Ever wonder how your state legislators voted on environmental measures, such as climate change bills, pollution and toxics regulations, or waste reduction proposals? Environmental Advocates of New York just released its 2026 legislative scorecard.
Executive Director Vanessa Fajans-Turner describes the biggest takeaway as ‘two steps backward, and one forward’ for the environment.
"It's not line dancing. You know, at first we thought maybe we could get the environmentalists to start doing a bit of a two-step. But the story here is that New York State, even with a Democratic supermajority in the state Senate and Democratic majority in the assembly, Democratic Governor and Attorney General, has still lost ground on some of its biggest environmental commitments and advances of the past years," said Fajans-Turner.
The scorecard rates each lawmaker based on a points system the group gives regarding issues it supported or championed. It also covers progress on key topics, including several measures that did not make it to the floor for a vote.
“There were zero votes on (them). So fundamentally, we couldn't even score whether legislators voted quote, unquote the right way or not. This was a big part of the story that we considered problematic this year,” said Fajans-Turner.
Those measures included what she termed ‘super-bills’:
- The Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure act that promised to reduce packaging waste, plastics and raise fund for municipal recycling efforts.
- The Beauty Justice Act, that would have banned PFAS, so called forever chemicals, from beauty and other consumer products.
- A measure for the state to replace lead pipes in drinking water infrastructure.
LEGISLATOR GRADES
The Scorecard allows residents to check out voting records of each member of the state senate and assembly. The group gave lawmakers points for voting for, sponsoring or supporting measures.
In Central New York, Assembly members Anna Kelles (D-125 Ithaca) and Al Stirpe (D-127 North Syracuse) rated highest; John Lemondes (R-126 Jamesville) was lowest. In the Senate, Rachel May (D-48 Syracuse) supported the most green bills, while Christopher Ryan (D-50 Syracuse) also rated highly.
Fajans-Turner notes some of the most impactful legislation was a set of rollbacks of the state’s climate law in the state budget.
"It pushed deadlines out. It changed its ambition in terms of emissions reductions. And as part of that, that's going to have serious ramifications for New Yorkers, especially during a year when the biggest story has been the cost of energy and utility bills," Fajans-Turner said.
A key question emerging from green energy policy and an expected spike in electricity needs is how the state will generate that power.
“The more that the state is leaning into non-renewable sources of energy and the more it is bringing in and opening itself to all sorts of demanding energy things like data centers, the more we will be trapped in a fossil fuel cycle that is driving our energy bills up,” Fajans-Turner said.
She noted a $1 billion commitment toward protecting water and repairing water infrastructure was a positive step.
Fajans-Turner added the scorecard is a tool to learn about environmental bills and their impacts, informing people for possible advocacy on issues and voting decisions.
