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Why We Must Pass the Climate Change Superfund Act Before the End of Legislative Session


Flooding on Long Island (photo: Governor's Office)


Climate change is eating Long Island away, and is projected to raise our sea level to more than 50% higher than the global average. If those estimates are correct, that means large portions of Jones Beach will disappear by 2050, the north and south ends will become their own islands by 2080, and Fire Island will almost completely wash away by the end of the century.

Protecting Long Islanders’ homes from this kind of irreparable climate damage is possible – but climate change is already costing taxpayers an arm and a leg. It is a cost that we should not have to pay.

There’s a solution to this problem making its way through the New York State Legislature right now - a plan that would take the burden off of taxpayers and put those who created this climate catastrophe on the hook instead. That bill is the Climate Change Superfund Act. The act makes the worst corporate climate polluters – Big Oil – pay. It should be on Albany’s “must do” list as we head into the last days of the legislative session.

Just this year, New Yorkers statewide have been forced to pay around $800 million for projects related to climate damages and resiliency projects. It’s only going to get worse.

The Long Island Regional Planning Council is projecting $75 to $100 billion out of taxpayers’ pockets for new roads and other infrastructure improvements, thanks to worsening storms and sea level rise. That’s right – tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to elevate our streets (where they have been washed away from intense storms), build new bridges, and upgrade our septic systems and storm drains to protect them against future flooding.

Many of us who live on Long Island have already experienced this kind of flooding. We need this infrastructure to protect against tragedies like Hurricane Sandy, which took 13 lives and damaged or destroyed 100,000 homes. Suffolk County experienced seven natural disaster declarations in the last decade — the most of any county in the state. And while we have to suffer and pay for these consequences, Big Oil companies are getting richer.

The top Big Oil companies are on track for a second consecutive year of record profits. Across the globe, Big Oil companies are performing much better than expected this year, following last year’s record-breaking profits totaling $376 billion. These companies want you to believe that they’re investing in clean and renewable energy sources. Don’t buy the smoke and mirrors.

They fund climate science denial while pushing greenwashing advertising. Big Oil wants us to believe they have our wellbeing at heart, but their actions racked up a tab of $5.4 trillion in climate damages worldwide over just 26 years. Even worse, they knew that they were driving the climate catastrophe as early as the 1970s. And now, even after all of this has come to light, they evade any sort of real accountability. 

We’re all impacted by climate change, but Black, Latino, Asian, and low-income communities bear the brunt of it. Natural disasters aren’t just the weather themselves — they’re worsened by social, political, and economic stressors. Low-income communities experience greater challenges evacuating due to the cost of transportation and relocation. But when people stay, they experience increased health risks including contaminated water and interrupted access to medical care and food. On top of that, because of the increased risk of asthma, heart disease, and other chronic health problems that low-income and communities of color experience (also because of other environmental injustice), these communities are especially vulnerable to storm hazards. 

And of course, after the flood, cleanup is expensive and leads to increased debt, partly because people in poverty are less likely to have flood insurance. According to the Urban Institute, after four years, a medium-sized disaster causes a 31-point decline in credit scores for people living in communities of color, whereas people living in white communities only experienced a 4-point decline.

On Long Island, we already know what it’s like to pay more than our fair share. We pay through the nose in property taxes. And now we have to deal with the exponentially increasing risk of flood damage to our homes because of a mess we didn’t make — on top of raised taxes for climate change infrastructure? It’s criminal.

Experts have already proven that making polluters pay for their fare share of this mess won’t result in those costs being passed onto consumers. We can’t afford to pay for climate change, and we shouldn’t have to. Let’s make corporate climate polluters pay by passing the Climate Change Superfund Act.

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Assembly Member Michaelle Solages represents New York’s 22nd District. On Twitter @SolagesNY.

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Hundreds of Units of Affordable Housing in Queens at Risk if Albany Fails to Act


Housing in focus (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


The inclusive, affordable, and transformative redevelopment of the Astoria waterfront is at risk of falling apart without decisive action from the State Legislature. 

Last year, the City Council and Mayor Eric Adams approved the rezoning for Halletts North; a project that is set to transform a long-dormant site on Astoria’s waterfront into a mixed-use building with nearly 1,400 homes for families of all sizes, including 335 apartments at deep affordability levels. 

This project’s approval was a collaborative effort. City Council Member Tiffany Cabán negotiated for deeper affordability to better meet Astoria residents’ housing needs. Additionally, the developer agreed to set aside optimal space within the completed project for local nonprofits, such as Zone 126 and Urban Upbound (an organization that I co-founded 19 years ago) to offer essential programming to community members. To help address some of the community’s immediate needs, the developers also allocated $1 million to the Astoria Houses for the residents to use at their own discretion. 

