Relates to notice of public hearings relating to the adoption of rules and regulations

Bill § 1: ECL § 3-0301(2)(a) - any "environmental standards, criteria, and those rules and regulations having the force and effect of standards and criteria" (general rule-making authority).

Bill § 2: ECL § 19-0303(1) - any code, rule or regulation concerning air pollution control.

Bill§ 3: ECL § 27-0705 - any rule or regulation concerning solid waste management and resource recovery facilities.

Bill § 4: ECL § 35-0109(1) - regulations concerning labeling or ingredients of detergents and other household cleansing products.

Bill § 5: ECL § 37-0105 - rules and regulations pertaining to the storage and release to the environment of substances hazardous or acutely hazardous to public health, safety or the environment.

Justification

Major environmental regulations represent significant actions that merit greater scrutiny than other more routine regulatory proposals. However, due to quirks in the law, some of the more important regulations proposed by DEC actually offer less time for public input than is the case for most other rules.

When the ECL was enacted in 1972, there was no State Administrative Procedure Act (SAPA) and no standard minimum public comment period on proposed agency rules. However, certain grants of rulemaking authority in the ECL were deemed important enough to necessitate a 30-day minimum period for prior notice of public hearings on rules and regulations. These included regulations proposed pursuant to DEC's general rulemaking authority as well as those for certain other environmental regulatory programs in the ECL - those relating to air pollution, solid waste management, household chemicals and hazardous and acutely hazardous substances.

SAPA as originally enacted in 1975 required a minimum 21-day comment period for any rule, unless a different time was specified in law. This timeframe was increased to 30 days in 1979, and was extended to 45 days in 1987 because the 30-day minimum comment period was felt to be insufficient for the average rulemaking. However, the 30-day minimum periods in the ECL were overlooked at that time.

In recent years, DEC has proposed several major rules under these shortened periods, leaving the public with less time to review and prepare comments on substantial regulatory undertakings than it would have under the ordinary SAPA process. For example, the shorter 30-day comment period has been used for rules on the following topics:

> a cap-and-trade emissions program for major generating facilities; > sewage sludge incineration units;

> motor vehicle emissions inspections; and

> asphalt pavement and & asphalt based surface coatings. No useful purpose is served by providing the public with shorter comment periods on proposed regulations on such technical and complex subjects. This rule would update the minimum periods for public notice in the ECL to be consistent with the timeframes for hearings on rules by other agencies.

Legislative history

New bill

Fiscal implications

None

Effective date

This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have become a law and shall apply to any rule or regulation proposed on or after such a date.