Say “Nay” to Senate Bill S542 and Assembly Bill A2591

Marching and protesting are effective ways to make the local news but if you truly want change, you VOTE! And, when I say ‘vote’ I mean, going to the New York State Senate website and casting a vote that all New York State Senators will see. This is how you do it:

1. Go to this URL: https://www.nysenate.gov/

2. Create account

3. An email will be sent to you that your account setup was a success. To activate your account you have to click on the URL that was sent to the email address you provided (or paste into your browser) to validate your address and set up a password. Once that’s done, you’ll be ready to participate in the legislative process!

4. Click on “Bills” (under Inbox and Issues) and then click on the gold-colored words “Search all Senate legislation”

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Lastly, you can leave comments too! If you’re not sure how to put into words your frustration with these two bills, take a cue from the CAC. Feel free to copy and paste all or part of anything we wrote here:

Public Comment re: Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act

Senate Bill S542 and Assembly Bill A2591

As written, this bill will do more harm to the environment than good.  It does not exclude the burning of waste by cement plants as a “low carbon fuel” which when burned produces toxins and chemicals known to harm people and the soil.  As is, the bill also encourages the use of toxic and polluting materials such as fly ash and blast furnace slag to be incorporated into concrete as supplementary cementitious materials.  Only non-toxic recycled ground glass pozzolan should be encouraged.  

Furthermore, much of the current carbon capture and sequestration technology perpetuates the burning of fossil fuels and does not live up to its promise of reducing carbon from smokestacks and the atmosphere.  Studies that take into account “upstream” greenhouse gas emissions from extraction and transportation found that many carbon capture technologies reduce only a small fraction of carbon emissions, usually increase air pollution, and require significant taxpayer-funded subsidies. 

This concrete procurement discount is sponsored by the taxpayers and those who breathe the air and farm the soil in NY State.  It needs to protect us!   I, therefore, urge you to consider the following amendments to the bill:

1. Remove any mention of “low carbon fuel” since this term is being used by the cement industry to include all types of waste.  Please amend §2 Section 165, proposed subdivision 9, (vii) (B) to read: (B) select fuel use at the level of the concrete and/or cement plant which for the purpose of this law is strictly limited to plants that are electrified or burn gas and/or coal. This fuel selection excludes the burning of any waste material whatsoever such as tire-derived fuel and ash.

2. Reword (vii)(C) as follows: (C) local production and use of locally sourced material resulting in reduced emissions from transportation;

3. Reword (vii)(D) as follows: (D) the reduction of clinker content in the cement component of concrete, or the substitution of clinker content with lower carbon alternative non-toxic materials, i.e. supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), such as recycled ground-glass pozzolan, but excluding toxic or harmful by-products such as ground granulated blast furnace slag and fly ash;

4. Delete definition (ix) for Carbon capture, utilization and/or storage, and reword (xii) as follows: “Low embodied carbon concrete breakthrough” shall mean any qualified technology, method, or product, including but not limited to one that incorporates qualified carbon capture utilization and storage, that once fully commercialized and implemented has the potential to significantly reduce the GWP of concrete.  However, for the purpose of this law such breakthrough shall exclude the combustion of any waste material whatsoever.