BUILDINGS AND ENERGY WORKING GROUP

New York City Enters the Age of Local Law 97

LL97 is the local NYC  law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large buildings.LL97 Overview

The aim of the first phase of  LL97 is to reduce emissions from large buildings by 40% by 2030 from the 2005 level. Some progress has been made: there has been a 22% decrease in emissions between 2022 and 2023. 2024 was the first full year Local Law 97 was in effect. The  energy usage data has been  collected from all 30,000 buildings covered by the law for over 10 years and was the impetus for formulating LL97.

The law has the support of unions, community groups and has already been responsible for countless new businesses that specialize in energy audits, energy upgrades, financing  and 100,000 new jobs.

A two-pronged approach requiring cooperation from individual homeowners and buildings  and the transformation NYC electric grid is needed to close the energy and emissions gap by 2030. 350NYC activists and their coalition partners are involved in legislation that will impact both areas.

  1.       Individual  home and building owners have to upgrade energy systems, and reduce leaks from windows, building envelope etc.  The intention is that the money saved on using less energy will offset the expense of the upgrades. The city has been proactive in establishing agencies to help homeowners plan and implement energy efficiency retrofits and also apply for financing https://accelerator.nyc/
  2.       Elements of the  second approach to reduce NYC building emissions are primarily designed to “green the NYC  grid”;  to integrate energy derived from  solar, wind and hydro  into the NYC electric grid. Projections by NYSERDA are that clean energy should represent 70% of NYS grid electrons by 2030. This will involve primarily off-shore wind, hydro power from Quebec, solar from upstate NY.  In the mix of new energy will be green energy used by the public utility, NYPA. The Build Public Renewables Act BPRA passed 2 years ago, is intended to allow NYPA to utilize green, renewable  energy.  The building and financing of utility scale solar and wind projects is complex and usually involves private partners. Permitting for new projects is the major bottleneck. A recent bill passed by the state legislature, in December 2024 the Superfund Act Fund  will hold fossil fuel companies responsible for damage caused by climate change and revenue secured will be used to build out utility scale RE..

 A new bill that 350NYC.org is involved in is Insure our Future https://www.ciel.org/insuring-the-climate-crisis-new-york-bill/. This bill, which is being introduced in many states, stipulates that insurance companies cannot underwrite fossil fuel exploration and production and at the same time limit insurance for buildings damaged by climate change.

In terms of LL97 regulations that will enforce the emissions targets, there has been attempts by the real estate industry to weaken timelines and targets; give buildings a 2 year grace year if they submit retrofit plans in advance; allow buildings to use renewable energy credits and other loopholes that will lower the rate of retrofitting and slow emissions reductions.  We are keeping track of these revisions to ensure that they have a limited impact on the 2030 outcomes.

HOW WE AS CLIMATE ACTIVISTS CAN GUARANTEE THE CONTINUED SUCCESS OF LL97

The success of LL97 will depend on many features and climate activists have a role to play. Most important in these early years is to educate building and apartment owners, especially those in your own building. Become knowledgeable about the law, the upgrades suitable for your building by inviting staff from the NYC Accelerator https://accelerator.nyc/. ConEd also has a community program for this purpose ConEd Incentives. Tracking of emissions reductions is essential and activists must also be knowledgeable about this aspect of the bill’s progress.