Bill Text: NY S01951 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Provides an exemption for the purposes of allowing the installation and use of fossil-fuel equipment and building systems where such are installed and used in a building or part of a building that is owned or occupied by a person who holds genuine and sincere religious beliefs and whose health and safety will be jeopardized due to the prohibition of the installation of fossil-fuel equipment and building systems because of such genuine and sincere religious beliefs.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 3-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-14 - REFERRED TO ENERGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS [S01951 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-S01951-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1951

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 14, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  WEBER,  MATTERA, RHOADS -- read twice and ordered
          printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on  Energy
          and Telecommunications

        AN  ACT  to  amend  the energy law and the executive law, in relation to
          creating a religious exemption to the ban on fossil fuel equipment and
          systems

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.  Paragraph  (b)  of subdivision 7 of section 11-104 of the
     2  energy law, as added by section 1 of part RR of chapter 56 of  the  laws
     3  of 2023, is amended to read as follows:
     4    (b) In addition, in effectuating the provisions set forth in paragraph
     5  (b) of subdivision six of this section the code shall include exemptions
     6  for  the  purposes  of  allowing the installation and use of fossil-fuel
     7  equipment and building systems where such are installed and used:
     8    (i) for generation  of  emergency  back-up  power  and  standby  power
     9  systems;
    10    (ii) in a manufactured home as defined in subdivision seven of section
    11  six hundred one of the executive law; [or]
    12    (iii)  in  a building or part of a building that is used as a manufac-
    13  turing facility, commercial food establishment,  laboratory,  car  wash,
    14  laundromat,  hospital,  other medical facility, critical infrastructure,
    15  including but not limited to emergency management facilities, wastewater
    16  treatment facilities, and water treatment and pumping facilities,  agri-
    17  cultural  building,  fuel cell system, or crematorium, as such terms are
    18  defined by the code council; or
    19    (iv) in a building or part of a building that is owned or occupied  by
    20  a  person  who  holds  genuine  and  sincere religious beliefs and whose
    21  health and safety will be jeopardized due  to  the  prohibition  of  the
    22  installation  of  fossil-fuel  equipment and building systems because of
    23  such genuine and sincere religious beliefs.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03479-01-5
        S. 1951                             2

     1    § 2. Paragraph c of subdivision 19 of section  378  of  the  executive
     2  law, as added by section 3 of part RR of chapter 56 of the laws of 2023,
     3  is amended to read as follows:
     4    c.  In addition, in effectuating the provisions set forth in paragraph
     5  a of this subdivision the code shall include exemptions for the purposes
     6  of allowing the installation and use of fossil-fuel equipment and build-
     7  ing systems where such systems are installed and used:
     8    (i) for generation  of  emergency  back-up  power  and  standby  power
     9  systems;
    10    (ii) in a manufactured home as defined in subdivision seven of section
    11  six hundred one of [the executive law] this chapter; [or]
    12    (iii)  in  a building or part of a building that is used as a manufac-
    13  turing facility, commercial food establishment,  laboratory,  car  wash,
    14  laundromat,  hospital,  other medical facility, critical infrastructure,
    15  including but not limited to emergency management facilities, wastewater
    16  treatment facilities, and water treatment and pumping facilities,  agri-
    17  cultural  building,  fuel cell system, or crematorium, as such terms are
    18  defined by the code council; or
    19    (iv) in a building or part of a building that is owned or occupied  by
    20  a  person  who  holds  genuine  and  sincere religious beliefs and whose
    21  health and safety will be jeopardized due  to  the  prohibition  of  the
    22  installation  of  fossil-fuel  equipment and building systems because of
    23  such genuine and sincere religious beliefs.
    24    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.