New York’s Green Amendment Guarantees the Right to a ‘Healthful Environment.’ Activists Want the State to Enforce It

This article previously appeared in WaterFront.

ALBANY, N.Y.—Green-clad activists rallied, chanted and marched at the state Capitol to urge the governor, the state attorney general and the state’s top environmental enforcer to shift their approach to applying New York’s Green Amendment.

“We are here today to tell our New York leaders that our environmental rights are not discretionary. They are mandatory,” Maya van Rossum, leader of a national movement to add environmental protections to state constitutions, said Friday. 

But state Attorney General Letitia James has taken the position in court filings that the new constitutional provision does not empower citizens to dictate the actions of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

In a May 31 filing in response to a lawsuit against the state’s largest landfill in Seneca Falls, James wrote that “the Green Amendment does not alter DEC’s enforcement discretion … and so the plaintiffs cannot compel DEC to enforce against Seneca Meadows.”

James took a similar stance in a lawsuit filed in 2022 by a group of residents who live near the High Acres Landfill in Monroe County. 

In the High Acres case, a Supreme Court judge formally decided that “complying with the Constitution is not optional for a state agency.”

State officials promptly appealed that ruling, and the case is currently before the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division of state court in Rochester.

In the final decisions on those two cases and others to come, state courts will define the scope of the Green Amendment. The process is likely to take years.

On Friday, about 70 people marched to the offices of James, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Interim DEC Commissioner Sean Mahar to deliver a letter signed by more than 70 organizations, which said:

“We are gravely concerned that nearly three years after its enactment, agencies are still not taking protected environmental rights into consideration when making decisions that could impact our air, water, and the environment.

“Now is the time for you to embrace New York’s role as a leader in the national Green Amendment movement, and to embrace the opportunity and obligation for greater environmental protection that Article 1 Section 19 of the New York Bill of Rights provides.”

At the DEC, an attorney for the agency, who declined to give her name, accepted the letter and a colorful Green Amendment poster the activists urged state officials to display.

“Unfortunately, our government officials have been letting us down,” van Rossum said. “They have not been embracing the opportunity or the obligation. In fact, they have been seeking to diminish it, to say it doesn’t change anything.

“The government is in court right now saying that it is up to their discretion — meaning their choice — to decide how, when, to what degree, where or even if they should enforce New York state law.”

The state Legislature enacted New York’s Green Amendment in consecutive sessions, and the measure was approved by more than 70 percent of voters in a 2021 statewide referendum.

Pennsylvania and Montana also have Green Amendments, and the national group claims to be working with communities in more than 20 other states to enact similar measures.

“As 20 other states contemplate amendments, our commitment to enforce our Green Amendment sends a crucial message that environmental rights are not negotiable,” state Sen. Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan) told the cheering activists who gathered by the steps of the Capitol. “These rights will not be undercut to accommodate profit.”

Liz Moran, a spokesperson for the non-profit legal group Earthjustice, said state environmental initiatives have taken on new significance in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to drastically undercut the authority of federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency.

“In the face of a Supreme Court that is more invested in the interests of private corporations than the health of Americans, New York is viewed as a national and global leader,” Moran said.

State leaders have an obligation to uphold the power of the Green Amendment, said Yvonne Taylor, co-founder of Seneca Lake Guardian, a plaintiff in a March lawsuit seeking to stop the expansion of Seneca Meadows Inc., the state’s largest landfill. 

Seneca Meadows is running out of space. Its DEC-issued state permit expires in December 2025. It has applied to the agency for a new permit to add 47 acres of new landfill liner area and to increase its height by 69.5 feet — enough to provide the capacity to continue operations through 2040.

“Now the very state agencies put in place to protect our environment are pushing back on the law and seeking to undermine our state’s Green Amendment,” said Taylor. “It’s time for our leaders to see that we, the people, demand they uphold the power of the Green Amendment.”