Senate Bill S6607

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6607

SPONSOR: HARCKHAM
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
requiring the city of New York and counties outside the city of New York
to develop a plan to assist the state in achieving its goals for the
transition to zero-emissions vehicles

 
PURPOSE:

Directs New York City and counties outside of New York City to develop
and submit plans detailing how they will move toward using electric
vehicles.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends Section 19-0306-b of the environmental conservation law
by adding a new subdivision 6 to require the city of New York and each
county outside the city of New York to develop and report a plan to
assist the state in achieving electric vehicle goals from one year after
              

the effective date of this subdivision.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act includes numer-
ous goals for New York State's transition to electric vehicles.  The
CLCPA requires the state to cut greenhouse emissions by 85%, of which
gasoline combustion is a huge contributor. In order to mitigate
pollution from gasoline combustion, state and municipal governments must
work in conjunction to reduce these emissions.

The Climate Action Council Report put forth a goal of ensuring all
passenger vehicles sold in NY are electric by 2030. In 2020, the former
mayor of NYC Bill de Blasio signed an executive order to electrify the
city's entire municipal vehicle fleet by 2040. Most recently, Governor
Hochul signed legislation setting a goal for all new passenger cars and
trucks sold in NYS to be zero emissions by 2035. Though it is important
to pass legislation to set goals for electrifying vehicles in the state,
there needs to be action taken to ensure that these goals are achieva-
ble. New York State counties and the New York City government must
develop and submit to the state detailed plans for how they will support
the electrification of vehicles. This includes but is not limited to
plans for supporting EV infrastructure, such as stating how many public-
ly available charging stations will be installed, where and when they
will be installed, creating publicly available maps of information on
charging stations, and where applicable, plans to electrify municipal
fleets and transition away from gas-powered vehicles.

In order to achieve the goals set by the CLCPA, State, and County
governments must work together to ensure all our communities are
accounted for in the transition process.

 
FISCAL IMPACT:

None

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.