Bill Memos 2020

Every week during the New York State Legislative Session, Environmental Advocates of New York reviews all of the bills introduced in legislative committees or on the floor of the State Senate and the Assembly. We then issue a memo that summarizes the legislation and describes our position on measures with significant environmental impact.

* Bill memos marked with an asterisk have been signed into law.

- Bill memos marked with a hyphen have been vetoed.

The purpose of Environmental Advocates' multi-tiered rating system is to weight bills according to their potential impacts - either beneficial or detrimental - on New York's environment. The "Trees and Smokestacks" rating system (at bottom) is designed to place appropriate emphasis on each bill. At the end of each session these weighted votes will be totaled to arrive at a final score for each legislator.

Please contact our Legislative and Climate Associate Rachel Patterson at rpatterson@eany.org or (518) 462-5526 ext. 221 with inquiries. 

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Memo Note Summary & Evaluation Rating Status Assembly Bill Senate Bill
32 Right to Refill Beneficial In Senate Committee A.8722 (Fahy et. al) S.6813 (Metzger et.al)
31 Right to Clean Water Beneficial In Assembly Committee A.3361-A (Abinanti, et al.) S.5334-A (Comrie)
30 Intervenor Reimbursement Beneficial In Senate Committee A.145 (Cahill, et al.) S.3605 (Parker, et al.)
29 Fossil Fuel Facts Beneficial In Senate Committee A.257-B (Cahill, et al.) S.2649-B (Krueger, et al.)
28 Environmental Access to Justice Substantial Benefit In Assembly Committee A.7971 (O’Donnell, et al.) S.7548 (Kavanagh, et al.)
27 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Beneficial In Assembly Committee A.9832 (Englebright) No Same As
26 Community Access to Justice Major Benefit In Assembly Committee A.1424 (Simon, et al.) S.5013 (Parker, et al.)
25 Eco-Friendly Ending Beneficial In Assembly Committee A.9839 (Paulin) S.7822 (Comrie)
24 Anti-ICEing Beneficial Passed Assembly A.8608 (Paulin, et al.) S.6836 (Metzger)
23 Lead Ammo Ban Substantial Benefit In Assembly Committee A.703 (Glick, et al.) No Same As
22 Banning Fracking Waste Beneficial In Assembly Committee A101 (Buchwald et al) S437 (Hoylman et al)
21 Getting the Lead Out of Schools Substantial Benefit In Assembly Committee A.9545 (Gottfried, et al.) S.7268 (Rivera)
20 Solar Choice for Homeowners Beneficial In Senate Committee A.5896-A (Galef, et al.) S.4742-A (Parker, et al.)
19 Save Our Species Beneficial Passed Senate A.4077 (Barrett, et al.) S.5196 (Kaminsky, et al.)
18 Ban on Fracking Substantial Benefit In Senate Committee, In Assembly Committee A.9678 (Englebright) S.6906 (Metzger, et al.)
17 Expanding Drinking Water Testing Major Benefit In Assembly Committee A.7839 (Gottfried, et al.) S.6625 (Skoufis, et al.)
16 What's in Your Water Beneficial Passed Senate A.3040 (Vanel, et al.) S.1455 (Sanders, et al.)
15 Amendment - PFAS-Free Firefighting Foam Beneficial Passed Senate, Passed Assembly A.8979 (Steck, et al.) S.7167 (Hoylman)
14 Better Planning for the Adirondack Park Substantial Benefit In Assembly Committee A.8123-A (Englebright, et al) S.6484 (Kaminsky, et al)
13 Freshwater Wetland Protections Major Benefit In Assembly Committee A.3658 (Englebright, et al.) S.5576 (Mayer, et al.)

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Tree and Smokestack Rating System
Major Benefit Legislation would be of significant benefit to help resolve a pressing problem facing New York's environment. Major Detriment Legislation is likely to result in major or lasting harm to some aspect of New York's environment.
Substantial Benefit Legislation would provide substantial benefit to New York's environment. Substantial Detriment Legislation would do substantial harm to New York's environment.
Beneficial Legislation would be beneficial to some aspect of New York's environment. Detriment Legislation would be detrimental to environmental causes in New York.