BUFFALO, N.Y. — Former Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Judith Enck says customers often end up with lots of extra paper, cardboard and plastic because companies that deliver online orders, like Amazon, have no financial responsibility to deal with waste management.

"You and I have all had the experience of, you order something online, it arrives at your house, just layer after layer of excess packaging and you’re kind of scratching your head thinking, ‘why did it have to be so over-packaged,’" Enck said.

In 2022, federal officials rebuked a major coal plant next to the Ohio River for letting coal waste — in a pile so big it could fill the Dallas Cowboys' football stadium twice over — threaten groundwater with heavy metal pollution.

That coal ash, the waste from burning coal, was at risk of leaching into groundwater and spreading toxins, officials said. It was part of a broad crackdown by the Biden administration on coal ash aimed at keeping arsenic and lead out of well water, lowering cancer rates and avoiding disastrous spills.

New York state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has failed to issue draft regulations – the blueprint -- for how to enact the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), and now DEC is being sued over that failure.

The agency was supposed to finalize the regulations by Jan. 1, 2024. Instead, the agency announced this past January that the draft would not be released this year.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Ontario, Canada briefly threatened to charge an extra 25% on power it sends to New York state, Michigan and Minnesota.

However, after the Trump administration responded by saying it would double tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Premier Doug Ford agreed to suspend the surcharge and plans to meet with the U.S. Commerce Secretary Thursday to discuss renegotiating the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement.

The new acting commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation said the agency will release draft regulations later this month for a cap-and-invest system that would generate revenue for green energy projects after Gov. Kathy Hochul delayed its implementation late last year.

Acting DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton, who assumed the role Tuesday after Hochul nominated her to the role last month, said the department will advance long-awaited details of the cap-and-trade system mandated by law, which will require companies to buy credits from the state to contribute to its greenhouse gas emissions and fund rebates to reduce utility costs for taxpayers.

Democratic lawmakers are expected to push Gov. Kathy Hochul to spend the extra $1 billion in her executive budget to address climate change a few years faster than the governor proposed.

Hochul's budget commits an extra billion dollars for sustainable energy projects and other programs to reduce emissions to keep up with requirements mandated under the 2019 Climate Act.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday nominated Amanda Lefton to be the next state commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation.

According to the governor’s office, Lefton has previously served as director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) within the U.S. Department of the Interior, which developed and implemented a federal offshore wind program.

Late last month, the New York Power Authority approved a plan to enact the Build Public Renewables Plan, legislation that requires the authority to build renewable energy projects to meet the climate goals in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. However, environmentalists argue the plan approved by the authority doesn’t go far enough. Patrick Robbins, coordinator of the New York Energy Democracy Alliance, joined Capital Tonight on Tuesday to discuss the plan.

In a statement, the New York Power Authority said “The Renewables Strategic Plan is a systematic and thoughtful effort to build renewables and secure an affordable, sustainable, and resilient energy future for the state. After a full year of planning, our plan reflects public input and the current state of the energy industry and renewables market and highlights NYPA’s role as one critical driver in achieving the state’s 70% by 2030 and 100% by 2040 clean energy goals. NYPA intends to amend our plan in the first half of 2025 to include an additional 3 GW and will continue to amend as more projects are within consideration to help the state achieve these goals.”

The New York Power Authority backed down from a significant rate increase proposed for hydropower after facing bipartisan backlash, but it was an order from Gov. Kathy Hochul herself that ultimately doomed the plan.

The increase, which was in the midst of a lengthy implementation process, would have sent hydropower rates from $12.88/MWh to $33.05 over the next four years before settling back to a rate of $24.26 by 2029.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced a $60 million transaction to accelerate electric vehicle charging infrastructure deployment across New York City.

The loan is provided by NY Green Bank to Revel, the largest provider of public EV fast-charging in New York City, and will enable Revel to more than triple its current New York City public fast charging network this year. This is NYGB’s first EV charging infrastructure transaction.

New York's law to generate funds for countering climate change is facing a legal challenge from 22 state attorneys general.

The Climate Change Superfund Act was signed into law at the end of last year and would force polluters to pay into a fund to generate $75 billion over the next 25 years.

