Why the Passage of the Superfund Act Means We Must Keep Fighting

The end of the legislative session in Albany is always full of drama. Late into the evening on Friday, June 7, activists, lobbyists, and staffers eagerly awaited the Assembly’s vote on a controversial bill: the Climate Change Superfund Act. The bill requires big oil companies to pay three billion dollars a year over the next 25 years to fund programs and projects addressing climate change’s damaging effects and building resilient infrastructure to withstand future disasters. Though the bill passed the State Senate in May, there was a good chance the bill wouldn’t pass the Assembly despites its overwhelming support from assembly members and their constituents. House Speaker Carl Heastie put off bringing the bill to the floor throughout the entire 2024 legislative session. Tensions were especially high in Albany last week following Governor Hochul’s decision to pause the congestion pricing program indefinitely, gutting the hopes and efforts of many climate justice advocates across the state. Advocates for the act exhaled a breath of air when the bill was passed 95-46. After five years of fighting, the grassroots coalition of youth, faith, and community environmental groups that were pressuring the Assembly achieved a deserved win, but their struggle is far from over.

“Albany is kind of designed to be inaccessible to everyday people,” 18 year old organizer with Fridays for Future NYC Keanu Arpels-Josiah explained. The coalition that fought for the Climate Change Superfund Act, made up of over 400 organizations from across the state, had to overcome this barrier. Throughout the entire legislative session, from January to June, New York City advocacy groups packed buses with concerned New Yorkers ready to make their voices heard in Albany. Planning these lobby days is complicated. It requires preparing rallies and press conferences and organizing tons of meetings with as many senate and assembly member offices as possible. However, it is highly necessary because, as Arpels-Josiah furthers, “companies are the ones [Albany is] designed to be accessible for.”

To provide some perspective on how much of a problem corporate lobbying is in Albany, in 2022, expenses for lobbying reached an all time high of over $331 million. This is a major reason why passing climate legislation has been so difficult. Last week alone, this was displayed across the state government. Governor Kathy Hochul took over $36,000 in campaign funding from auto companies and their lobby groups that opposed congestion pricing before her decision to pause it. At the same time, the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, which would require companies to redesign packaging to reduce plastic waste and shift the waste-management burden away from taxpayers towards companies, was killed in the Assembly by lobbying as well. The bill’s sponsor, Assembly Member Deborah Glick, fought hard, pledging to “do everything humanly possible” to get it on the governor’s desk, but the chemical industry and corporations teamed up, making calls to Albany and releasing statements about how much the bill would cost businesses. The same thing happened in 2021—the last time a packaging bill was introduced in Albany. Some bills didn’t even make it to the Assembly floor this year despite having a majority of members’ support, including the Heat Act which was advocated for in tandem with Superfund by the same coalition of environmental groups. 

While these losses dimmed the celebration of the Superfund Act, the fact that Superfund passed despite these odds proves the power of grassroots lobbying. By trading in dollars for votes, people have power to lobby their elected officials, and organizers are harnessing this leverage. Throughout the session, members of the 400 group coalition including Food and Water Watch, New York Public Interest Group (NYPIRG) and New York Communities for Change held lobby days where they rallied more support in the Assembly and Senate for their bills. They staged loud protests in the State Capitol halls and gave speeches on the Million Dollar Staircase. Youth groups were key to this fight as well—members of Fridays for Future NYC, the Sixth Street Community Center Teen Climate Justice Program, and Treeage all missed school and packed onto buses to get these bills passed. In March, state university students, NYPIRG, and NYC high schoolers, including Arpels-Josiah, partnered up for a youth-led rally for the Heat Act that put emphasis on protecting the rights of future generations through climate legislation. 180 young people signed a letter to Carl Heastie urging him to pass the Superfund Act the week before it passed. Near the end of the session, people were out in the streets, flyering non-stop in assembly members’ districts for Heat and Superfund and partaking in continuous phone banks that filled up the offices of Carl Heastie and Governor Hochul. This became impossible for Albany to ignore. Heastie was asked about the Superfund Act at a press conference and responded by saying “we want to do some environmental things,” after months of silence. The fight for Superfund isn’t completely over yet since Governor Hochul has yet to sign it into law, but the Assembly has historically been the worst blocker of climate legislation, making the Superfund’s passage an incredible feat.

New York has prioritized corporate interests over environmental justice for too long. As the climate crisis worsens, we are running out of time for action. The NYC sewage system is expected to need $100 billion invested into upgrades over the next 10 years to be able to handle storms like Hurricane Ida without major flooding. This cannot be paid for by taxpayers. 

Our city is not the only one in trouble. Across the nation, climate related disasters including wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, and extreme heat are ramping up. Across the board, the fossil fuel industry has made an extreme profit burning fuel while causing the climate crisis—they deserve to pay for the damage they’ve caused. The Superfund Act will bring in three billion dollars, but this is not nearly enough. Instead of our president doling out billions of dollars in government subsidies for oil and gas projects, we need legislation to be passed across the country that will hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. To do this, we need to curb the power of corporate lobbying at every level of government. Grassroots coalitions have the power to advocate for this and create real change, particularly at local levels. 

In my own experience, going up to Albany and meeting with legislative offices has been empowering and given me a new perspective on state politics. Our state electeds are real people who are often open to conversations. At the same time, they govern one of the biggest economies in the United States and hold a lot of power. Votes are political currency, but a few votes alone aren’t enough to create substantial pressure, especially when corporate lobbyists are using millions of dollars to sway state policy. It is only when we work together, using grassroots tactics, that we can achieve wins like the Superfund Act. Next session, this same coalition of environmental groups and organizers will be fighting for the Heat Act and the Just Energy Transition Act, to name a few. Anyone is welcome to sign up for a lobby day and receive training to talk to legislative offices. Your district’s assembly member and senator’s offices are open to calls throughout every work week. There are so many ways to use your voice—it’s time we all take our government and future into our own hands and make ourselves heard.