Two bills fell victim to a chaotic late night state Senate session – one requiring electronics manufacturers statewide to take away customers’ old products and another hoping to create thousands of jobs by retrofitting New York homes to be more energy efficient.
The “e-waste” bill failed Thursday night in the state Senate, dashing the hopes of environmental groups.
The basic concept of the measure has broad support in the Legislature, particularly among Democrats, but the bill failed because of a dispute over whether manufacturers should be able to charge a fee for collecting old equipment.
The e-waste bill passed by the Assembly forbids such a fee. But manufacturers waged an aggressive lobbying campaign in the Senate for the right to charge collection fees and lined up the support of most Republicans and Democratic Sen. Craig Johnson of Nassau County. A bill needs 32 votes to pass, and with four of the 32 Democratic senators absent from Thursday’s session, the e-waste bill was doomed and was withdrawn without a vote.
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