Creates the crime of environmental damage of property

BILL NUMBER:S834

Title of bill

An act to amend the penal law, in relation to creating the crime of environmental damage of property

Purpose

This bill would criminalize intentional or reckless damage to the environment done in the course of committing another crime.

Summary of provisions

The penal law is amended by adding new section 145.24, to create the new crime of environmental damage of property.

Justification

During the commission of a crime, defendants are often so focused upon their criminal intent that they disregard the impact of the potential damage that they may cause in facilitating their crime. For example, when a defendant is intent on stealing a car radio, the smashed window is unimportant to him or her. The statutes of Criminal Mischief address some of these instances, but when the resulting physical damage also leads to damage to the environment, these statutes do not address the environment as the "crime victim".

A recent incident in August of 2010 provides a good illustration of this problem. Defendants, in search of copper to steal and resell, broke into a spare electrical transformer. In the process accessing the copper, 4,800 gallons of oil was drained from the transformer, causing land and water contamination of the surrounding environment at an estimated remediation cost of over a million dollars. None of the current Criminal Mischief statutes adequately address this environmental devastation.

This bill recognizes the criminality of such large scale environmental damage, and with an appropriate penalty would hopefully deter petty thefts from doing such significant environmental damage, either intentionally or recklessly.

Legislative history

2011 Passed Senate 2012 Passed Senate 2013 Passed Senate 2014 Passed Senate

Fiscal implications

None.

Effective date

Immediately.