Former New York state Sen. Michael Martucci has been appointed by President Donald Trump as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 2, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Thursday.

Martucci, a Republican, served a single term in the state Senate from 2021 to 2022, representing the 42nd District in the Hudson Valley.

New York state Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon will take over the NY HEAT Act in the Assembly from now-state Sen. Pat Fahy.

The bill has passed in the state Senate twice, and Fahy worked to get the bill over the finish line in the Assembly right up until the last hours of the 2024 legislative session, and her last hours in the lower chamber.

In 2017, then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reached a deal to shut down the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City. The plant had supplied electricity to the metropolitan area for more than 50 years.

The former governor spent years trying to close the plant, calling it “a ticking time bomb."

Gov. Kathy Hochul is feeling the heat from environmentalists angry at what they claim is her decision to delay a “Cap-and-Invest” program.

At the same time, the interim head of the Department of Environmental Conservation denied that there was any delay. But changes to the program outlined in the governor’s executive budget prompted three environmental justice advocates to resign from the state’s Climate Justice Working Group, saying in a letter that they believe the governor is backpedaling on her climate commitment.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin was confirmed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday as the new Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

The chamber voted 56-42 in favor of the former New York congressman.

Sean Mahar, interim commissioner of the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation, was adamant Tuesday that Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to not include a full rollout of the state’s Cap and Invest program in her executive budget as was expected is not a delay. The comments came following a joint budget hearing on environmental conservation and energy.

“Cap and Invest is continuing to move. We’re prioritizing moving the reporting rules first at the governor’s direction and that’s showing you that Cap and Invest is still an active initiative in the state that we need to get right,” he said.

Sewage sludge, a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process, has been found to contaminate farmland and its products with "forever chemicals,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says in a draft risk assessment released Tuesday.

The semi-solid material, also known as biosolids, has been used on farmland for more than 40 years as a more cost-effective form of commercial fertilizer. In recent years, however, the practice has come under scrutiny due to the discovery of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). States like Maine and Connecticut have banned land application of biosolids.

State funding totaling $100 million is now available for transit providers to expand their use of zero-emission vehicles, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday.

The money comes from the state’s Zero-Emission Transit Transition Program (ZETT), part of the effort to achieve the goals of New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019, which requires New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050 from 1990 levels.

Federal funds totaling $15 million will go to installing 350 electric vehicle charging stations at State University of New York campuses, U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced Tuesday.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program, which is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021.

Large fossil fuel companies would have to pay fees to help New York fight the effects of climate change under a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The new law requires companies responsible for substantial greenhouse gas emissions to pay into a state fund for infrastructure projects meant to repair or avoid future damage from climate change.

Rallies took place around New York state Thursday demanding lawmakers pass a couple of bills known by advocates as the Renewable Heat Now package.

The package includes a pair of bills: one requires state buildings to transition to renewable energy within three years; the other bill curbs the expansion of gas infrastructure throughout the state.

Time is running out for Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign the Climate Change Superfund Act, but she is currently in talks with lawmakers negotiating potential chapter amendments to the bill as Dec. 31 looms.

A spokesperson for state Sen. Liz Krueger, who sponsors the bill, told Spectrum News 1 she is “optimistic.”

Several New York and Pennsylvania House Republicans, led by Rep. Nick Langworthy, called on Gov. Kathy Hochul to end opposition to a proposed natural gas pipeline that would’ve run through parts of the Southern Tier and Western New York, according to a letter they sent Thursday.

Known as the Northern Access Pipeline, National Fuel Gas Co. proposed a decade ago to build a two-foot wide, 96-mile pipeline that would run through parts of Allegany, Cattaraugus and Erie counties, as well as one county in Pennsylvania, and carry natural gas to a variety of places in North America.

The number of clean energy jobs in New York state has reached a record high with 178,000 employees in the industry at the end of 2023, according to findings from the 2024 New York Clean Energy Industry Report.

That’s an increase of 7,700 from the year prior.

As New York leaders work to conserve 30% of the state’s land by 2030, conservationists are eyeing what could be a large piece of the puzzle, namely the 36,000-acre Whitney Park that's located in Adirondack Park.

