Since the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA) was passed back in April of 2021, New York has made clear that mitigating environmental impact, including energy usage, would be a key component of New York's adult-use cannabis industry. To wit, the legislators expressly included applicants' "ability to mitigate adverse environmental impacts, including but not limited to water usage, energy usage and carbon emissions" as part of the Cannabis Control Board's (CCB) selection criteria. Well, the CCB followed through with that mandate by requiring licensees to provide an Energy and Environmental Plan as part of applications.
《能源与环境规划》的构成
So what goes into an "Energy and Environmental Plan"? A LOT of things. The CCB included 12 separate and distinct requirements for each plan, "in a form and manner as required by [the Office of Cannabis Management.]" Here are the categories of required information:
- 减少一次性塑料使用量的措施
- 采取措施，尽量减少被视为危险废物的化学品的使用和处置
- 将采取哪些措施，将堆肥或其他有机回收物作为栽培基质的一部分
- areas to reduce the applicant's carbon footprint
- 根据大麻管理办公室（OCM）的要求，提交包含能源基准分析的年度能源报告
- 所有规划中的照明设施及其能耗影响，以满足OCM制定的所有标准
- 符合OCM所定所有标准的环境控制和异味治理方案
- 一项旨在减少温室气体排放并降低对化石燃料依赖的计划
- 生态修复措施
- 水资源的节约与利用
- 废物管理、回收与处置
- the applicant's strategy to measure, track and record performance and execution of the provided energy and environmental plan
我们注意到，这些仅是分类；现行版规则和条例规定了若干基准标准，包括（但不限于）照明标准、减少碳足迹标准以及节水和用水标准。
能源与环境计划不仅适用于生产许可证持有人
值得注意的一点是，能源与环境计划的要求并非仅限于生产类许可证，尽管其中部分要求仅适用于特定的种植等级。话虽如此，对于有意申请生产类许可证的任何人而言，我们预计能源与环境计划将成为评估申请人的重要考量因素，因此仔细研读相关要求是很有必要的。
如果即将出台的成人娱乐用大麻规则和条例修订案对能源与环境规划的要求进行微调，我们也不会感到意外。敬请关注！
