New York City is set to phase out gas in new construction with the city council reportedly planning to vote next week on the measure. The legislation, which is expected to pass, would require electricity-powered heat and hot water in new buildings under seven stories by 2024 and all other buildings in 2027. Burning fossil fuels for space and water heating accounts for nearly 40% of New York City’s climate pollution. “It was intense because there was a whole bunch of back-and-forth over not only timelines but what a lot of us saw as loopholes in earlier drafts,” Alex Beauchamp, the Northeast director of Food & Water Watch, told Politico. “All of that stuff we won on and got struck out.”
While it is of course the largest city to enact such a measure, New York City is the latest in a drumbeat of municipalities nationwide that have acted to cut climate pollution and protect human health by electrifying their buildings. Research shows people of color are disproportionately subjected to PM2.5 pollution associated with residential gas combustion. The health impacts of this disproportionate exposure can be seen in the higher rates of mortality in these communities, including chronic respiratory diseases like asthma. (Politico Pro $, TheRealDeal, Real Estate Weekly, The Independent; Building electrification momentum: Utility Dive)