Bill Text: NY A04870 | 2009-2010 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Enacts the "Cleaner fuels school bus act" requiring school bus owners to replace or retrofit buses to use biodiesel fuel blends; directs promulgation of regulations.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-04-29 - print number 4870a [A04870 Detail]
Download: New_York-2009-A04870-Amended.html
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
4870--A
2009-2010 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
February 6, 2009
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ALESSI, PAULIN, LUPARDO, STIRPE, ROSENTHAL,
JAFFEE, CARROZZA, LATIMER, ORTIZ, BENEDETTO -- read once and referred
to the Committee on Education -- recommitted to the Committee on
Education in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to required use of biod-
iesel fuel blends in school buses
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. The legislature hereby finds and
2 declares that school buses operating on diesel fuels transport millions
3 of New York children daily. Children's bodies are uniquely susceptible
4 to toxins. Studies have shown that diesel fumes contain particulate
5 matter which can trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory ailments
6 in children and that levels of diesel fumes are up to four times greater
7 inside a bus than ambient levels.
8 The legislature further finds and declares that diesel exhaust is
9 classified as a probable human carcinogen by many governmental authori-
10 ties including the state attorney general. In addition, dark particles
11 from diesel fuel have been found embedded in glacial ice contributing to
12 rapid melting of polar ice.
13 Therefore, the legislature finds and declares that it is in the inter-
14 est of the citizens of this state to reduce the use of diesel fuels by
15 the many school buses used to transport children in this state and
16 increase the use of alternative low emission fuels.
17 S 2. This act shall be known and may be cited as the "cleaner fuels
18 school bus act".
19 S 3. Section 3623 of the education law is amended by adding a new
20 subdivision 3 to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06868-02-0
A. 4870--A 2
1 3. A. THE COMMISSIONER OF TRANSPORTATION IN CONSULTATION WITH THE
2 COMMISSIONER SHALL PROMULGATE RULES AND REGULATIONS REQUIRING ALL OWNERS
3 OF SCHOOL BUSES, AS DEFINED IN SECTION ONE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO OF THE
4 VEHICLE AND TRAFFIC LAW, TO REPLACE OR RETROFIT DIESEL OPERATED VEHICLES
5 TO BE CAPABLE OF OPERATING ON A TWENTY PERCENT OR GREATER BLEND OF BIOD-
6 IESEL FUEL AS DEFINED IN THIS SUBDIVISION, SUCH REPLACEMENT OR RETROFIT-
7 TING TO COMMENCE NO LATER THAN ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY DAYS AFTER THE EFFEC-
8 TIVE DATE OF THIS SUBDIVISION.
9 B. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SUBDIVISION, "BLEND OF BIODIESEL FUEL"
10 SHALL MEAN A RENEWABLE, BIODEGRADABLE, MONO ALKYL ESTER COMBUSTIBLE
11 LIQUID FUEL DERIVED FROM AGRICULTURAL PLANT OILS, ANIMAL FATS OR WASTE
12 RESTAURANT GREASE OR OILS.
13 S 4. This act shall take effect one year after it shall have become a
14 law.
