§ 75-0101. Definitions.

For the purposes of this article the following terms shall have the following meanings:

1. "Allowance" means an authorization to emit, during a specified year, up to one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent.

2. "Carbon dioxide equivalent" means the amount of carbon dioxide by mass that would produce the same global warming impact as a given mass of another greenhouse gas over an integrated twenty-year time frame after emission.

3. "Co-pollutants" means hazardous air pollutants produced by greenhouse gas emissions sources.

4. "Council" means the New York state climate action council established pursuant to section 75-0103 of this article.

5. "Disadvantaged communities" means communities that bear burdens of negative public health effects, environmental pollution, impacts of climate change, and possess certain socioeconomic criteria, or comprise high-concentrations of low- and moderate- income households, as identified pursuant to section 75-0111 of this article.

6. "Emissions reduction measures" means programs, measures and standards, authorized pursuant to this chapter, applicable to sources or categories of sources, that are designed to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

7. "Greenhouse gas" means carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and any other substance emitted into the air that may be reasonably anticipated to cause or contribute to anthropogenic climate change.

8. "Greenhouse gas emission limit" means the maximum allowable level of statewide greenhouse gas emissions, in a specified year, expressed in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, as determined by the department pursuant to this article.

9. "Greenhouse gas emission offset" means a deduction representing one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, reduced, avoided, or sequestered by a greenhouse gas emission offset project from a measured baseline of emissions pursuant to the statewide greenhouse gas emissions report.

10. "Greenhouse gas emission offset projects" means one or more projects, including:

a. Natural carbon sinks including but not limited to afforestation, reforestation, or wetlands restoration;

b. Greening infrastructure;

c. Restoration and sustainable management of natural and urban forests or working lands, grasslands, coastal wetlands and sub-tidal habitats;

d. Efforts to reduce hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant, sulfur hexafluoride, and other ozone depleting substance releases;

e. Anaerobic digesters, where energy produced is directed toward localized use;

f. Carbon capture and sequestration;

g. Ecosystem restoration; and

h. Other types of projects recommended by the council in consultation with the climate justice working group that provide public health and environmental benefits, and do not create burdens in disadvantaged communities.

11. "Greenhouse gas emission source" or "source" means any anthropogenic source or category of anthropogenic sources of greenhouse gas emissions, determined by the department:

a. whose participation in the program will enable the department to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and,

b. that are capable of being monitored for compliance.

12. "Leakage" means a reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases within the state that is offset by an increase in emissions of greenhouse gases outside of the state.

13. "Statewide greenhouse gas emissions" means the total annual emissions of greenhouse gases produced within the state from anthropogenic sources and greenhouse gases produced outside of the state that are associated with the generation of electricity imported into the state and the extraction and transmission of fossil fuels imported into the state. Statewide emissions shall be expressed in tons of carbon dioxide equivalents.

14. "Statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit" or "statewide emissions limit" means the maximum allowable level of statewide greenhouse gas emissions in a specified year, as determined by the department pursuant to this article.

15. "Environmental justice advisory group" shall mean the permanent environmental justice advisory group established by a chapter of the laws of two thousand nineteen amending the environmental conservation law relating to establishing a permanent environmental justice advisory group and an environmental justice interagency coordinating council, as proposed in legislative bills numbers S. 2385 and A. 1564.