The City Council yesterday passed four bills curbing emissions of greenhouse gases that requires owners of large buildings to pay for "energy audits" and make lighting upgrades.
The owners, however, will not be required to make renovations that the audits indicate would make the buildings more energy efficient.
An article by Mireya Navarro in today's edition of The New York Times said that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the legislative package "represented the biggest step the city could take to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide" and said it was "a crucial step in slowing climate change." Mr. Bloomberg's Plan 2030 wants to curb the city's carbon footprint by 30 percent.
The legislation was called "a very significant step forward" in testing the combination of mandates and incentives that could work at a national level to encourage lower energy use in commercial and residential buildings by Jeffrey Harris, vice president for programs at the Alliance to Save Energy, a national organization, the article said.
The new legislation is expected to cut the city's carbon dioxide emissions by less than 5 percent over the next two decades and are focused on buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, "or about 22,000 buildings that account for almost half of all buildings-related carbon emissions from boilers, furnaces and the power plants that supply their energy," according to the article.
These buildings will have to pay for "energy audits" every 10 years and switch to more efficient lighting. They would also have to create a profile of their energy and water efficiency and make it public, which, the article said, "energy experts say is tantamount to disclosing the mileage per gallon for cars so consumers can compare performance."
In addition, owners of large commercial builders will have to install systems to measure each tenant's energy usage.
The owners, however, will not be required to make renovations that the audits indicate would make the buildings more energy efficient.
An article by Mireya Navarro in today's edition of The New York Times said that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the legislative package "represented the biggest step the city could take to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide" and said it was "a crucial step in slowing climate change." Mr. Bloomberg's Plan 2030 wants to curb the city's carbon footprint by 30 percent.
The legislation was called "a very significant step forward" in testing the combination of mandates and incentives that could work at a national level to encourage lower energy use in commercial and residential buildings by Jeffrey Harris, vice president for programs at the Alliance to Save Energy, a national organization, the article said.
The new legislation is expected to cut the city's carbon dioxide emissions by less than 5 percent over the next two decades and are focused on buildings larger than 50,000 square feet, "or about 22,000 buildings that account for almost half of all buildings-related carbon emissions from boilers, furnaces and the power plants that supply their energy," according to the article.
These buildings will have to pay for "energy audits" every 10 years and switch to more efficient lighting. They would also have to create a profile of their energy and water efficiency and make it public, which, the article said, "energy experts say is tantamount to disclosing the mileage per gallon for cars so consumers can compare performance."
In addition, owners of large commercial builders will have to install systems to measure each tenant's energy usage.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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