Home to 46 high peaks, 2,800 lakes and ponds and more than 30,000 miles of rivers and streams, the Adirondack Park is one of a kind.

A cryptocurrency plant in Central New York can continue operating after a court rejected the state’s effort to shut down the facility, but the debate isn’t over and both sides consider the ruling a victory.

Environmental advocates have been railing against the Greenidge Generation facility for years, alleging the operation works against the state's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The New York Power Authority is seeking public comment on a draft plan of their role in expanding the state’s renewable energy portfolio. It is part of the state’s work to meet ambitious climate goals and the expansion of NYPA’s authority was approved in last year’s state budget. The expansion gives NYPA, the largest state public power organization in the nation, the authority to plan and execute renewable projects.

Vennela Yadhati, vice president of renewable project development at NYPA, told Spectrum News 1 the draft plan identifies 40 projects that seek to move the needle.

A cryptocurrency plant in central New York can continue operating after a court rejected the state’s effort to shutter the facility over concerns about its climate impact.

The decision was hailed as a victory by Greenidge Generation, a large-scale crypto mine in the Finger Lakes region that has drawn the ire of environmental groups and watchdogs since it began mining bitcoin four years ago.

Former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin’s nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to lead the Environmental Protection Agency has fueled an already intense debate over how Trump’s second term will impact climate policy both at the state and federal level.

Environmental advocates like Judith Enck, former Region 2 EPA regional aministrator under President Barack Obama, are already concerned at the prospect of a Trump presidency and have expressed further concern with Zeldin’s nomination.

When you turn on your tap for a glass of water, you expect that water to be clean and safe to drink.

However, in some parts of New York and the country, lead pipes put children and adults alike at risk of serious health impacts.

New York is one year ahead of schedule for hitting some of its clean energy goals outlined in the 2019 state climate law, the state announced Thursday.

So far, 6 gigawatts of solar have been installed statewide.

Last week, U.S. Reps. Pat Ryan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held a joint press conference in the Hudson Valley urging the Environmental Protection Agency to do more to compel General Electric (GE) to clean up pollution from the Hudson River.

The company legally dumped PCBs into the river over the course of 30 years when it was an economic force in upstate New York.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After nearly four long decades of cleanup and restoration of the Rochester Embayment, the area has finally been taken off the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of “areas of concern" on the Great Lakes affected by historical contamination.

The waters have undergone a remarkable recovery.

As New York state grapples with record-breaking heatwaves and devastating floods, Siena College hosted the “Earth’s Cry, Humanity’s Call” symposium to address the pressing issue of climate change.

The event brought together global leaders, students and policymakers to discuss strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change.

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s performance on handling the state's climate crisis did not receive good marks from one climate action group.

Climate Can’t Wait, a collaborative of several climate groups, released a "report card” on the governor's progress Tuesday. They gave Hochul a "D-minus" for her performance so far.

More than $33 million has been allocated to help farmers address the impacts of climate change as part of New York’s Climate Resilient Farming grant program, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday.

“This program gives farmers the resources they need to mitigate their impact on the environment, prepare for and respond to whatever weather events the future holds and continue their critical work contributing to our local economies,” Hochul said in a statement.

The New York state Office of Renewable Energy Siting and Electric Transmission has issued two siting permits for two major renewable energy projects in upstate New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.

The sites are the Rich Road Solar Energy Center, in the town of Canton, in St. Lawrence County, and Prattsburgh Wind LLC, in Steuben County.

Gov. Kathy Hochul kicked off climate week in Midtown, saying she’s standing with the Biden administration for a multimillion-dollar investment to build up New York’s workforce training tied to offshore wind projects.

“As economies grow, in our country at least, the planet grew sicker and as a result we’re dealing with the effects right now,” she said at the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York headquarters Monday.

As climate week convenes in New York City, Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering a bill to reconvene the state’s sea level rise task force. The task force would be in charge of updating data and making recommendations for how to best address the issue.

The task force was last convened back in 2007 and presented its report in 2010. Those pushing the bill stress that our understanding of climate change and the data available have changed drastically since, and so should the state's strategy.

