Lowering emissions is every New Yorker’s responsibility

When the City Council passed the Climate Mobilization Act in 2019, otherwise known as Local Law 97, we were supportive but cautious, awaiting details still to come. This legislation rightly seeks to combat climate change by significantly reducing New York City’s carbon footprint. We are concerned, however, that it places the compliance burden on a significant but small percentage of all the buildings in New York City and that it includes impossibly stiff penalties for failure to meet all compliance milestones.

In October, the Department of Buildings published the first set of its draft rules to clarify the law and provide property owners with additional guidance. These draft rules address a number of issues of concern to our members in New York housing cooperatives and condominiums.

We both served on the Climate Multifamily Working Group that brought insightful suggestions for changes to more effectively interpret and implement this challenging law. In the process, we developed great respect for the intelligence, knowledge and dedication of our colleagues on this and other climate working groups and the Climate Advisory Board as well as for the professionals at the Department of Building with whom we worked.

We are pleased to see some of our recommendations reflected in these proposed rules. They increase the number of building types from 11 to more than 60 for calculating energy use and carbon control; clarify that square footage includes every interior inch of building space; provide an option to allow measurement of electrical emissions based on when the electricity is used rather than one rate for the whole year; recognize the different circumstances of campus-style housing; and, most particularly, acknowledge that the department will consider “good-faith efforts” in mitigating fines for buildings that, despite trying hard, will not quite meet their compliance goals.

These are all very positive developments that should allay many of the concerns of people worried that the law will soon hammer their buildings with huge, unaffordable fines.

Additional rules should soon be forthcoming as the Department of Buildings continues to facilitate the implementation of the law. We trust that these will provide further clarity and urge that they favor incentives over penalties in pursuing carbon neutrality.

Climate change is real and must be faced squarely. Efficiency measures to significantly reduce the city’s carbon footprint should already factor into the detailed planning process — short-term, long-term and even longer-term‚ which guides every building’s budgeting.

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Some of these measures will begin saving energy dollars as soon as they are put in place, and some can be implemented quickly. Others need to be staged as funds are accumulated, or as equipment reaches the end of its useful life, or when innovation brings better and more efficient products, such as the change from incandescent to fluorescent to LED lighting. Careful planning can take advantage of incentive programs and mortgage cycles.

For our members — the resident owners and their volunteer boards of housing cooperatives and condominiums — this planning is challenging and tends to proceed slowly. We must juggle the major changes required by the law with the demands of Local Law 11′s Facade Inspection Safety Program, garage and gas-pipe inspections, not to mention the routine maintenance of building systems, all the while trying to keep our carrying charges affordable to resident homeowners.

These extensive compliance mandates reduce funds available for the critical emissions-reducing measures that the law requires and inspire opposition rather than public support needed to fight climate change. We respectfully suggest that the city take a holistic look at what it is asking of building owners and that it coordinate the many reports, inspections, submissions, fees (and fines) that currently impose an unsustainable burden on city buildings and their owners.

We also recommend the creation of an E-51 program, similar to the existing J-51 program. A partial property tax abatement for energy conservation measures would encourage constructive progress. Enhanced incentives and low-cost loan programs would, in our view, work far better than penalties in forwarding the important goals of Local Law 97.

There’s another critical point: The buildings of 25,000 square feet and larger targeted by this law cannot alone bring the city to carbon neutrality. Smaller buildings, too, must help in this effort. Every resident of New York City should be engaged, but few today are even aware of the city’s important carbon reduction goals.

Outreach and communications — on buses and subways, in schools and in the media — need to make all New Yorkers aware of the important goals of this law. These messages should contain specifics on how to help. Together, New Yorkers can make this ambitious climate legislation succeed.

Rothman is the executive director of the Council of New York Cooperatives & Condominiums. Yaker is chairman of the Coordinating Council of Cooperatives, whose membership is comprised primarily of large, affordable housing cooperatives.