The 2022 legislative session saw huge wins for New York State’s environment with the Assembly and Senate having shown their commitment to protecting New York’s health and environment. This year both houses passed major legislation covering Land Conservation, Climate Change Mitigation, Waste, Public Health and Electrification. These bills are incredibly important to making our State a more healthy and sustainable place to live. We encourage Governor Hochul to sign these great bills into law!
Conservation and the protection of natural resources is a key to fighting climate change, this year we were successful in helping pass some major bills to address this. Most notably both houses passed A. 5390-B/S. 6191-A setting a goal of conserving 30% of the state’s land and waters by the year 2030. The legislature made it clear that protecting natural resources is a priority by additionally passing A. 6652/S. 4162 protecting Class C Streams, passing A. 7389-C/S. 6486-D placing a moratorium on some cryptocurrency mining operations. While also protecting at-risk communities by passing A. 7876-A/S. 5472-A requiring landlords to disclose flood risk information to some renters and passing A. 2103-D/S. 8830 which will limit the placing of environmental facilities in disadvantaged communities.
Through our work with our partners and coalitions we were successful in pushing the legislature to pass some important bills that will impact our waste stream. The passage of A. 9279-A/S. 5027-C the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for Carpeting program and A. 7063-A/S. 6291-A the PFAS in Apparel bill will help to reduce harmful chemicals from entering into our waste systems ultimately reducing these chemicals from our environment. By banning the sale of apparel made with PFAS chemicals we will also be protecting the people of New York State from exposure to harmful forever chemicals.
Moving into the future, decarbonizing transportation is one of the only ways we will be able to curb our impact on the environment. We applaud both houses for passing legislation on electric vehicles and electrification of lawn care tools. A. 4386-B/S. 23-B mandating that parking garages receiving state funds in the future have to be built to support EV charging stations. While A. 2412-B/S. 2838-C directs the Office of General Services to purchase or lease electric vehicles when possible for the state fleet. When it comes to electrification the passage of A. 8327-A/S. 7452-A will create a rebate program for electric lawn-scaping tools to help lower emissions and noise pollution. These three bills are vital in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
We thank the sponsors of all these bills and appreciate their dedication to making New York a healthier place to live. We now urge Governor Hochul to pull these great bills and sign them into law!