NY Senator Brian Kavanagh and NY Assembly Member Emily Gallagher recently introduced NY Senate Bill S6843 also known as the All-Electric Building Act. This legislation “provides that no city, town or village shall issue a permit for the construction of new buildings that are not an all-electric building if the initial application for a permit was submitted after December 31, 2023 unless certain circumstances apply.” The bill’s purpose is to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in new construction projects. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has reported that in 2019 13% of greenhouse gas emissions came from commercial and residential buildings. “Emissions from natural gas consumption represent 80 percent of the direct fossil fuel CO2 emissions from the residential and commercial sectors in 2019,” the report states. The bill’s current status is in committee.
Also, environmental community activists celebrated on December 6, when the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) delayed their deadline to February 7 to decide on issuing air pollution permits to National Grid. The permits would allow National Grid to build 2 Liquified Natural Gas vaporizers at their Greenpoint Energy Center on Maspeth Avenue.
The No NBK Pipeline coalition is collecting signatures on a petition asking Governor Hochul and the DEC to deny the permit. The petition is found here.
The Greenline 