the marine animals that pursue them in a single cast. Sierra Club supports banning the use of this technique so as not to set back the recovery of this keystone species and repeat the overfishing mistakes of the past. 

 

The Sierra Club will be pushing a legislative package that fills the void left by the Trump administration’s rollback of the Clean Water Rule and makes it easier for wetlands to be identified and protected. In addition, we will be supporting changes to stream classifications that will greatly enhance our ability to protect water quality. 

 

The Trump administration announced in 2017 that 90% of America’s offshore waters would be open to oil and gas development, reversing an Obama-era ban on drilling. The new progressive Senate now has the opportunity to not only block drilling in NY’s offshore waters but also to codify NY’s fracking ban.

 

There is a backlog of harmful herbicides and insecticides that have been banned or severely limited in Europe but are readily available — and applied — in the United States. The European Union banned these chemicals because of the impact they have on ecosystems, or on key animal species that benefit agriculture, public health and fisheries. It is our hope that 2019 will be the year that some of these chemical bans make it to the governor’s desk. 

 

It has become customary, if not a necessity, in past legislative sessions to pack every priority issue into the budget because that was the only obligatory agreement that needed to be made between Democrats and Republicans, where compromise was essential. With universal Democratic control, there may be room to separate budget negotiations from other high-profile, standalone issues this year. In the 2018–19 budget, the Sierra Club will be urging continued funding for the Environmental Protection Fund at $300 million, water infrastructure programs at $500 million, and increased staffing for the Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies integral to protecting our air, water and remaining wild places. 

 

Anytime there is a sweeping transfer of power in Albany, there is also chaos as room assignments change, staff are fired and hired, and those so long in the minority have to learn the rules of leadership and governance. The new progressive Senate must be principled and methodical as it takes the reins of power, but it cannot be so cautious that it fails to address the looming disaster that is climate chaos, and all the social and environmental costs that stem from inaction. The Sierra Club is optimistic that the new Senate is up to the challenge.