By Letitia James
Photos: YouTube Screenshots\Wikimedia Commons
NEW YORK – In honor of Earth Day 2024, New York Attorney General Letitia James is celebrating another year of fighting for New Yorkers and the environment by highlighting her office’s efforts to protect the environment and public health of our people, places, and planet.
“Throughout my career, I have always fought to protect our environment, because this planet belongs to all of us,” said Attorney General James. “Earth Day is every day in this office, and we cannot separate caring for the environment from caring for New Yorkers, their families, and the places they call home. That is why I continue to prioritize an equity-focused approach to our environmental and public health work, to protect our people, our places, and our entire planet. This Earth Day, I remain committed to defending our communities, safeguarding our natural resources, and fighting for environmental justice.”
Over the past year, Attorney General James has taken a number of actions throughout New York state to address climate, environmental, and public health concerns.
Protecting Our People
- Expanding Access to Emergency Weather Alerts: In July 2023, Attorney General James called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to expand language access for critical warning alerts sent to cell phones, known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs). During severe weather emergencies, which are increasingly fueled by climate change, current and accurate information can often be the difference between life and death. Attorney General James urged FCC to expand WEAs from a proposed 13 languages to at least 25 languages. In September 2023, Attorney General James called on the National Weather Service (NWS) to send WEAs warning the public about severe winter weather events, such as major blizzards, ice storms, and other dangerous winter weather conditions. The NWS currently sends regionalized WEAs to cell phones for other kinds of extreme weather, but not for winter storms. After the deadly Buffalo blizzard, Attorney General James argued that better, earlier communication with the public about the storm through WEAs would have saved lives.
- Demanding Better Food Safety Standards: Following reports of approximately 50 lead poisoning cases in New York connected to recalled cinnamon applesauce pouches, Attorney General James called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take urgent action to protect children from lead and other toxic metals in baby food. This delay in FDA action is both a public health concern and a matter of environmental justice, as children from low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by lead through exposure to lead-based paint, lead in drinking water pipes, and other sources. Lead in their food only exacerbates the existing inordinate and inequitable hazards these children face.
- Keeping Our Workers Safe: As climate change continues to drive rising temperatures, workers in New York and across the United States are facing an increased risk of illness, injury, and death from extreme heat. In February 2024, Attorney General James petitioned the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to implement a nationwide emergency extreme heat standard to protect workers from heat exposure this summer. Summer 2023 was the hottest summer ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing soaring temperatures and unrelenting heatwaves to communities across the United States. Summer 2024 is expected to be even hotter than 2023, putting workers at even greater risk. Illness, injury, and death from heat exposure disproportionately impact workers of color and low-wage workers who are overrepresented in occupations most vulnerable to extreme heat.
Protecting Our Places
- Fighting for Lead-Safe Homes: Throughout the past year, Attorney General James continued holding landlords accountable for violating childhood lead poisoning prevention laws. In March 2024, Attorney General James announced a $175,000 settlement with Syracuse landlord Todd Hobbs for repeatedly failing to address lead-based paint hazards at his rental properties, where most tenants were low-income families. In February 2024, Attorney General James reached a $310,000 settlement with Syracuse landlord William D’Angelo for repeated and persistent violations of lead safety laws at 22 rental properties. Funds obtained from these settlements are being used for a tenant relief fund and to resolve potential lead hazards at properties with a history of lead violations. In May 2023, Attorney General James announced that she was providing $350,000 to Erie County to fight lead poisoning and reduce energy costs for low-income families, and in March 2023, Attorney General James sued Buffalo landlord Farhad Raiszadeh for repeated and persistent violations of lead safety laws at dozens of properties in East Buffalo.
- Defending Our Right to Clean Air: In December 2023, Attorney General James led a multistate coalition to defend the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority under the Clean Air Act to ensure that states do their fair share to reduce the air pollution that travels into other, downwind states. And here in New York, emissions from the Norlite plant in Cohoes have endangered the health and welfare of the New Yorkers living in its shadow. Neighbors have been forced to limit time outside, keep windows and doors closed, and invest in air conditioning units and fans to manage the dust from the facility. In March 2024, Attorney General James asked the court to hold Norlite in contempt for failing to comply with previous court orders to control its emissions and increase its monitoring practices. Attorney General James originally sued Norlite in October 2022.
- Cleaning Up Our Communities: In August 2023, Attorney General James announced a $2.8 million settlement with FrieslandCampina over numerous violations of state and federal water and air pollution laws at its facility in Delhi. For years, the company emitted dangerous pollutants from its facility in Delhi, putting the health of the community at risk. As a result of Attorney General James’ intervention, FrieslandCampina already completed approximately $6 million worth of work to clean up its operations and committed to spend roughly $1.44 million more to reduce the company’s discharges into the Delaware River. New York obtained additional funds in the settlement to fund projects that benefit public health and the environment in the Delhi area.
Protecting Our Planet
- Going After Major Corporations for Greenwashing: When large companies make environmental promises that they cannot keep just to increase sales, they threaten the integrity of the real work being done in New York and nationwide to combat the climate crisis. In February 2024, Attorney General James sued the world’s largest beef producer for misleading the public about its commitment to reducing its climate change impacts. The company targeted consumers with fake sustainability claims to boost sales, claiming it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 despite lacking evidence to support these claims. In June 2023, Attorney General James secured $6.9 million from Bayer and Monsanto for falsely claiming that certain Roundup® consumer weedkillers were safe and non-toxic. Scientific studies have determined that these pesticides may be toxic to wildlife, particularly pollinator species such as honeybees and butterflies. These funds will be used to protect pollinators in New York from the impacts of toxic pesticides.
- Stopping Plastic Pollution: In November 2023, Attorney General James took action against PepsiCo for endangering the environment and public health along the Buffalo River with plastic pollution. Once in the environment, plastics breaks down into dangerous microplastics that contaminate fish and drinking water. A study conducted by Attorney General James’s office found that PepsiCo’s single-use plastic packaging was the most significant type of waste collected along the Buffalo River in river cleanups. Attorney General James’ lawsuit alleges that PepsiCo has significantly contributed to a public nuisance that injures the Buffalo community and environment, and that the company also has misled the public about the effectiveness of its plastic recycling and its efforts to combat plastic pollution.
- Preserving Our Protected Lands and Natural Resources: In April 2024, Attorney General James announced a settlement with a landscaping supply business for illegally destroying vegetation in the Pine Barrens, protected land on Long Island. Along with being home to some of New York’s greatest ecological diversity, the Pine Barrens are located on top of Long Island’s largest source of drinking water, and their preservation is critical to ensuring residents’ access to clean water. As a result of Attorney General James’ efforts, the company will pay a civil penalty of $100,000 and is required to fully restore the site.
Funding Our Future
Since Attorney General James took office in 2019, the Office of the Attorney General’s (OAG) Environmental Protection Bureau has collected more than $28.5 million for New Yorkers through the enforcement of our environmental and public health laws.
The OAG’s Environmental Protection Bureau is led by Bureau Chief Lemuel M. Srolovic and Deputy Bureau Chiefs Lisa Burianek and Monica Wagner. The Environmental Protection Bureau is part of the Division for Social Justice, which is led by Chief Deputy Attorney General Meghan Faux and overseen by First Deputy Attorney General Jennifer Levy.
