A City Council packed with lame ducks is about to deepen New York’s housing shortage with a lunatic bid to score green points.
It’s one-upping a bit of posturing by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who’s pledged to ban fossil-fuel hookups in new buildings by 2030 — though he’s conveniently gone at the end of 2021. The bill from Councilwoman Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D-B’klyn) would ban the connections in all new construction and major renovations starting in 2024.
Progressives are mounting a full-court press to pass the measure anyway, starting with a hearing this Wednesday. Yet it’s wildly impractical:
- All-electric buildings are more expensive to construct and operate, and are not yet technically feasible above a certain height.
- The rapid shifting to all-electric systems would further goose the city’s electricity costs — already 50 percent above the national average.
- Most electricity is still fossil-fuel generated, anyway, and will be for the foreseeable future. The decommissioning of the emissions-free Indian Point nuclear plant already set back efforts to decarbonize the city’s energy supply.
- The electric grid is vulnerable to outages. You can get by with candles and so on for light in a blackout, but this means you won’t have heat or any way to cook.
- By including “major renovations,” the bill would likely prevent upgrades to existing buildings, even as it discourages new construction.
Inevitably, lower-income folks would suffer most — through higher electric bills as well as an even more insane housing market. This is posturing at the expense of those who can least afford it.
