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 Kate Kurera at kkurera@eany.org or (518) 462-5526 ext. 233 with inquiries. 

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Memo Note Summary & Evaluation Rating Status Assembly Bill Senate Bill
15 Amendment - PFAS-Free Firefighting Foam Beneficial A.8979 (Steck) S.7167 (Hoylman)
14 Better Planning for the Adirondack Park Substantial Benefit A.8123-A (Englebright, et al) S.6484 (Kaminsky, et al)
13 Freshwater Wetland Protections Major Benefit A.3658 (Englebright, et al.) S.5576 (Mayer, et al.)
12 Closing the Hazardous Waste Loophole Major Benefit A.2655 (Englebright, et al.) S.3392 (May, et al.)
11 Banning Fracking Waste on Highways Substantial Benefit A.7933 (O’Donnell, et al.) S.1858-A (Hoylman, et al.)
10 Toxic-Free Food Packaging Substantial Benefit A.4739-A (Fahy, et al.) S.2000-A (Hoylman, et al.)
9 Toxic Torts Beneficial A.4879 (Ramos, et al.) S.4920 (Sanders, et al.)
8 Safer Sofas Substantial Benefit A.6260-A (Gunther, et al.) S.6512 (Harckham, et al.)
7 Restricting Nitrogen Fertilizer Substantial Benefit A.4568 (Englebright, et al.) S.2130 (Kaminsky, et al.)
6 Preserving Open Land (Orange County) Substantial Benefit A.7699-B (Gunther, et al.) S.6224-A (Metzger)
5 Pesticide-Free Summer Camps Beneficial A.1051 (Paulin, et al.) S.1145 (Carlucci, et al.)
4 Modernizing FOIL Beneficial In Senate Committee A.121-A (Buchwald, et al.) S.1630-B (Skoufis, et al.)
3 Curbing Air Pollution Substantial Benefit A.1698-A (Abinanti, et al.) S.4282-A (Harckham, et al.)
2 Ban on Toxic Coal Tar Substantial Benefit A.1304 (Rosenthal, et al.) S.6308 (Metzger, et al.)
1 A-B-Cs of Stream Protection Major Benefit A.8349 (Ryan, et al.) S.5612-A (Harckham, et al.)
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.