CHNY Response to Gov. Hochul's State of the State
Clean and Healthy New York Praises Gov. Kathy Hochul’s Environmental Vision in State of the State Speech
Hails Bold Initiatives to Reduce Harmful Emissions, Expand State and Local Green Purchasing,
and Ban on Toxic PFAS and Phthalates in Packaging
ALBANY, N.Y. - January 5, 2022 - In response to Governor Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address, Bobbi Wilding, Executive Director of Clean and Healthy New York said the following:
Governor Kathy Hochul’s vision for a New Era for New York clearly includes an understanding that our environment and public health are critical to the ability of New Yorkers to thrive. It demonstrates her serious approach to ensure that our state is a national leader in protecting public health and the environment. We are especially pleased to see inclusion of:
$1 billion expansion of the Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act that will go before voters in November;
Action to protect disadvantaged communities from the harms of toxic air pollution and expanding and extending the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program;
Reinvigoration of the state’s already nation-leading Green Procurement program through a new Executive Order and helping local governments access green products through the state program;
Promotion of a nontoxic, circular economy by making packaging and paper producers responsible for ensuring their materials return to productive use and also banning the toxic chemical classes of PFAS and phthalates in packaging materials.
“We look forward to working with Governor Hochul and her staff as these proposals are advanced through Executive actions, legislation, and the forthcoming state budget. We urge her to include a much-needed and long-overdue expansion of Department of Environmental Conservation staff to ensure effective and robust implementation of her vision, and the ongoing work of safeguarding our state.
“We agree that this is the time to initiate a New Era for New York, in which our collective resources are deployed to ensure the health and wellbeing of our state’s people and environment now, and far into the future. A critical but often overlooked component of nearly all decisions is the undue reliance on toxic chemicals in nearly all aspects of our material economy.
“We consider Governor Hochul’s two-part proposal on packaging an important acknowledgement that toxic chemicals have no place in our future, and that we don’t want to recycle them through our economy again and again. We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to address past and current environmental health concerns including lead poisoning, and to support the innovative solutions that make it easy to meet our needs into the future without compromising our health or the planet.”
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