by Roger Downs, Atlantic Chapter Conservation Director
After the legislature passed historic environmental policies in the 2020 budget this past April, the general presumption was that, amid the chaos of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Senate and Assembly would not return to Albany until 2021. Convention dictated that the remainder of the year would be better spent focusing on constituents in crisis and campaigning for fall reelection bids.
But the intervening state legislative primaries in June revealed two stark new realities — remote campaigning is difficult and ineffective and incumbents are especially vulnerable to insurgent progressive campaigns promising to break up the status quo of NY Democratic politics. A significant block of powerful Assembly members, some with decades-long chairmanships of important committees, found themselves unseated by relative newcomers whose campaigns were largely rooted in community organizing rather than the traditional party base.
These developments signaled to Senate and Assembly leaders that there remains a public appetite for the legislature to keep pushing progressive policies, and that the best way to campaign and effectively stay in the public eye is to keep legislating. In late July 2020, the legislature returned, largely through a sparse, socially distant presence at the capitol, with video conferencing of committees and remote voting.
If Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Heastie have been cautious about jeopardizing the fall elections with a perceived progressive overreach, those concerns were not on display as they passed a number of critical new laws and reform packages. Among the most significant environmental priorities for which the Sierra Club advocated and the legislature passed in July are:
• A.2655 (Englebright)/S.3392 (May) closes a gaping hole in NY State regulations that prevented imported hazardous fracking waste from being classified and treated as hazardous waste. The governor signed this legislation into law — but the true impact of this bill remains to be seen as we wait to see how the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) interprets the language of the law and changes its regulation of imported drill cuttings and brine water from fracking operations.
• S.5612-A (Harckham)/A.8349 (Ryan) adds protections to 41,000 linear miles of class C streams in NY made vulnerable by the Trump administration’s rollback of Obama’s Clean Water Rule. These streams and their headwaters provide valuable services in terms of groundwater recharge, recreational fishing and boating, flood control and critical habitat. This is no time to backslide on protecting our vital clean water resources. Awaiting the governor’s signature.
• S.6829-B (Kaminsky)/A.8829-A (Englebright) prohibits most uses of the chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), a known carcinogen commonly used as a vapor degreaser, a refrigerant and an extraction solvent. TCE spills have wreaked havoc on drinking water supplies across NY, harming communities from Buffalo to Long Island. The Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Administration was poised to ban most uses of TCE but the Trump administration reversed that mandate. This bill will turn off the spigot to this harmful chemical in NY and hopefully lead other states to do the same. Awaiting the governor’s signature.
• S.8750 (Kaminsky)/A.4077-A (Barrett) protects endangered and threatened species delisted by the Trump administration by granting these species automatic state protection. This carryover in protection will ensure that the taking, importation, transportation, possession, or sale of a federally delisted species will continue to be prohibited in New York State until a thorough investigation is conducted by DEC. Awaiting the governor’s signature.
• S.6502-A (Serrano)/ A.732-B (Rosenthal) prohibits the use of the harmful herbicide glyphosate (main ingredient of Roundup) on state property. This ubiquitous weed killer is a known probable carcinogen and has found its way into NY’s water supplies, waterways and sensitive ecosystems. With many alternatives, including less toxic and even non-chemical options, New York, with the governor’s signature, can begin to phase out glyphosate use on state property before a complete statewide ban.
• A.4739-C (Fahy)/S.8817 (Hoylman) bans the use of harmful perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (two in the PFAS family of chemicals) in food packaging. An alarming 2019 report out of the Food and Drug Administration found high amounts of PFAS chemicals in milk, meat and produce sold in the US. PFAS chemicals have been linked to numerous health problems, including low infant birth weight, cancers (kidney and testicular), decreased sperm quality, and thyroid hormone disruption and disease. PFAS chemicals used to line food containers are a particularly effective way of transferring these “forever chemicals” to the human body. This legislative ban will go a long way to reduce exposure. Awaiting the governor’s signature.
The fate of most of these bills now rests with the governor. It remains uncertain as to which he will sign and which he will veto. Cuomo, like his legislative counterparts, is not immune to the growing pressure from the progressive base of the Democratic Party. He desires to appear not too far right of the Senate and Assembly if he can help it. But with a growing $14 billion deficit stemming from the Covid-19 economic crisis, it will be difficult for the governor to enact laws that put significant fiscal strain on already tapped-out environmental agencies and programs.
As the governor deliberates over these bills, the legislature is tentatively ready to come back in the fall to potentially put even more legislation on his desk. The Sierra Club is cautiously optimistic that legislation to address new plastic policies, improve access to the courts for environmental litigants, close federal gaps in wetland protection and remove fossil fuel subsidies in NY can pass in this next round.
It is also anticipated that the governor and legislature will reevaluate some of the financial commitments they made in the FY 2020–21 budget before the full impact of the pandemic was realized. This could mean significant cuts in spending for the Environmental Protection Fund, Clean Water Fund and the Department of Environmental Conservation. The Sierra Club and partner organizations will be watching closely and push back if there are any raids on these funds.
We are all too familiar with environmental funding being the first casualty of austerity spending. Perhaps this time will be different. We believe there is a renewed understanding that ecological health is a cornerstone to economic recovery. We hope that the legislature will hold fast to the funding lines. Stay tuned.
Return to 2020 Summer Sierra Atlantic