Politico, Mona Zhang, 4.6.26
EXCLUSIVE — A PLEA TO MAMDANI: Advocates trying to shut down Seneca Meadows are asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to voice support for the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act, an “extended producer responsibility” bill that would require packaging producers to reduce single-use plastic packaging and fund a recycling system.
“We respectfully ask you to stand with frontline communities across New York and publicly support the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act,” read a recent letter to Mamdani from Seneca Lake Guardian. “New York City has a real opportunity to lead—not only in managing its waste, but in reducing it at the source.”
Mamdani co-sponsored the legislation when he was a state lawmaker, but has been quiet on the issue since taking office. The legislation was one of the most lobbied-on bills last session outside the budget. It passed the Senate last session and made it through all of its Assembly committees, but never got a vote on the floor.
The mayor did not respond to a request for comment over the weekend.
Seneca Meadows, the state’s largest landfill, was supposed to close at the end of last year. But the landfill filed an application with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to extend its operations to 2040 and increase its footprint by 47 acres. The DEC has repeatedly extended its review period and does not have a deadline for deciding on the application. Meanwhile, Seneca Meadows can continue operating under its expired permit until a DEC decision.
New York City’s waste makes up about 20 percent of the landfill, and it spends about $1.7 billion on collecting and disposing waste. PRRIA would help the city avoid $114 million per year and take in about $266 million in reimbursements from packaging producers, according to Beyond Plastics, an advocacy organization that is pushing the bill.
What’s next for PRRIA: The bill’s Assembly sponsor Deborah Glick has been working on amendments in hopes of getting the legislation across the finish line. She’s been sharing amendment language with advocates both for and against the bill.
“That doesn’t mean that everybody gets a veto, but it does mean we have the appropriate engagement,” she said in a recent interview.
The lobbying surrounding the bill is expected to intensify after the budget.
DATA CENTERS VS AFFODABILITY — POLITICO’s Katie Bartlett: New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill came into office promising to lower energy costs — even pledging to freeze utility rates.
Instead, they could soon be on the rise.
Electricity bills for New Jersey residents jumped about 20 percent last year, leading to record-high costs this winter — a spike regulators and consumer advocates say is being driven by the explosive growth of energy-hungry data centers powering the AI boom.
The surge is creating an early political test for Sherrill, a newly elected Democrat who made affordability the centerpiece of her campaign. She now faces rising costs driven by forces largely outside her control.
Much of that demand is coming from outside New Jersey. Northern Virginia — home to the country’s largest concentration of data centers — is causing a surge in electricity use across the regional grid that includes New Jersey.
Since New Jersey is part of a 13-state power market run by PJM Interconnection, Sherrill has few tools to stop the increases.
“Because it’s not a New Jersey problem, it’s not a New Jersey solution,” Brian Lipman, New Jersey’s ratepayer watchdog, an appointee of former Gov. Phil Murphy, said in an interview with POLITICO.
The tension is emerging as one of the clearest examples of how the AI boom is colliding with state-level affordability politics. Data centers promise jobs, tax revenue and long-term economic growth — but their enormous energy demands are pushing electricity costs higher for residents. Governors are increasingly being forced to balance the economic upside of attracting tech investment with the political risk of rising utility bills.