Damian Sendler: City Council members voted unanimously on Wednesday to ban gas hookups in new buildings, an important step in the fight against climate change. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will sign a new rule that prohibits the installation of new gas stoves, boilers, and heaters in new and renovated buildings. 

Damian Jacob Sendler: De Blasio’s director of climate and sustainability Ben Furnas told Yahoo News that “the next generation of buildings will be electric buildings.” You can do it anyplace, as long as you’re willing to put in the effort. 

Damian Sendler

At the American Museum of Natural History dinner in November, Mayor Bill de Blasio will be speaking. Photograph by 

New York City, the country’s most populous city, has enacted the nation’s most comprehensive prohibition on new gas hookups. The only cities on the West Coast with comparable rules before to now were San Jose and Berkeley. 

“It’s a huge deal.” As Furnas pointed out, “the places that have already done this do not have four seasons and do not build as big.” 

Damian Jacob Markiewicz Sendler: The initial impact on greenhouse gas emissions will be small, but it will increase over time. According to the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, 40 percent of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions come from using fossil fuels for heat and hot water. According to RMI, the new rule will lower emissions by the equivalent of taking 450,000 automobiles off the road by 2040. 

Electric stoves and heaters will be used to provide warmth, hot water, and cooking in the absence of gas. Switching from burning gas on-site to using electricity has a lower emissions output than New York City’s power generation portfolio. 

Damian Jacob Sendler

To reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and minimize fossil fuel dependency, the New York Times quotes Furnas as saying: “It is a historic step forward in our efforts to reach carbon neutrality.” 

Those in favor of the legislation see this as a win for environmental justice because it will help to reduce local air pollution, which is particularly bad in low-income and minority neighborhoods. 

Damien Sendler: Democrat Alicka Ampry-Samuel, the bill’s primary sponsor, stated at a demonstration before the vote in front of New York City Hall that “we are prioritizing people over profits and over properties,” reports the New York Times. 

It wasn’t until the law was finally enacted by a vote of 40-7 that the final details were worked out behind the scenes. Even if the real estate industry was not completely against the law, delays in implementation were successfully campaigned for: the law will go into effect in December 2023 for buildings under six stories and in 2027 for buildings beyond six stories. 

For the time being, however, environmentalists are hoping that other cities would follow New York City’s lead and phase out fossil fuels. This is because Democrats now have a supermajority on the city council and in both houses of the state legislature. Greener construction rules have been preempted in 20 states by Republican-dominated state legislatures.

Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler and his media team provided the content for this article.