The New York Clean Air Collective has established a City Council Scorecard for 2026
We STRONGLY SUPPORT Intro. 0048-2026.
This bill would require the Department of Environmental Protection to translate the Citizen’s Air Complaint portal into the languages other than English that are most commonly spoken by residents of the City with limited English proficiency.
This bill would weaken and undermine the most successful citizen environmental program in the world, at a time when New York’s air pollution is already a public health crisis, linked to an estimated 3,200 premature deaths each year. Council Member Gennaro’s idling bill Int. 561 would only make this crisis worse.
Intro. 561 would deter New Yorkers—particularly residents of disadvantaged communities—from participating in the citizen air complaint program by imposing complex requirements and harsh penalties for minor, unintentional errors.
When it was introduced in the previous Council session as Intro. 561, this bill faced opposition from leading environmental and civil rights organizations, including the New York League of Conservation Voters, WE ACT for Environmental Justice, the New York Civil Liberties Union, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and many members of the public.
Today, CM Gennaro’s idling bill functions as a poison pill, threatening to dismantle the citizen air complaint program at the very moment the City Council is considering expanding participation to immigrant communities.
The City Council must stop DEP’s discrimination and pass Intro. 5!
Call your Councilmember to ask them or thank them for supporting Intro. 5!
Intro. 941—deceptively labeled an “improvement”—gravely threatens to dismantle the world’s most effective citizen-led clean air enforcement program.
Intro. 941’s Dangerous Rollbacks:
50% Award Reduction
Slashes participant awards by half, to 12.5%. Penalty revenue that would not exist without citizen involvement.
5 Days to File
Breakneck reporting deadline slashes participants’ time to submit complaints from 90 to 5 days.
Lethal Exemption: Poisonous School Bus Plumes Devastate Young Lungs
1800% Surge: Toxic bill lets buses adjacent to schools idle 16 to 18 full minutes each hour when temperatures fall below 40°F or exceed 80°F.
Banning Participants
Allows DEP to set a code of conduct and ban participants for failing to act in a “dignified, orderly, and decorous manner” or for failing to “demonstrate familiarity with [DEP’s] rules”—inviting government overreach.
90 Days for DEP to Serve Violations
Doubles DEP’s permitted time to process air pollution complaints from 45 to 90 days.
Overbroad Grant of DEP Rulemaking Authority
Dangerous shift in authority allows DEP to create its own rules for air pollution submissions rather than issue summonses based on air code violations as defined by our elected City Council.
Vote No on Intro 941
Idling vehicles emit toxic pollutants that poison our air, ravage our climate, and endanger the health of New Yorkers, with the heaviest burden falling on our children and our underserved-community neighbors. The Citizens Air Complaint Program is our frontline defense, proven to reduce idling and protect public health. Breaking it would be catastrophic
Lawmakers must safeguard this vital program and resolutely OPPOSE this bill that seeks to silence the very citizens fighting to keep our air clean. The choice is clear: Reject this bill or watch while companies like Con Ed, Verizon, and Amazon steal New York’s breath, one idling engine at a time. VOTE NO on Intro 941. Protect our air, our children, and our future. Anything less is a vote for polluters over people.