In the five years since the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) was signed, the state’s energy picture has dimmed in multiple ways: The closure of Indian Point has led to more CO2 emissions. There is a greater reliance on fossil fuels downstate. The price for electricity has increased.

But with electricity needs increasing with the pending arrival of Micron, one trade union president is urging the state to build more capacity by broadening its definition of acceptable energy sources.

Nuclear energy is unique in a lot of ways. While it doesn’t emit greenhouse gasses, it is extractive since it relies on uranium mining. While nuclear waste is radioactive and must be carefully transported and stored, nuclear power is efficient and a greenhouse gas emissions-free alternative to oil and gas.

The state currently has three aging nuclear plants in Central New York, but they continue to produce 20% of New York’s energy.

Does New York’s climate plan need more nuclear energy? Nuclear New York answers that question with a resounding “yes."

With the state’s climate targets lagging at least three years behind, and its electricity needs increasing thanks to Artificial Intelligence; economic development projects like Micron; and crypto currency mining, there are stakeholders who feel investing further in nuclear power is the best way to meet the state’s energy goals within a reasonable timeline.

Economists with the state's nonpartisan fiscal watchdog continue to research legislation that would create a $75 billion fund to pay for climate change initiatives and related projects, and have questions about the impact on consumers and ethics of the bill.

Gov. Kathy Hochul will make a decision to sign or veto a proposal later this fall to require large fossil fuel companies to pay the state $3 billion a year for 25 years to fund the costs of climate change based on their share of emissions. Supporters of the legislation, called the Climate Change Superfund Act, say the fund would shift the cost of clean energy projects off taxpayers.

The state’s energy summit will continue on Thursday in Syracuse with panel discussions on next generation technologies and nuclear power, among other issues.

Protests are planned around the event by those groups who were not invited to participate: communities on the front lines of the climate crisis, including environmental justice organizations.

Gavin Donohue, president and CEO of the Independent Power Producers of New York (IPPNY), is hoping to hear that the Hochul administration will be investing more in workforce development to ensure that New York can quickly bring online any new energy technologies.

He spoke with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter about the issue from the governor’s energy summit in Syracuse.

Next week in Syracuse, Gov. Kathy Hochul will convene an energy summit to discuss the role of clean energy and discuss accelerating renewables, while also supporting economic development in New York.

As Capital Tonight has reported, the state is already three years behind its own timetable to meet the goals of its climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Over the course of the 32 meetings from early 2020 to late 2022, New York's Climate Action Council developed a scoping plan to meet the state's energy and emission reduction goals.

Phillips Lytle head of energy and sustainability Dennis Elsenbeck was one of only three members to vote against the final plan.

It’s been five years since New York’s landmark climate bill was passed by the New York state Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or CLCPA, mandates that 70% of the state’s electricity be generated by renewables by 2030, which is less than six years away.

As preparations become finalized for New York's energy summit in Syracuse next week, Republican lawmakers are urging the state leaders and global experts who will participate to make a cost analysis of New York's clean energy goals and reliability of the electric grid part of the conversation.

Environmental experts, state agencies, power producers, labor groups and others will be part of the two-day Future Energy Economy Summit at the Syracuse Marriott Downtown hotel.

The Oneida Indian Nation has been awarded $12.8 million to install electric vehicle chargers, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.

The Nation will have 52 direct current fast chargers put in at five different locations. The sites will be within one mile of Interstate 90, a designated Alternative Fuels Corridor, which currently has 16 fast chargers in two locations.

Animal and environmental rights groups want Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill into law that would increase the prevalence of wildlife crossings on New York roadways and reduce vehicle and animal collisions.

The Wildlife Crossings Act passed with wide bipartisan support this session with the intent of saving money — and saving lives.

At the very end of session in June, the New York state Legislature passed a consequential climate bill called the Climate Change Superfund Act. The bill is awaiting Gov. Kathy Hochul's signature or veto, and it’s not clear at this point what she will do.

But a new report indicates that, over time, the law could save New Yorkers $825 billion in climate disaster expenses.

