The city’s carbon footprint won’t shrink as fast as advocates would like after the DOB’s latest tweak to the landmark climate legislation
BY AARON SHORT, Commercial Observer, Oct. 4, 2023
New York City’s most wasteful high-rises won’t have to sweat paying hefty fines next year thanks to what is effectively a last-minute rule change to a landmark climate law.
Still, many landlords aren’t satisfied by the lucky break. Many environmentalists aren’t, either.
The city Department of Buildings (DOB) announced in early September it will allow a two-year grace period for towers to demonstrate they are on track to meet the city’s new carbon emissions standard set by Local Law 97, part of climate legislation the City Council passed in 2019.
“We believe that the decarbonization plan will be an attractive option for buildings that have done little or nothing so far to comply with the law, and are significantly over their carbon emissions limit, as it gives them additional time to start these retrofit projects,” Andrew Rudansky, a spokesperson for the Buildings Department, said in an email to Commercial Observer.
The city’s move came after condo and co-op associations complained for months during several DOB-led working group meetings that they could not line up the financing to replace boilers, swap out windows or make other upgrades to lower greenhouse gas output by the department’s January 2024 deadline.
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