The New York City Council on Wednesday voted to ban natural gas lines in new buildings as a way to combat so-called climate change. Outgoing Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio is expected to sign a bill into a law that will ban new gas stoves, boilers, and heaters.
“We’re making it clear that the next generation of buildings will be electric buildings,” Ben Furnas, de Blasio’s director of climate and sustainability, told Yahoo News. “We’re sending a message to the world that if you can do it here, you can do it anywhere.”
“This is a very big deal,” Furnas said. “The places that have done this already don’t have four seasons, and they don’t build as big.”
Yahoo News praised the development and promoted “environmental justice:”
While the initial effect on greenhouse gas emissions will be modest, it will grow over time. Burning fossil fuels for heat and hot water accounts for 40 percent of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability. A study by the think tank RMI found that by 2040, the new law will reduce emissions by the equivalent of taking 450,000 cars off the road.
In the absence of gas for heating, hot water and cooking, those services will be provided by electric stoves and heaters. Although New York City’s electricity generation portfolio is not 100 percent clean, switching from burning gas on-site to using electricity has a lower emissions output.
The bill’s supporters also characterized it as a victory for environmental justice, because it will reduce local air pollution, which is especially prevalent in lower-income and Black and Latino neighborhoods.
“It’s a historic step forward in our efforts to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” Furnas told the New York Times.
“We are prioritizing people over profits and over properties,” Democrat Alicka Ampry-Samuel, a New York City Council member and the bill’s lead sponsor, said at a rally before the vote in front of New York City Hall.
VICTORY! NYC is about to ban gas in all new buildings. An historic moment, as we move toward moving off all fossil fuels! #GasFreeNYC pic.twitter.com/6XJLswyREz
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) December 15, 2021
The law will take effect in December 2023 for buildings of six stories or less and in 2027 for taller buildings. Yahoo reported:
While environmentalists hope other cities will follow in New York City’s footsteps, the politics of transitioning away from fossil fuels are much more favorable in New York, where Democrats currently hold a supermajority on the city council and in both chambers of the state Legislature.
Republicans in 20 states have passed laws that oppose limiting the use of clean, affordable natural gas.
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