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On June 15th, the City Council Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management held a hearing on Intros 244, 274, 275, 280 and 281, various promising bills centered around composting that may significantly reduce waste in New York City and resultantly bring about local and climate benefits. 

On June 13, NYC’s budget for the fiscal year of 2023 was voted on and passed 2 weeks ahead of schedule. There are a number of key takeaways from the budget regarding implications on the parks, transportation, sanitation, and building energy and emissions sectors – all of which are important to protecting the environment of NYC and the climate at large. While some of our priorities were not met, the results of this year’s budget are generally positive.

For the last four months, NYC Council and Administration has been grappling with the task of agreeing on a budget for Fiscal Year 2023. In February, Mayor Adams released his Preliminary Budget, which contained an outline of his priorities and goals for the City. In March, the City Council formally responded to the Mayor’s preliminary budget with a summary of concerns and recommendations to ensure the budget meets the needs of our community. Then, Mayor Adams released the Executive Budget, an updated proposed budget.  Currently, the Council is holding another round of hearings on the budget and will continue to negotiate until passage at the end of June.

On March 22nd, NYLCV testified at the City Council Preliminary Budget Hearing for the Committee on Parks and Recreation, and advocated for allocating 1.0% of the NYC Fiscal Year 2023 Budget to parks. As part of his campaign, Mayor Adams made a commitment to allocating 1.0% of next year’s budget to parks. However, the newly announced Preliminary Budget revealed that not only is the administration going back on their promised 1.0% amount, but that they are cutting $60 million from the FY22 budget and removing 3,500 essential park positions. We are calling on Mayor Adams and the City Council to reverse the cuts that have been proposed and invest critical resources into our beloved parks and green spaces. 

While the next Speaker of the New York City Council is not officially solidified, Adrienne Adams of District 28 confirmed that she has enough votes to secure her victory.  She is set to be the first Black Woman to be speaker of the 51 member body and will bring unique viewpoints and priorities to the office coming from an outer borough district.

As global fossil fuel emissions are the leading cause of climate change, leaders all over the world have come up with solutions to lower their region’s carbon footprint. In New York, policies have been implemented to help reduce gas emissions through transportation, industrial, and power sectors. Since the primary source of the city’s emissions comes from buildings, it is evident that building decarbonization is necessary to achieve our climate goals. One of the most critical ways to fight climate change in New York City is to electrify buildings. NYLCV therefore supports Intro 2317, a bill that would place an emissions cap on all new and renovated buildings and encourage building electrification. However, we feel that there need to be some major amendments to the bill so that we approach the complexities of building electrification pragmatically.

Every day, almost 100 million plastic utensils are discarded across the United States. The cost to dispose of single-use food ware in a single year is estimated at about 1 billion dollars. Despite these shocking numbers, many restaurants still give out disposable cutlery with every take-out and delivery order. Intro 1775-B is a bill that would require food establishments to only provide non-reusable utensils, condiments, and napkins upon request. While similar bills have been successfully passed in major cities such as Los Angeles, the New York City Council has yet to even have a council hearing concerning this bill. The New York League of Conservation Voters supports the passage of Intro 1775-B to reduce the city’s residential waste.