The law effectively requires all-electric heating and cooking in new buildings shorter than seven stories by 2026, and by 2029 for taller buildings. And while it allows exemptions for manufacturing facilities, restaurants, hospitals and even car washes, the measure doesn’t do what some climate activists fear: grant cities and counties licenses to override the restriction.
Since the beginning of this year, when a federal official proposed, and then quickly retracted, the idea that the national government could ban gas stoves, the debate about the future of natural gas has flared up. So it may seem strange that as New York lawmakers head into the final stretch of their budget talks this week, their plans to pass a statewide gas ban are essentially a no-go. final conclusion.
But Democrats, who control the New York Senate and Assembly, have faced pressure from environmentalists for years to follow through on the state’s climate commitments. And, in the end, it was not the negotiations about the gas stoves that sparked the controversy but a tight fight over bail reform and housing policy that delayed the approval of the budget for a month.
The passage of the law, and the approval of a measure that would require the state to build renewable energy if the private sector fails, has fueled supporters’ hopes that New York will become a national model.
“I always hear from the local government and people of the state that they are thinking about this kind of policy, and so I am sure, while other policymakers are looking at a state that has found a political and it’s a technically feasible way to do electrification, that some will pay attention to,” said Amy Turner, a senior fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.
In Massachusetts, a law passed last year allows 10 cities and towns to participate in a pilot program that bans gas-burning stoves and furnaces from new construction. Environmentalists are eager to see the state move forward, using a new building code written to discourage the use of fossil fuels. Advocates are also looking to Chicago, where the blue-chip city recently elected a liberal mayor.
But the gas industry and its Republican supporters have raised doubts about whether New York’s gas ban will survive legal challenges. Some climate advocates worry that a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit striking down the California city of Berkeley’s first-in-the-nation gas ban could have a chilling effect on other cities. and provinces.
Although the court’s decision is not legally binding in most of the United States, reluctance to adopt local gas restrictions may emerge, said Matt Vespa, a senior attorney at the nonprofit organization Earthjustice noted that restrictions on the use of gas in buildings often start at the local level, then go statewide. In California and Washington state, major cities including San Francisco and Seattle banned gas hookups before states enacted measures encouraging electrification through their building codes.
There are other routes to all-electric buildings besides the one used by Berkeley, Vespa said, but “if you take away the local piece, that will cool the upward momentum, and people will have to recalibrate .”
Opponents derided the passage of the bill in New York as government overreach. Republican Robert Ortt, the minority leader of the New York Senate, issued a statement denouncing the law as a “first-in-the-nation, unconstitutional ban” that would “raise utility bills and raise on housing costs.”
The New York law does not affect existing buildings, and it specifically exempts renovations. However, over time, the dominance of the gas industry could be lost in the state, where 3 out of 5 households rely on natural gas for heating, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Only about 1 in 7 households heat with electricity.
The ban also extends to heating oil and propane, raising questions about the future of these fuels in more rural communities in New York state.
Critics of the law argue that it limits consumer choice and increases utility bills by switching more households to electricity, which is more expensive than gas in most states. Supporters counter that because the law only affects new construction, the transition will happen gradually and coincide with the state’s plans to shift more of its electricity production to greener, and cheaper, ones. sources.
Today, gas fuels 46 percent of New York’s electricity generation, but a key climate law passed in 2019 calls for a shift to renewable, zero-emission sources such as solar, wind and hydro power. It requires the state to cut greenhouse gas emissions 85 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