A bill passed late in the New York legislative session aims to create a state sustainability officer.

The role would be tied to the wide range of efforts underway to meet New York's ambitious climate goals, which state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli said Wednesday needs improved planning, monitoring and assessment.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- As the effort to tackle plastic pollution across the country and the globe continues to build, there are a lot of new products on the market.

Beyond Plastics President and former Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Judith Enck said it comes with good and bad.

Federal environmental officials said Wednesday they need to collect more data from the Hudson River before they determine how well six years of dredging completed in 2015 to clean up the river is working.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft review on the cleanup of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, from a 40-mile stretch of the river north of Albany. The EPA concluded that while overall PCB levels in water and fish are going down, the agency needs more data on fish to determine if the cleanup is meeting initial expectations.

New York’s climate law requires that the Public Service Commission (PSC) issue a progress report on how the state’s doing in its move toward clean energy.

By law, the state is supposed to meet a target of 70% renewables by 2030. While the report indicates that New York will not meet that goal, and the Hochul administration is considering moving the deadline to 2033, there is some optimism in New York.

With record-breaking heat comes the possibility of record-breaking energy usage. But Rich Dewey, president and CEO of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), told Capital Tonight that the grid is resilient, and that adequate resources are in place to accommodate the kind of demand we have experienced this week.

“We do tremendous planning to get ready for these types of events,” Dewey said of the extended heat wave.

In politics, a last-minute bombshell that drops before a November election is known as an "October surprise."

Here in Albany, just days before the end of the legislative session, Gov. Kathy Hochul dropped what one could call a June surprise as she announced an “indefinite pause” of the congestion pricing policy which was set to go into effect at the end of June in New York City.

New York is working to meet ambitious goals when it comes to reducing emissions — those goals being set forth in New York’s 2019 Climate Act. Meeting them requires continuous progress that climate activists say is not moving fast enough.

Those activists say they were disappointed right out of the gate when they heard Gov. Kathy Hochul's State of The State address in January, and while there were some wins, they remained disappointed as the halls of the state Capitol emptied at the end of session two weeks ago.

LOS ANGELES — May 2024 was the warmest May on record, marking the 12th straight monthly record high.

May was 1.52 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

One of the bills still up in the air this last week of session is the Climate Change Superfund Act.

The legislation would require oil and gas companies to pay into a fund to help the state offset the effects of climate change.

New York’s 25 municipal solid waste landfills “have a combined site life of between approximately 16 and 25 years,” according to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Solid Waste Master Plan. Additionally, within the waste sector, methane leaking from these same landfills are the largest contributor of harmful emissions.

These are among the reasons cited by New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) executive director Blair Horner for the state Legislature to pass an update to the state’s 40-year-old Returnable Container Act, which was last expanded in 2009.

Environmental advocacy groups like We Act 4 Change are making passage of the NY HEAT Act their top priority as legislative session nears its close.

Climate Justice Campaign Manager Annie Carforo said the legislation aims to align state policy with climate goals already on the books.

Microplastics have now been found just about everywhere: every single human organ, in breast milk, in newborn babies, in clouds. According to the Guardian, microplastics have been found from deep in the Mariana Trench to the tip of Mount Everest.

It’s also suspected that they are causing problems with male fertility.

Livingston and Seneca counties will each receive $1.5 million in federal funding to clean up contaminated and toxic sites, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer announced Tuesday.

The money comes from the federal Brownfields Assessment Grant through the Environmental Protection Agency and aims to clean up properties that have long plagued the region.

FLORIDA — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission is reminding beachgoers to watch out for sea turtles and shorebirds this Memorial Day weekend.

Nesting season is underway at Florida beaches, and FWC is asking Floridians and visitors to help keep turtles and birds safe by giving them space, removing beach furniture and trash, keeping the shore clean and dark, and not to disturb nests.

The New York state Public Service Commission has adopted a Statewide Solar for All program that aims to spur development of solar and retail energy storage projects, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office announced Thursday.

Statewide Solar for All will combine the utility-managed Energy Affordability Program (EAP) and market-based community solar with the goal to deliver clean energy savings to low-income households.

