While some of our priority bills fell short, there were some significant achievements to celebrate from the recently concluded New York State legislative session! The following CCE priority bills were passed by the state legislature (still need to be signed by the Governor):
Expanding Stream Protections: Protects an additional 41,000 miles of streams, which will help to protect drinking water supplies and preserve important habitat for fish.
Conserving open space: Requires the conservation of at least 30% of land in the state by 2030, helping to fight climate change, protect biodiversity, and preserve forests and farmland.
Making Polluters Pay for Drinking Water Contamination: Ensures that polluters, not taxpayers, pay for treatment of drinking water supplies when they are responsible for contaminating it.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Carpets: Over 500 million pounds of carpets go to landfills and incinerators each year in NYS. Carpet EPR will help ensure that manufacturers—not taxpayers and local governments—take responsibility for managing their products throughout their entire life cycle. Not only will this save local governments money, but it will increase recycling of carpets, save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and reduce toxic chemicals in our homes.
And let’s not forget the major victories from the state budget that was passed earlier in the legislative session!
Clean Water, Clean Air, and Green Jobs Bond Act: The $4.2 billion bond act will protect waterways, make our communities more resilient to climate change, and create jobs. The bond act will be considered by voters on the ballot in the upcoming November election.
Increased Wetlands Protections: The program will protect an additional million acres of freshwater wetlands, which are critical to protecting communities from flooding, filtering pollution, fighting climate change, and providing habitat for fish and wildlife.
Historic Funding for the Environmental Protection Fund (EPF): The EPF was funded at an all-time high of $400 million and will support programs to protect the Ocean and Great Lakes, preserve valuable open space, fight climate change, increase recycling, and so much more.
Fixing our sewer and drinking water systems: The state provided $500 million to upgrade failing sewer systems and improve treatment of drinking water.
We were also disappointed that some of our priority bills did not pass, including extended producer responsibility for product packaging and paper (makes brand owners—not taxpayers—pay for recycling of product packaging) and a ban on unnecessary uses of bee-killing neonic pesticides. We are eager to get these bills passed in the upcoming 2023 legislative session.
Thank you for your support—we could not have achieved these accomplishments without you!
Sincerely,
Your friends at CCE