SOURCE:
https://www.newsday.com/opinion/newsday-opinion-the-point-newsletter-1.50229291
By Michael Dobie - April 27, 2021
Environmentalists in and out of government were pleased with the state budget approved earlier this month. Now their focus has shifted to legislation for the rest of the session.
One measure just passed in both the State Senate and Assembly would mandate that all passenger cars and trucks be zero-emissions by 2035 and all medium and heavy-duty trucks by 2045. Other bills being pushed include one that would promote, via tax credits and bid preferences for state work, the use of low-carbon concrete to reduce emissions (Sen. Todd Kaminsky); a measure to join other Northeast states in protecting smaller wetlands (Assemb. Steve Englebright); a bill to make clear in state law that kelp farming is explicitly allowed in the Peconic Estuary and Gardiners Bay (Assemb. Fred Thiele); and a measure that would ban the use of various seeds coated with neonicotinoids, known as neonics, toxic insecticides that kill pollinators, birds and fish.
But the big kahuna of the session, what one Assembly insider called "the granddaddy of them all," is a bill referred to by enviros and Albany types as EPR. The acronym stands for extended producer responsibility, a concept that requires manufacturers to pay the costs of recycling the products they make. Money would be paid to municipalities that run recycling programs, but advocates hope the law would lead companies to reduce packaging or switch to materials that are cheaper to recycle.
Lobbying against the bill has been heavy, per Albany denizens there also is a lot of backing for it.
"There have been really surprising coalitions in support of it," Kaminky told The Point, mentioning the environmental community as well as counties, towns and other municipalities struggling to pay recycling costs. Manufacturers also "are buying in," Kaminsky said. "They want to be at the table in setting policy."
Englebright and Kaminsky, the two Long Islanders chairing the Legislature’s environmental conservation committees, haven’t always had the smoothest interactions but both say good conversations are taking place on the bill. "It’s a priority for both of us and we really have to get it right," Kaminsky said.
Issues include what materials/products would be included and how much influence manufacturers will have in the regulatory process.
"It’s being heavily debated and hotly negotiated," said Citizens Campaign for the Environment executive director Adrienne Esposito, "which we think is a good thing."
Whether that produces a good bill remains to be seen.
