Intro. 561-A will weaken and undermine the most successful citizen environmental program in the world, at a time when New York’s air pollution is already a public health crisis, causing an estimated 3,200 premature deaths each year. Council Member Gennaro’s bill Int. 561-A would only make this crisis worse.

Intro. 561-A would only benefit polluters, especially operators of diesel truck and bus engines, who would effectively be exempted from the anti-idling laws just by claiming they idled for the dirty process of "diesel regeneration." Incredibly, Intro. 561-A makes this highly-polluting practice a complete exemption to the idling laws.

Intro. 561-A will also deter New Yorkers—particularly residents of disadvantaged communities—from participating in the Citizens Air Complaint Program. It imposes complicated exceptions from the law and forces ordinary citizens to individually prosecute idling complaints, which ordinary New Yorkers are often too busy or ill-equipped to do.

Perhaps most dangerously, Intro. 561-A prohibits DEP from issuing violations based on citizen complaints after just 60 days, handcuffing New York's environmental protection agency from doing its job. As a result, DEP will be legally prevented from acting on all pending citizen complaints. which gifts polluters hundreds of millions of dollars in free idling.

Today, CM Gennaro’s idling bill functions as a poison pill, threatening to dismantle the citizen air complaint program at the very moment the City Council is considering expanding participation to immigrant communities.