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. 

No release date has been provided. 

Now, a coalition of environmental groups including Citizen Action and PUSH Buffalo, being represented by Earthjustice, Pace University and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, is suing the agency in Albany County Supreme Court, urging it to produce regulations that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as promised by the CLCPA law, by 40% by 2030.  

The lawsuit states,“DEC’s failure to implement the Legislature’s directive is…endangering Petitioners’ members who continue to breathe dirty air, suffer from pollution-related illnesses, and face economic barriers in their efforts to protect themselves and their communities by replacing fossil fuel-burning equipment with clean new technology.”   

Capital Tonight reached out to DEC for comment and received the following by email:

“DEC does not comment on potential or pending litigation. The draft Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting regulation lays the foundation for a potential future cap-and-invest program under development by DEC and NYSERDA. The proposal, which will help to better inform the State’s GHG emissions and comprehensive efforts to reduce pollution, is one of the many significant steps New York is taking to achieve the emission reduction targets of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.” 

Rachel Spector, Senior Attorney at Earthjustice, discussed the lawsuit with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter.