A New York State Senate bill that would have stepped up the fight against the pollution that causes acid rain failed to come to a vote before the State Assembly ended its 1999 session earlier this week.

The bill, sponsored by Senator Carl Marcellino, will now have to return to committee in the Senate and then be re-voted on next year. Citing a bipartisan effort in the state Senate and Assembly, Marcellino indicated prior to the end of the State Assembly's session, that he was confident something addressing the issue would come to fruition, if not during this session, definitely next.

"There are a whole host of things that were on the agenda. This is an important issue, but there are other issues out there as well, such as health care reform," said Marcellino. "I am confident that sometime next year we will have a law in New York State addressing this issue."

Acid rain that falls on New York State and other eastern states is caused by pollutants released into the atmosphere in midwestern states. The negative effects of acid rain on the environment and, subsequently the public, are far-reaching. It poisons rivers, lakes, and forests. It also accelerates the erosion of building structures and diminishes air quality.

"It is extremely serious," said Marcellino of the problem. "You have areas upstate where lakes are so acidic that they cannot support any form of life; they are completely dead."

He further indicated that acid rain is not just a problem in upstate New York. "We have lakes, rivers, and streams on Long Island that are impacted the same way as upstate. In some ways we are impacted even more because we are in a non-attainment area with respect to air quality, so this adds to our air quality problems."

The bill, if and when it is implemented into law, would attempt to monitor and control, on the state level, the pollution credit trading system that was authorized by the 1990 Clean Air Act. The act granted utility plants pollution allowances which set ceilings on the amount of pollutants they would be allowed to emit. However, if a plant reduced its emissions, leaving it below the ceiling set by the Act, that plant could then sell its unused pollution credits to another plant that was failing to reduce its emissions to the required level. The objective of the law was to create an market-induced incentive to reduce pollutant emissions, and to penalize those who wouldn't.

Unfortunately, according to Marcellino, many utilities in states most affected by acid rain, have been selling their credits to utilities in those states where acid rain originates.

The bill proposed by Marcellino would effectively restrict New York State utilities from selling their pollution credits to utilities in several states to its south and southwest. Those states listed include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.

"We have tried to take the incentive away from the NYS utilities to sell the credits to the midwestern states," said Marcellino.

In addition to prohibiting the sale of the pollution credits to these states, the bill also prevents utilities from circumventing the law by penalizing the NYS utility if that credit is ever subsequently sold to a utility in a state on the list. The Public Services Commission would monitor the sale and transfer of the credits.

"It is like putting a covenant and a restriction on the sale. This particular pollution credit can never be sold to one of these states, no matter who sells it," said Marcellino. "If someone later on sells a credit that originated in NY we will know that by virtue of the identification number, and we will go back to the company that originally sold it no matter how many times back and penalize that company.

He admits that federal legislation would be the most effective way to address this situation, but indicated that hopefully the bill would prompt something on that level.

Marcellino, a marine microbiologist by training, has long been a strong advocate of environmental issues. "It just does not go away. It is a compounding felony that keeps getting worse and worse over time," said Marcellino about abuses against the environment.