Gov. Cuomo announced Monday that he plans to ban plastic bags statewide — right after Democratic challenger Cynthia Nixon attended an Albany rally demanding he do more for the environment.
“The blight of plastic bags takes a devastating toll on our streets, our water and our natural resources, and we need to take action to protect our environment,” Cuomo said.
He introduced a bill that would ban single-use, plastic carryout bags, while exempting trash bags and bags used to wrap food such as fruit and sliced meats.
Hours before Cuomo’s announcement, Nixon rallied with about 500 environmental activists in Albany against a planned power plant there that would rely on gas obtained through fracking in Pennsylvania.
Nixon boasted that her progressive agenda has forced Cuomo to the left.
“There certainly seems to be, in the last month, a number of issues on which the governor has reversed himself rather startlingly,” she said.
For instance, Cuomo announced last week that he was granting parolees the right to vote.
Cuomo has already banned fracking in New York, a move Nixon called “a good first step” Monday.
But the governor blocked a New York City bill that would have imposed a 5-cent fee on plastic shopping bags in February 2017, arguing it would make more sense to regulate the bags on the state level.
He created a Plastic Bag Task Force a month later.
In a Jan. 13 report, the task force represented eight options, including an all-out ban.
Cuomo said he was considering the bag-ban bill in early March — a day after rival Mayor de Blasio tweeted, “We need to ban plastic bags. They’re bad for the environment, they’re bad for the economy, they’re bad for New York.”
Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Fashouer defended Cuomo’s environmental record.
“The Governor has led the nation in combating climate change” and the campaign welcomes “anyone to this critical effort as we work to protect our environment for future generations and create a cleaner, greener New York,” she said.
A key lawmaker who opposed the 5-cent fees on plastic bags, Brooklyn State Sen. Simcha Felder, refused to say how he’d vote on an all-out ban.
If passed, the ban would take effect Jan. 1, 2019.