ESFPA E-News

Final Week of Legislative Session

We have one week to go until the Legislature Adjourns for this session! As we race to the finish, we are tracking several bills as outlined in this memo. Highlighted indicates our latest status reporting.

Top on our agenda is the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (EPR) which we learned last week the Senate is considering amendments and talking with the Assembly about them.  We have not seen bill language and from what we hear non-packaging paper is still not a covered product, but that could change in a flash.  For now, we continue to work behind the scenes in opposition.

The TREES Act (Deforestation-free Procurement Act) has passed both Houses. After session ends, we will be advocating for a veto. Note that there is a new Fashion Act which has been introduced which attempts to require producers of garments and clothing to adopt and implement supply chain transparency provisions and reporting of environmental and social justice harms throughout the fashion supply chain.  This legislation is not limited to State procurement and is trending just as we predicted these sustainability and supply chain efforts would. While we do believe that we will see more on supply chain transparency and producer responsibility to avoid environmental and social harm, the provisions and terms of these legislative proposals are impactful, often not clearly defined and have significant consequences so we must start getting language, terminology and responsibility clearly and scientifically grounded or we will see a lot of bad legislation with unintended consequences.  

The NY Home Energy Affordable Transition Act (HEAT Act) is in three-way negotiations between the Seate, Assembly and Governor.  As we understand it, the Governor is looking to moderate the scope of this bill which would be good for us. We are awaiting language before we respond again. We hear concern for industry and manufacturing ability to sustain gas is a Governor’s priority.

New to this report is the Temperature Extreme Mitigation Program Act (TEMP Act) which is aimed at protecting indoor and outdoor workers from extreme temperatures. As drafted for now, this legislation does not cover manufacturing or foresters or loggers, so we are not impacted. It is poorly drafted and our counterparts in agriculture are apoplectic about this bill, as they should be. We have agreed to sign on a business letter on this in support of our compatriots.

There are a few other bills we are watching but that is the summary for the bigger ones. This week will be busy.  Last year the Legislature passed 500 bills in the closing week and if anything they like to better their previous efforts, as we saw in the 2024-25 Budget!

ESFPA Attends Adirondack Association of Towns & Villages Annual Meeting

Today, ESFPA Executive Director John Bartow attended the Adirondack Association of Towns & Villages annual meeting in Lake Placid, networking with municipal officials and state representatives. 

Pictured below are Assemblymember Matt Simpson, Minerva Supervisor Stephen McNally and Assemblymembers Billy Jones and Robert Smullen.  

New York Invasive Species Awareness Week

New York Invasive Species Awareness Week (NYISAW) is this week, from June 3rd through 9th. iMapInvasives is launching its annual NYISAW Mapping Challenge, which runs from June 3rd through 16th. Compete to submit the most presence or not-detected records for spotted lanternfly and tree-of-heaven, and win prizes! All records submitted to iMapInvasives for these species during the challenge are automatically counted towards your total.

For a full calendar of NYISAW webinars, trainings and volunteer events across New York, check out the New York Invasive Species Information website.

Fix for Voluntary Carbon Markets

Two weeks ago, the White House announced guidelines to strengthen the market for carbon offsets, otherwise known as the voluntary carbon market (VCM). Offsets allow companies or individuals to buy credits tied to emissions reductions created by projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere, many of which are in the developing world. The new federal guidelines, as Plumer reports, are an attempt to define offsets that are “high-integrity,” meaning they can deliver real and quantifiable emissions reductions for projects that wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Last year, $1.7 billion was spent in the voluntary carbon market globally, but better regulations could expand the market to $1.1 trillion by 2050, BloombergNEF predicts.

VCMs have come under significant criticism over the past few years.  At their best, carbon offsets allow companies that are trying to reduce their environmental impact to do it faster. Carbon offsets often fund projects that can help developing nations grow their economies more sustainably, including ecosystem restoration efforts and distributing clean cookstoves as alternatives to open fire cooking,

At their worst, carbon offsets have been criticized as the ultimate greenwashing tool. They can give companies that don’t want to abandon fossil fuels a way to claim they’re helping to curb emissions, offering cheap credits from projects that enrich middlemen, overestimate emission reductions and abuse the land rights of local communities. 

How these guidelines will help is yet to be understood.  But someone high in the administration wants VCMs to succeed.