New York state Assemblymember Anna Kelles has introduced legislation that serves as an alternative to the state’s emerging cap and trade system.

Cap and trade is a program used to help meet climate goals by capping pollution and then authorizing tradable allowances between companies, creating a new market.

Once again, the NY HEAT Act did not make the state budget. The bill is at the very top of environmentalists’ priorities.

The NY HEAT Act would align utility regulations with the state’s emissions reduction targets and remove a residential customer’s legal entitlement to utility gas services, but maintain the entitlement for electric service.

Renewable energy projects in New York have been taking more than three years to receive siting permits due to application delays, according to an audit released Thursday by state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli's office.

The audit of the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES), which was created in 2020, found permit applications were often delayed due to missing or insufficient documentation.

Climate activists view the New York state budget as the best chance for passage of the Climate Change Superfund Act.

The bill (S.2129A Krueger/A.3351A Dinowitz) would force oil companies to help pay for damages caused by the climate crisis — damages that environmental justice communities have been dealing with for decades, in some cases.

New York state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would exempt the burning of wood, used for cooking or heating buildings, from restrictions under the state’s 2019 climate law.

The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) mandates the state lower greenhouse gas emissions to 40% of 1990 levels by 2030, and by 85% by 2050.

Members of the New York state Assembly on Tuesday urged the chamber’s speaker, Carl Heastie, and Gov. Kathy Hochul to include the NY HEAT Act, which aligns utility regulation with state climate justice and emission reduction targets, in the state budget.

Proponents of the measure say it is intended to limit costs to customers as New York state transitions away from natural gas while protecting them from predatory practices by capping utility costs at 6% of income for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to prevent utility companies from hiking rates.

New York state Sen. Pete Harckham, the chairman of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee, has proposed legislation that would create a new limit of tax credits for New Yorkers to go solar.

The proposal, which is currently in committee, would give New Yorkers who transition their residence to rooftop solar a maximum per-household tax credit of $10,000. Harckham joined Capital Tonight to discuss how the proposal would work.

The Environmental Protection Agency last week announced a comprehensive ban on asbestos. The move expands upon a 2016 law that dealt with the use of toxic chemicals in every-day products.

The known carcinogen has largely been phased out but is still used in some products.

New York state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos recently announced he’s stepping down from the job after eight and half years.

He is the longest serving commissioner in the agency’s history, and his introduction to the position was forged by a drinking water crisis in the village of Hoosick Falls.

The New York state Senate on Tuesday passed legislation aimed to make utility bills easier to pay for ratepayers, including the NY Heat Act, which aligns utility regulation with state climate justice and emission reduction targets.

The NY HEAT Act, which passed 40-22, had been approved by the state Senate last year but the Assembly and Gov. Kathy Hochul have yet to find agreement on all variables of the legislation. Hochul included key provisions in her 2025 state budget, but not the entire piece of legislation.

There are several proposals on environmental wish lists this legislative session, including the NY HEAT Act, which advocates say will save New Yorkers money and move them off fossil fuels, as well as the Climate Change Superfund Act, which would make polluters pay for the cost of the climate transition.

“This is a very important budget for lawmakers and the governor to get right when it comes to environmental protections and addressing climate change,” Liz Moran, a policy advocate for Earthjustice, told Capital Tonight.

The New York state Assembly on Tuesday passed a bill that would expand the state's ban of the controversial drilling process to extract natural gas to include a newer practice that uses carbon dioxide to extract methane and circumvents the current policy.

Fracking was first prohibited in New York back in 2014 and then permanently banned in the 2021 state budget.

A collaboration of unions, climate advocates, building industry representatives and environmental groups is calling for New York to decarbonize state-owned college campuses as part of the state budget.

Known as UpgradeNY, the group wants union-led funding to build thermal energy networks at the State University of New York at Buffalo and Purchase to decarbonize heating and cooling on their campuses, the group said Thursday morning.

The State University of New York system will phase out the use of single-use plastics like bags, beverage bottles, food service products, utensils, plastic wrap and packaging films, SUNY Chancellor John King announced Tuesday.

The higher education system will work with the SustainChain public service platform to create a plastics-free solutions hub with access to resources on how to achieve the new requirement.

