With the incoming class of new Councilmembers set after the 2021 general election, the city is turning its attention to the City Council Speaker’s race. The speaker is an incredibly important role, able to control what legislation is voted on in the council, appoint committee chairs, and have a major say in the NYC budget among many other powers.
Therefore, the future of the environment and our fight against climate change in NYC will lie heavily on the shoulders of the next speaker. NYLCV strongly believes that the next speaker will need to be an environmental champion that takes bold and progressive actions to help us reach many of the goals and commitments we have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, protect open spaces and natural resources, value public health, and expand transportation alternatives to automobiles.
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Recently NYLCV and the NYC Clean School Bus Coalition held a virtual roundtable discussion in conjunction with NYCSBUS to speak about the importance of school bus electrification in New York City, especially within environmental justice neighborhoods and disadvantaged communities.
Learn MoreAs 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.
Learn MoreEvery 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.
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Vision Zero is a citywide initiative to eliminate all traffic-related fatalities and injuries by 2024. Recently the Committee on Transportation held a city council meeting to overview Vision Zero. NYLCV’s program associate Carlos Castell Croke presented testimony at this hearing to argue for faster implementation of the Streets Master Plan.
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On Wednesday, October 20th, our Associate for NYC Programs testified at a New York City Council Oversight Hearing where he advocated for expanding implementation of green infrastructure to help prevent Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO). CSO's cause over 27 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted water to be dumped into the New York Harbor alone each year and expanding green infrastructure will help us to fight that pollution.
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On September 30th, 2021 at 11:00 am the NYC Clean School Bus Coalition hosted a rally on the steps of Tweed Courthouse to show the widespread support for Intro 455 and electric school buses.
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With power outages and flooding across the city, Hurricane Ida’s impact highlights the need for New York City to strengthen its infrastructure, especially as climate change becomes a greater threat.
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