Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins Earns Highest Grade From Environmental Advocates

New York State - EPL/Environmental Advocates, the state’s foremost environmental watchdog group, awarded Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins with a 92 rating – the highest score given to any state senator this legislative session. 

Each year, Environmental Advocates creates a scorecard demonstrating each state legislator’s commitment to protecting the environment. Scoring criteria includes the way each member of the legislature voted on bills with a significant impact on the environment and whether or not they co-sponsored “Super Bills,” which pertain to the most important environmental issues presented to the state legislature.   

Senator Stewart-Cousins is one of fifteen senators to have earned the highest score awarded to any member of the State Senate, which is comprised of sixty-three legislators. She earned her score in large part by co-sponsoring the Environmental Advocates’ two Super Bills: the Child Safe Products Act, which would ban children’s products made from dangerous, toxic substances, and a bill that would close the fracking waste loophole by subjecting all gas drilling to the same regulations for hazardous waste generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal that all other industries in New York must follow.

The Senator’s score was also influenced by her support for other key pieces of environmental legislation, including “Get The Lead Out,” which requires school districts to test drinking water for the presence of lead; the Climate and Community Protection Act, which sets clean energy and climate goals into law; and “Cover Your Crude,” which obligates crude oil storage facilities to show they can cover the costs of cleaning up and decontaminating water in the event of a potential spill.

“There are no second chances when it comes to the air we breathe, the water we drink and the lands we call home,” said Senator Stewart-Cousins. “If we don’t protect nature now, we won’t have any nature to defend in the future. We would doom our children to an ugly and dangerous fate, and that’s an outcome I have fought with every ounce of my being to prevent. As long as I’m in the Senate, I will continue to fight for a safe and healthy world so we can enjoy the splendor of nature, and so our children can do the same.”

For more information on Environmental Advocates, or to see how your other representatives scored, click here.