New York Laws
Article 75 - Climate Change
75-0101 - Definitions.

For the purposes of this article the following terms shall have the
following meanings:

1. "Allowance" means an authorization to emit, during a specified
year, up to one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent.

2. "Carbon dioxide equivalent" means the amount of carbon dioxide by
mass that would produce the same global warming impact as a given mass
of another greenhouse gas over an integrated twenty-year time frame
after emission.

3. "Co-pollutants" means hazardous air pollutants produced by
greenhouse gas emissions sources.

4. "Council" means the New York state climate action council
established pursuant to section 75-0103 of this article.

5. "Disadvantaged communities" means communities that bear burdens of
negative public health effects, environmental pollution, impacts of
climate change, and possess certain socioeconomic criteria, or comprise
high-concentrations of low- and moderate- income households, as
identified pursuant to section 75-0111 of this article.

6. "Emissions reduction measures" means programs, measures and
standards, authorized pursuant to this chapter, applicable to sources or
categories of sources, that are designed to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases.

7. "Greenhouse gas" means carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,
hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and any other
substance emitted into the air that may be reasonably anticipated to
cause or contribute to anthropogenic climate change.

8. "Greenhouse gas emission limit" means the maximum allowable level
of statewide greenhouse gas emissions, in a specified year, expressed in
tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, as determined by the department
pursuant to this article.

9. "Greenhouse gas emission offset" means a deduction representing one
metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, reduced, avoided, or
sequestered by a greenhouse gas emission offset project from a measured
baseline of emissions pursuant to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions
report.

10. "Greenhouse gas emission offset projects" means one or more
projects, including:

a. Natural carbon sinks including but not limited to afforestation,
reforestation, or wetlands restoration;

b. Greening infrastructure;

c. Restoration and sustainable management of natural and urban forests
or working lands, grasslands, coastal wetlands and sub-tidal habitats;

d. Efforts to reduce hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant, sulfur
hexafluoride, and other ozone depleting substance releases;

e. Anaerobic digesters, where energy produced is directed toward
localized use;

f. Carbon capture and sequestration;

g. Ecosystem restoration; and

h. Other types of projects recommended by the council in consultation
with the climate justice working group that provide public health and
environmental benefits, and do not create burdens in disadvantaged
communities.

11. "Greenhouse gas emission source" or "source" means any
anthropogenic source or category of anthropogenic sources of greenhouse
gas emissions, determined by the department:

a. whose participation in the program will enable the department to
effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and,

b. that are capable of being monitored for compliance.

12. "Leakage" means a reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases
within the state that is offset by an increase in emissions of
greenhouse gases outside of the state.

13. "Statewide greenhouse gas emissions" means the total annual
emissions of greenhouse gases produced within the state from
anthropogenic sources and greenhouse gases produced outside of the state
that are associated with the generation of electricity imported into the
state and the extraction and transmission of fossil fuels imported into
the state. Statewide emissions shall be expressed in tons of carbon
dioxide equivalents.

14. "Statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit" or "statewide emissions
limit" means the maximum allowable level of statewide greenhouse gas
emissions in a specified year, as determined by the department pursuant
to this article.

15. "Environmental justice advisory group" shall mean the permanent
environmental justice advisory group established by a chapter of the
laws of two thousand nineteen amending the environmental conservation
law relating to establishing a permanent environmental justice advisory
group and an environmental justice interagency coordinating council, as
proposed in legislative bills numbers S. 2385 and A. 1564.