Make Polluters Pay Event
On October 15, 2020, NYPIRG and our partners, NYRenews and NY Youth Climate Leaders, held a very special Zoom event with New York Attorney General Letitia James. Grassroots advocates, climate advocacy partners, and our keynote speaker discussed how to #MakePollutersPay for the environmental and climate destruction that they have caused.
This digital assembly of the people, viewed online by over 200 virtual attendees, offered participants the opportunity to learn how we can hold corporate polluters responsible for their actions — through the legal system, through policy, and through organizing. We discussed:
- The Attorney General’s work fighting back federal environmental regulatory rollbacks and pursuing environmental polluters;
- The different policies at play in New York State that can hold climate polluters accountable; and
- How we can organize together to win!
For decades, the fossil fuel industry and others have misled the public about their role in causing the climate crisis and in polluting New York's air and water. As New York looks to clean up this pollution, protect natural resources, and combat climate change, it should be polluters footing the bill.
For more information about this campaign, or to get involved, please contact us. Thank you!
Ethics commission report shows record highs in lobbying spending (WENY, June 28, 2024)
Stop Danskammer Coalition says application withdrawal win for public health (Mid-Hudson News, June 26, 2024)
State lobbying hit record numbers in 2023 (ABC News 10, June 25, 2024)
NYS lobbyists spent record $360M to try to influence government, report says (Newsday, June 25, 2024)
New Yorkers go to the polls – some of them anyway (WAMC, June 24, 2023)
Fake Signatures and ‘Good-Faith Letters’ Fuel a Lucrative Campaign Haul (The New York Times, June 24, 2024)
Environmental Advocates Push for Bill to Hold Big Oil Responsible (Fingerlakes 1, June 22, 2024)
Foes of Danskammer Power Plant question site's long term use after bid to operate full-time dropped (The Daily Freeman, June 22, 2024)
Making Democracy Work: Civic education, first hand, at Students Inside Albany conference (TBR Newsmedia, June 21, 2024)
Bill aims to hold oil companies responsible for emissions (WSYR, June 21, 224)
Bill aims to hold oil companies responsible for emissions (CNY, June 21, 2024)
New York feels the heat (WAMC, June 17, 2024)
New York State Lawmakers Once Again Fail to Pass Meaningful Climate Legislation (Hellgate, June 12, 2024)
NYC congestion pricing delay may face legal challenge. Why the comptroller calls Gov. Hochul's move "a disastrously wrong turn." (CBS, June 12, 2024)
A NY push to cut down on single-use plastics just fizzled out. Why? And what happens now? (The Poughkeepsie Journal, June 11, 2024)
RHN To Albany Leaders: “Inaction On NY HEAT Mocks Our Climate Law” (Harlem World Magazine, June 11, 2024)
Opponents of Hochul’s Move to Halt Congestion Pricing May Go to Court (The New York Times, June 11, 2024)
NY bill to make big polluters pay for emissions passes legislature (Adirondack Explorer, June 10, 2024)
New York Legislature Passes Climate Change Superfund Act (ENR, June 10, 2024)
Lawmakers head for the exit, will they return before the end of the year? (WAMC, June 10, 2024)
A coalition of civic, environmental, social justice, and community-based charities joined with small business “redemption centers” to call on Governor Hochul and the state legislative leaders “to urge your attention and immediate action to prevent business closings and job losses by supporting legislation to boost the ‘handling fee’ that provides revenues for redemption centers, which are critical to the success of the state’s Bottle Deposit Law.”
VICTORY! On Monday, June 17, a six-year fight for clean air and public health came to an end when Danskammer Energy withdrew its application to build a new fracked gas plant on the Hudson River in Newburgh, NY.
As a dangerous heat wave grips New York, sending "feels like" temperatures soaring above 100 degrees, community leaders, local officials, and extreme weather survivors are demanding Governor Hochul take immediate action by signing the recently passed Climate Change Superfund Act (S.2129B/A.3351B) into law.
Tale of the Tape: NYPIRG's 2024 Legislative Review – The number of bills that passed in the Senate increased, while that number decreased in the Assembly. The Governor's use of emergency "messages of necessity" flattens.
NY State Assembly Passes Historic Climate Superfund Bill to Make Polluters Pay for Climate Damages
NYPIRG's Statement on Governor Hochul's Delay of Congestion Pricing
A coalition supporting improvements to the state’s Bottle Deposit Law today released a listing of over 1,000 local charities that benefit from the law. The coalition argued that these charities offer services for those in need and that modernization of the forty-year-old law would enhance the charities’ services.
A coalition supporting improving the state’s Bottle Deposit Law today released a review of recent redemption center closures. The review, conducted by redemption centers, identified 97 businesses that have closed or appear to be closed. Another 54 redemption centers had disconnected phones and no obvious social media presence. The coalition argued that many of these closures are the direct result of New York's 15 year "freeze" of the handling fee that redemption centers rely on for revenues.
NYPIRG Reacts to Speaker Heastie's Comments on Climate Change Superfund Act
A coalition of civic groups today called on the New York State Board of Elections to review the state’s polling locations to see if colleges have on-campus polls as required under the law. The letter is in reaction to the results of a survey conducted by NYPIRG.
NYPIRG analyzed 199 colleges (217 campuses, some colleges have multiple campuses) in New York State, of which 147 have dorms located on their premises. This review of the locations of polling places for college students living on-campus identifies a wide gap between those campuses that have dorms and the number that have polling places.