{"id":170,"date":"2021-12-19T11:07:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-19T15:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/?p=170"},"modified":"2021-12-19T11:07:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T15:07:10","slug":"esg-new-york-city-council-passes-a-natural-gas-ban-for-new-buildings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/2021\/12\/19\/esg-new-york-city-council-passes-a-natural-gas-ban-for-new-buildings\/","title":{"rendered":"ESG: – New York City Council Passes a Natural Gas Ban for New Buildings"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Last week, New York City\u2019s city council<\/strong> approved a ban on natural gas as a fuel source in newly constructed buildings.

Per reporting from NPR, nearly 40% of carbon emissions in the country \u2014 and more than 50% of New York City’s emissions \u2014 come from buildings.

The new natural gas ban in newly constructed buildings, by a vote of 40-7, applies to buildings that are up to 7-stories<\/strong> in height by the end of 2023<\/strong>; buildings that are taller than 7-stories<\/strong> have until 2027<\/strong> to comply.

The bill contains several exceptions, including hospitals, laundromats and crematoriums.

As noted by NPR, the legislation also requires that the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability conduct 2 long term studies. The first will examine the use of heat pump technology and the second is a study on the impact of the new bill on the city’s electrical grid.<\/p>\r\n

Not surprising there has been massive pushback from the natural gas industry against these type of natural gas bans. This pushback, however, has not stopped cities around the country from proceeding with various types of natural gas ban efforts. By way of example, at least 42 cities in California<\/strong><\/em> have acted to limit natural gas in new buildings, and Salt Lake City, Utah<\/strong> and Denver, Colorado<\/strong> have also made plans to move toward required electrification in buildings.

Moreover, in Ithaca, New York<\/strong>, the city committed to ending the use of natural gas in all buildings \u2014 not just new ones.

Passing this type of natural gas ban for new buildings in New York City, the largest city in the country, marks a significant move for other cities trying to move similar legislation to attempt to cut down carbon emissions in the fight against climate change, joining cities like San Jose and San Francisco that have made similar commitments to reduce emissions.

The efforts to ban natural gas in new buildings in New York City is also being considered on a state wide basis<\/strong> in the New York Senate and House. Senator Brian Kavanagh<\/strong> (D) and Assembly Member Emily Gallagher<\/strong> (D) are working on legislation that would require any buildings constructed in New York after 2023 to be entirely powered by electricity. If their legislation passes, New York would become the first state to ban natural gas in new buildings on a state-wide level.<\/p>\r\n

Triple Bottom Line<\/strong> – By passing this type of natural gas ban in new buildings<\/strong>, focusing on buildings as one of the largest emitters of green house gases,\u00a0 New York<\/strong> has provided other cities with a leader to attempt to follow if they are so inclined.\u00a0 As noted, California<\/strong> has been attempting this type of ban on a city by city basis and has passed 42 such bans throughout the state.\u00a0 If New York<\/strong> state follows the NYC lead it will become the first state to enact such a ban and would mark a bit of a watershed moment in the fight against greenhouse gas emissions showing that buildings can indeed be constructed in this manner if reduced emissions are one of the\u00a0 key goals attempting to be achieved by the builder\/owner or the legislature.<\/p>\r\n

Duane Morris<\/strong> has an active ESG and Sustainability Team<\/strong> to help organizations and individuals plan, respond to, and execute on Sustainability and ESG planning and initiatives within their own space. We would be happy to discussion your proposed project with you. For more information, or if you have any questions about this post, please contact Brad A. Molotsky, Nanette Heide, Seth Cooley, David Amerikaner, Jolie-Anne Ansley, Hari Kumar <\/strong>or the attorney in the firm with whom you are regularly in contact.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, New York City\u2019s city council approved a ban on natural gas as a fuel source in newly constructed buildings. Per reporting from NPR, nearly 40% of carbon emissions in the country \u2014 and more than 50% of New York City’s emissions \u2014 come from buildings. The new natural gas ban in newly constructed … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “ESG: – New York City Council Passes a Natural Gas Ban for New Buildings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":285,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[287,283,22,285,282,288,52,284,23,266,281,174,71,278,289,169,286,120,280,49,279],"ppma_author":[7],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-42-cities","tag-7-stories","tag-brad-a-molotsky","tag-brian-kavanagh","tag-buildings","tag-california","tag-david-amerikaner","tag-emily-gallagher","tag-esg","tag-hari-kumar","tag-ithaca","tag-jolie-anne-ansley","tag-nanette-heide","tag-natural-gas-ban","tag-new-buildings","tag-new-york-city","tag-npr","tag-nyc","tag-san-jose","tag-seth-cooley","tag-state-wide-ban"],"authors":[{"term_id":7,"user_id":285,"is_guest":0,"slug":"bamolotsky","display_name":"Brad A. Molotsky","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/53\/2021\/02\/molotskybrad-100x100.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/285"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/esg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}