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CityAndStateNY.com
December 6, 2021
SETTING THE AGENDA
rector of policy and communications for the Release Aging People in Prison campaign. Two parole reform bills her coalition supports – elder parole as well as a bill that would strengthen the reporting requirements around when parole is denied – did not pass this year, but Taylor said she expects victories next year with a new and perhaps more supportive governor in office. Also left over from last year is the Clean Slate Act, which would seal the records of over 2 million people with criminal records, for both felonies and misdemeanors, after a set number of years following the end of their sentences. It came very close to passing at the end of the session this year, but ultimately never came to a vote. Bill sponsor Assembly Member Catalina Cruz of Queens said that support hasn’t wavered since then and plans to prioritize the legislation early next year. “If you have committed a crime and paid your dues to society, there is absolutely no reason why you should not be able to have gainful employment and to have a stable home,” Cruz said. And far from backing off after a painful election cycle, criminal justice reform advocates are introducing a new campaign for 2022 to enact sentencing reform, including the elimination of mandatory minimum sentences. “Sentencing reforms are one of the front-end methods to decarcerate our prisons,” said Marvin Mayfield, statewide organizer at Center for Community Alternatives. Along with eliminating mandatory minimums, other new legislation seeks to permit incarcerated people to apply for resentencing hearings after 10 years, and expand laws that offer reduced sentences for good behavior. Although activists acknowledge that the many issues they’re looking to address may take more than one year to get done, they remained confident that recent election results and fears over crime won’t be major impediments with continued support among lawmakers and members of communities impacted by overcriminalization. “I think we’d have to be blind not to see there’s still a hotbed of activity surrounding bail reform,” Mayfield said. “Does this mean that the mood is turning against criminal justice reform? Some people would venture to say that it is, but I think not.”
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– With reporting by Zach Williams
Fossil fuel fight
Several new bills will test how aggressive state lawmakers want to be in addressing climate change next year. By Zach Williams
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EW YORK HAS a ways to go when it comes to reaching the goals established in the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Just 5% of the electricity in the state currently comes from wind and solar. New York will have to do more than that to meet the legal requirement to have 100% renewable energy by 2040 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions statewide by 85%, compared to 1990 levels, in the subsequent decade. According to a recent report by the New York Public Interest Research Group, the state needs to promote more conservation, more renewable energy and fewer emissions. Political will appears to be a big variable in finding solutions. “We are at a really critical juncture when it comes to meeting the state’s climate goals,” Liz Moran, New York policy advocate at Earthjustice, said in an interview. Recent disasters show how deadly – and expensive – a warming planet has already become. Experts empaneled by the CLCPA are expected to release draft plans in the coming weeks that will detail specific steps the state can take to achieve its energy goals. Gov. Kathy Hochul has suggested that her budget for the fiscal year that begins April 1 will include a focus on confronting climate change. State lawmakers meanwhile are getting ready for a 2022 legislative session that could have a big effect on the speed with which the state weans itself off fossil fuels. Albany Democrats are generally of one mind when it comes to expanding renewable energy and promoting conservation, in principle at least, but things get complicated when it comes to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. A growing group of left-leaning legislators want to block the use of fossil fuels in a variety of ways, which has already led to some friction between colleagues urging a more gradual approach. “This is a 911 emergency,” state Sen. James Sanders Jr. of Queens said in an interview. “We have to move on and say: ‘No more new fossil fuel infrastructure.’” A bill he is sponsoring aims to block the construction of future gas pipelines, power plants and storage facilities, with some exceptions for things like gas stations. Other bills directly target new sources of emissions, including proposals to ban natural gas power plants, eliminate energy subsidies and crack down on energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining at previously shuttered power plants. Such proposals are complicated in their details. The subsidy bill, for example, involves a complicated web of existing state taxes
