Recap of LWVNY Environmental Efforts by Anne Erling
Despite increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and climate destabilization as a backdrop, environmental interests were largely snubbed in the 2025 NYS Legislative session that just ended.
Members of the four Capital Region county LWVs lobbied this year for four LWVNY priority environmental bills. Two were ongoing efforts from prior years -- the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA - S1464/A1749) that requires companies to reduce the amounts of, and remove toxins from, packaging, and also contribute to the cost of managing the packaging waste that remains, and the Bigger Better Bottle Bill (BBB - S5684/A6543) that expands the types of beverages subject to deposit, raises the deposit fee, and increases redemption center revenues. This year advocates also lobbied for two new LWVNY priority bills, the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act (NY HEAT S4158/ A4870A) that amends NYS law to align utility planning with the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act which requires an end to unsustainable energy provision, and the Climate Education Bill (S2430/A4876) that adds climate topics to NYS curriculum requirements.
The Senate passed PRRIA, and advocates had secured promises from enough Assembly members to expect passage in that body as well, but despite adding the bill to the floor calendar for the last day of session, Speaker Heastie allowed the session to close without bringing the bill up for a vote. BBB and the Climate Education Bill failed to progress in any meaningful way in either house of the legislature. Faced with lack of movement on any important environmental bill, NY HEAT bill sponsors introduced two related bills at the end of session -- the Customer Savings and Reliability Act (S8421/A8889), which represented an amended version of NY HEAT as a whole, and a separate bill (S8417/A8888) that repealed only the “100 Foot Rule,” the requirement that ratepayers across the state cover costs for free gas hook-ups to building owners within 100 feet of a gas utility line. In the end, this small but important carve-out of NY HEAT is the only environmental priority bill that passed through both houses of the NYS Legislature.
Efforts are now underway to urge Gov. Hochul to immediately sign this 100 Foot Rule bill -- it will go into effect providing savings to ratepayers immediately upon signature. Efforts to gain passage of the other LWVNY priority environmental bills will continue into next year. A bright spot: since 2026 will be the second year of the current two-year legislative session, all bills will be able to build upon the progress they made this session. Significantly, PRRIA will be eligible to go straight to the Assembly floor when the 2026 legislative session begins in January. Why not spend the summer bringing this bill up in conversations, and find a few more people to contact Assembly members? It will be a significant treat to see this bill signed into law!