A green era in Albany?
Environmentalists see Democratic control of both New York’s Senate and Assembly starting in January as a sea change improving prospects for bills protecting the Adirondacks.
The November election removed a GOP roadblock in the Senate that has stopped several conservation measures in the past, advocates said.
The Assembly kept a Democratic veto-proof majority of 106 seats, with 43 held by Republicans and one by an independent.
New York’s new Senate will have 39 Democrats, 23 Republicans and one Brooklyn Democrat who has been caucusing with the Republicans.
Climate Change
“We have, for the first time, an incoming majority that publicly is concerned about the adverse impacts of human-induced climate change,” said Sen. Brad Hoylman, a Manhattan Democrat on the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee. “There was no acknowledgement on the part of the (GOP) leadership that climate change was even a problem.”
Hoylman, a lead sponsor of legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions statewide, said that bill now has “a very good shot” at Senate approval. The bill would require the DEC to promulgate regulations, in consultation with environmentalists and regulated industries, to measure greenhouse gas emissions and set