The giant meat producer JBS was accused of making misleading claims about its greenhouse gas emission goals to boost sales among environmentally conscious consumers in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The lawsuit filed in a state court in New York City alleges that the company claimed it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 despite having no viable plan to meet that commitment. The lawsuit names as defendants JBS USA Food Company and JBS USA Food Company Holdings, the American subsidiary of the world-leading producer of beef products based in Brazil.

If you’ve ever purchased anything from Amazon, you’ve probably had to open a plastic bubble mailer and then a second or even third plastic wrapper to get at the thing you ordered.

It’s one reason why more than 300 advocates and elected officials converged on Albany Tuesday to push lawmakers to pass a bill to reduce packaging. Advocates argue that single-use plastic is one of the most serious issues facing the environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency is putting more than $20 million toward cleanup in the Ley Creek area of the Onondaga Lake Superfund Site.

U.S. Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand shared details from the funding on Tuesday.

New York state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos has decided to step down from the role, Spectrum News 1 learned Wednesday evening.

Seggos has led the DEC since October 2015, the longest tenure a commissioner has served in that department.

The cost of the doing nothing on climate will far outweigh the cost of a climate transition for New York, according to state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos, who addressed concerns on Capital Tonight.

“I just want to make sure viewers are clear. People are already paying for the impacts of climate change. That is a certainty. We spent $36 billion to recover from Superstorm Sandy,” Seggos said. “We see a $55 billion bill, potentially, if we don’t do the right things in New York, just on adaptation over the next 10 years.”

New York lawmakers met yet again within the marble walls of Albany's Legislative Office Building Wednesday to hear testimony on the state’s environmental conservation budget, with topics ranging from assistance for farmers to New York’s State Park system.

Some of the more heated exchanges we’ve seen at these hearings so far this session, however, were directed at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation. They're largely concerned with the attainability of New York’s climate goals.

Last July, storms dropped more than a month’s worth of rain in the Hudson Valley, washing away the road to West Point, and causing deadly flooding across the Northeast.

Just last month, coastal storms off the south shore of Long Island downed trees and utility lines and caused what some people have called the worst flooding since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and members of the Great Lakes Task Force introduced legislation that would extend a program that cleans up toxins, combats invasive species and protects watersheds of the Great Lakes, her office announced Wednesday.

A bipartisan bill would extend the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) for another five years, through 2031, and increase annual funding levels from $475 million in 2026 to $500 million from 2027 to 2031.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Over the past few decades, New York state has invested attention and public resources into Plug Power, a company involved in the development and manufacturing of hydrogen fuel cells, a cleaner alternative to conventional batteries.

Empire Center for Public Policy Research Director Ken Girardin said as the company has waited for its product to go mainstream it has needed help to remain liquid.

Two Democratic state lawmakers announced new legislation Monday aimed to help improve gathering information on harmful algal blooms (HABs) in New York's waterways.

Introduced by state Sen. Rachel May and Assemblymember Anna Kelles, the Harmful Algal Bloom Monitoring and Prevention (HABMAP) Act would create a centralized resource for reporting and dealing with HABs, including potential and known causes, best practice interventions, expertise and funding resources. The data would enable the state to administer a grant program supporting data-driven best practices in preventing and mitigating harmful algal blooms.

Flooding has impacted a lot of communities across upstate New York at one time or another.

Whether it was record flooding in the Southern Tier in 2011, or more recently in the Hudson Valley, most of us can never feel too prepared.

The Finger Lakes are synonymous with upstate New York, but the health of Cayuga Lake is directly tied to a salt mine that sits beneath its shores.

For years, Cargill has faced criticism as it operated its salt mine beneath Cayuga Lake, one of the cornerstones of the Finger Lakes. Now, word of the company’s potential sale has united lawmakers and environmental advocates to protect the lake they call home.

Since 2019, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the Legislature have invested $500 million annually in clean water infrastructure, supporting drinking water and wastewater improvement as well as per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) remediation, among other issues.

But in her executive budget this year, Hochul added only $250 million to the funding, which has environmentalists uneasy.