{"id":3188,"date":"2025-06-02T08:33:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3188"},"modified":"2025-06-02T08:33:56","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T12:33:56","slug":"as-the-2025-legislative-session-nears-the-finish-line-environmental-issues-move-to-the-fore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/as-the-2025-legislative-session-nears-the-finish-line-environmental-issues-move-to-the-fore\/","title":{"rendered":"As the 2025 Legislative Session Nears the Finish Line, Environmental Issues Move to the Fore"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the clock ticks down toward the end of the 2025 legislative session, environmental issues have moved to the forefront. Last week, the state Senate approved a new Commissioner<\/a> for the Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC<\/a> is a sprawling agency that plays a leading role in a range of issues from permits<\/a> for hunting and fishing, to overseeing state water<\/a> quality, climate change<\/a>, and the state\u2019s mounting trash disposal<\/a> problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The approval of a new DEC Commissioner came at the same time as top environmental issues were emerging during the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the top issues that has been the subject of keen attention is the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) Act. This legislation aligns utilities\u2019 policies on providing power to residential consumers with the state\u2019s climate mandates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York’s current laws promote gas system expansion by mandating a gas utility\u2019s obligation to provide gas service <\/em>to any new customer upon request while requiring that existing customers subsidize<\/em> their new service connections within 100 feet of a main gas line. That subsidy \u2013 estimated<\/a> to be $200 million annually \u2013 would be eliminated by the legislation. The bill also protects ratepayers from the necessary transition costs in moving to a \u201cgreener\u201d power supply by capping home energy bills for all customers at 6% of income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been reported<\/a> that negotiations between the state Senate and Assembly on the bill have been ramping up and may be moving toward agreement over the next few weeks of the session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another top issue facing the state is what to do about its mounting trash disposal crisis. According<\/a> to the DEC, Americans now generate twice as much waste as they did 50 years ago. What to do with the trash that we all produce? Right now, the number<\/a> one place that residential trash goes to is a landfill; number two is export for disposal; number three is burning; and the last is to be recycled. There is no evidence that the problem is getting better. In fact, the state\u2019s residential recycling rate has been dropping<\/a> over the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state\u2019s capacity to tackle this problem is dwindling. Again according<\/a> to the DEC, \u201cNew York\u2019s 25 municipal solid waste landfills have a combined landfill capacity of between 16 and 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the state\u2019s landfills are filled to capacity in a decade or so, what will happen? At the end of 2023, the DEC issued its \u201cNew York State Solid Waste Management Plan<\/a>\u201d to tackle that emerging problem. Among its recommendations, the DEC highlighted the need for a \u201cproducer responsibility\u201d approach and urged action to, among other things, expand the state\u2019s bottle deposit law and reduce packaging wastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those two legislative proposals are actively under consideration in Albany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act<\/a> (PRRIA) legislation will reduce plastic packaging to dramatically reduce waste, as well as phase out some of the most toxic chemicals used in packaging; improve recyclability of packaging; and slash greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastic. It will also make polluters pony up by establishing a modest fee on packaging paid by packaging producers, generating new revenue to help defray waste costs for local taxpayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, that legislation was approved<\/a> by the state Senate and advocates are slugging it out as the bill moves through the Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The packaging bill does not<\/em> cover beverage containers that fall under the state\u2019s Bottle Deposit Law<\/a>. That\u2019s the law that requires a nickel deposit on certain carbonated beverages and bottled water. When you return the container, you get your nickel back. The DEC describes the Law as a \u201ctremendous success<\/a>.\u201d When the law kicked in 42 years ago in 1983, carbonated beverage containers were found everywhere; now the overwhelming majority<\/a> of these containers are redeemed under the program. But many beverages \u2013 most notably non-carbonated sports drinks \u2013 didn\u2019t exist four decades ago and are not<\/em> covered by the law today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legislation<\/a> to modernize that law was reported out of the state Assembly\u2019s Environmental Conservation Committee last week and may be considered as part of any overall agreement on reducing packaging wastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new DEC Commissioner has a golden opportunity to weigh in on these and other important issues<\/a>. Many of the top issues at the end of the session fail in the final stretch as time runs out. The ones that are approved get a last-minute push from important advocates. The 2025 session is an opportunity for the Hochul Administration \u2013 and its new DEC chief \u2013 to weigh in and move lawmakers toward approval of these important bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the legislative clock continues to tick toward its midnight. Now is the time to act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the clock ticks down toward the end of the 2025 legislative session, environmental issues have moved to the forefront. Last week, the state Senate approved a new Commissioner for the Department of Environmental Conservation. The DEC is a sprawling agency that plays a leading role in a range of issues from permits for hunting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3189,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3188\/revisions\/3189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}