Unfortunately, the build-out of Halletts North is facing delays largely due to supply chain issues that have affected much of our city’s construction industry. Completing the construction of Halletts North by the deadline for projects already vested in the old 421-a tax abatement program for affordable housing development — by June 2026 — will be nearly impossible. 

In the few days before the end of legislative session, there is still time for Albany to take action that would clear the way for the completion of Halletts North. The deadline to complete construction on projects vested in 421-a could be extended beyond 2026, and this extension could be granted exclusively to projects that achieve the deepest levels of affordability associated with the old 421-a program. This nuanced approach would ensure that the time and efforts of the Astoria residents who support Halletts North are heard and honored. 

At Urban Upbound, our mission is to provide residents of public housing and lower-income communities with the tools they need to achieve economic independence and break cycles of poverty. Zone 126 works to build strong educational pipelines that close achievement gaps for Black, Latino, and low-income students in Western Queens. The agreement to construct Halletts North would provide these two organizations with 10,000 square feet of space in the new development, which we plan to use for small business and job-incubator programs. We can create an inspiring and innovative space where residents, especially those from the nearby Astoria Houses, can hone their workforce, academic, and entrepreneurial skills as well as receive one-on-one financial counseling. 

We face a dramatic housing crisis, one that dominates the headlines every single day. Without new deeply affordable housing, this crisis will only get worse. Projects like Hallets North present Albany with an opportunity to support the efforts of local communities working to leverage development for the greater good. 

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Bishop Mitchell G. Taylor is the CEO & Co-founder of the nonprofit Urban Upbound.

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Cut the Trash: Time for New York to Pass the Waste Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act


Waste (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)


Say you order a pair of shoes online. The oversized box comes in; you cut it open to reveal more packaging and the shoebox, and then you finally get to your shoes, which are surrounded by a pile of cardboard, paper, and plastic. You’re a thoughtful, environmentally conscious New Yorker, so you take the gargantuan box out to the curb for recycling and throw out the extras that you can’t recycle. 

Here’s the thing, though – your online retailer didn’t have to send you a box three times bigger than your shoes, and they didn’t have to fill it with hard-to-recycle plastic. They can tackle this problem on the front end instead of making it your responsibility to recycle or dispose of their wasteful packaging. That’s why it’s so important that Governor Hochul and legislative leaders pass the Waste Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act by the end of this state legislative session, so those companies will have to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their packaging. 

If passed into law, cities and taxpayers that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on processing packaging and paper waste would see responsibility and financial burden shift to the companies responsible for making the products to begin with. It would incentivize those companies to use fewer materials and make those materials easier to recycle – all while providing desperately needed reimbursement to municipalities processing those products. 

Throughout New York State and New York City, local communities, governments, and conservation organizations are working tirelessly to reduce the massive ecological footprint of over 15 million tons of statewide waste per year. But individual responsibility only goes so far. The urgency of the climate crisis demands systemwide waste diversion and realignment of incentives for manufacturers. This bill achieves that by requiring packaging and distribution companies to reduce their waste or foot the bill. This law alone is estimated to reduce landfill waste from New York City by 600,000 pounds every day – the same weight as about 344 trucks. 

Extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies like this one aren’t new. They are utilized around the globe to shift the financing of waste management from the taxpayer to the producers of waste. EPR programs encourage sustainable product design and increase recycling through incentivized fee structures, recyclability targets, convenience requirements, and strong oversight. California, Maine, Colorado, and Oregon have passed similar laws, incentivizing companies to create more environmentally sustainable packaging products. These have boosted recycling rates in some areas where laws have been well-implemented to as high as 70%.

New York State already has EPR laws in place for paint, electronics, rechargeable batteries, and pharmaceuticals. As a result, our state has seen significant increases in diversion of these materials from landfills and saved millions of dollars. Last year, thanks to the work of the Senate and Assembly, we were able to get the Extended Producer Responsibility bill for carpets passed and signed into law by Governor Hochul.

New York City could receive more than $150 million in revenue generated by this bill, which would cover about 30% of the city’s residential waste stream. This is a win for the city and the state; other municipalities statewide are estimated to receive $300 million.

Similar versions of this legislation have been on the table since 2020, but have been pushed out of the budget and never voted on later in legislative session. Every year we delay, New York City taxpayers foot that $150 million bill. 

Municipalities cannot afford to leave money on the table and our environment cannot continue to bear needless waste. I urge the Governor, Speaker Heastie, and Leader Stewart-Cousins to come to the table to get waste reduction for packaging and paper done this year.

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Julie Tighe is President of the New York League of Conservation Voters, NYLCV. On Twitter @julietighe17 & @NYLCV.

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