Corporate Catastrophe Act holds executives accountable

A proposal introduced Monday would hold corporate executives criminally liable when they knowingly cause harm to New Yorkers’ safety, health and environment.

“For those of you who are not aware, Hoosick Falls was a part of a nationally recognized contamination issue as a series of corporations manufactured various products containing PFOA and other similar compounds,” said Hoosick Falls Mayor Dan Schuttig at a press conference at the New York state Capitol on Monday.

Schuttig shared his experience and those of others in his village who drank public and private water the Environmental Protection Agency previously detected was contaminated by dangerous chemicals.

“I speak to you not only as the mayor of Hoosick Falls, but as a person for the better part of 15 years drank and ingested various compounds to use in local manufacturing industries,” said Schuttig.

Schuttig is among a group of lawmakers and advocates pushing for the Corporate Catastrophe Act.

Newly introduced, the legislation if passed would change New York’s model penal code to adopt the crime of catastrophe which would hold corporate executives criminally accountable who knowingly or recklessly cause widespread injury or harm.

Democratic state Assemblymember Emily Gallagher and Democratic state Sen. Michelle Hinchey are sponsoring this legislation in their chambers.

“We are living in a time where corporations increasingly operate with impunity,” said Gallagher. “New York penal law is mostly geared towards personal crimes rather than larger harms affecting many people.”

“This isn’t hypothetical when you look at the Palestine train derailment in Ohio and what that did to communities around that catastrophe,” said Hinchey.

The proposal specifically states incidents including widespread injury, fire, explosion, flood, the collapse of a building, and the release of poisonous gas as catastrophes.

Lawmakers say if signed into law, local district attorneys would enforce the act with backing from the state’s attorney general.

Spectrum News 1 spoke to a business organization about this bill, but they couldn’t comment because the proposal hasn’t made its way through the state Legislature.