New Legislative Scorecard Ranks NY Lawmakers’ Environmental Records

A new legislative scorecard details how every New York state lawmaker voted on key environmental bills this year.

The report by Environmental Advocates NY, an environmental justice organization, comes after Governor Kathy Hochul weakened the state’s landmark climate law this past May as part of the state budget.

Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director of Environmental Advocates NY, said she hopes the public uses the annual scorecard to hold their elected officials accountable.

“Legislators have a power that the rest of us mere mortals don’t have. They can vote [on bills], and what we do with our scorecard is track how everybody we elect to office to serve in New York state uses their vote to protect and conserve our environment, our water, and our clean air and climate,” said Fajans-Turner.

In the Catskills and Hudson Valley regions, Senator Pete Harckham, representing the 40th Senate District, earned as the top scorer at 97 while Senator Peter Oberacker, representing the 51st Senate District, was the lowest scorer at 46.

Senators Pete Harckham and Michelle Hinchey and Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha were among the 37 legislators who spoke out against Hochul’s climate law rollback, according to the report.

The 2019 landmark climate law was amended earlier this year, weakening its decarbonization goals to 60 percent reduction of 1990 levels by 2040.

“What the climate law is designed to do is to transfer the cost of pollution to the people who are polluting and away from taxpayers, and the longer we delay in doing that, the longer we as households and taxpayers bear the brunt of that cost.”

The report also includes how legislators voted on big climate wins, including $1 billion in appropriations to climate solutions through the Sustainable Future Fund and support for the Environmental Protection Fund.

Image: The New York State Capitol building is in Albany, New York, on Friday, June 30, 2023. (Photo Credit: AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)