Oppose Intro 772, Which Would Destroy Thousands of Jobs, Increase Pollution & Raise Utility Bills by Gutting Local Law 97, NYC’s Landmark Climate & Jobs Law

Local Law 97 is an enormous success: job creation, pollution reductions and lower bills

Local Law 97 of 2019, New York City’s “Green New Deal” law, is the world’s leading city-level climate and jobs law. It is already a huge success, producing better-than-expected compliance results: 92% of large buildings are now in compliance as large building owners upgrade to high energy efficiency, and save money in the process. Local Law 97’s rapid progress is a major success story for New York City. Intro 772 would derail our progress, taking us backwards.

Local Law 97 is creating thousands of jobs, cutting pollution by millions of tons, and reducing utility bills through energy efficiency investments. There are many examples of large NYC buildings that have been upgraded to meet the law’s requirements that are now saving money net of their financing costs thanks to high energy efficiency.

The real estate lobby bitterly opposed Local Law 97’s passage. Despite the fact that the law is practical, affordable, and successful, the real estate lobby is still engaged in a big money scare-mongering campaign against it. REBNY and its front groups are spreading misinformation in an attempt to get Mayor Adams and Councilmembers to roll the law back.

Intro 772, sponsored by Councilmember Linda Lee, is a grab bag of cynical and misleading provisions that would gut Local Law 97 by effectively exempting thousands of large co-op and condo buildings from its requirements. Intro 772’s provisions would exempt a majority of co-op and condo buildings from Local Law 97. Because co-ops and condos are the most common and polluting residential type covered by the law and pollution from residential buildings is the city’s top pollution source, the law would be gutted. Intro 772 would destroy tens of thousands of jobs that are being created, increase pollution by millions of tons, and raise utility bills across the city. It would end NYC’s global leadership and wreck a large, emerging industry.

The bill’s three core provisions are accounting gimmicks:

• Accounting Gimmicks: Any condo, co-op or garden apartment buildings with lawns, shrubs, trees, a fringe of plantings and bushes or other external “green space” could include such exterior spaces in the measure of square footage of their building for the purposes of compliance with Local Law 97. Of course, exterior green space is not part of a building and does not reduce its pollution. This provision would artificially make buildings appear to be far less polluting per square foot. As examples, big, luxury buildings such as Kips Bay Towers with courtyards and exterior green space would be exempt from cutting pollution.

• Making the Law Toothless: The bill would make the law toothless by eliminating penalties for law-breaking co-ops and condos with a property tax valuation below $65,000 or less per unit. (By comparison, the recently-enacted tax break replacing the J51 credit tops out at $45,000 per unit.) This provision would exempt about half of co-ops and condos covered by Local Law 97 from the law. Property tax valuations, notoriously arbitrary under NYC law, have nothing to do with a building’s energy waste or efficiency. This provision would create a two-tier law, arbitrarily defined by property tax valuations. Local Law 97 would become effectively optional for such buildings.
  
• Double-dipping: The bill would double-count certain energy efficiency improvements a building made before Local Law 97 was passed in 2019. But Local Law 97 already takes into account energy efficiency investments and pollution reductions before 2019 because it sets a pollution cap; any energy efficiency work done before the law was enacted would help a building get below its pollution limit. Double-counting upgrades prior to 2019 would severely weaken the law.

The real estate lobby is running a multi-million dollar scare-mongering and disinformation campaign through its front groups to get co-op and condo owners to push Mayor Adams and the Council to roll the law back. They even sued to cast a cloud over the law (their lawsuit was dismissed in the district court, with the judge highly effectively rebutting the landlord lobby’s false arguments, including their contention that the law’s penalties are excessive or unfair). The law and its provisions are practical, achievable and affordable.

In fact, the law is succeeding even faster than the city expected. Many large buildings are already successfully upgrading to high energy efficiency levels that satisfy the law’s requirements for decades to come. And they are saving money in the process, including net of their financing costs. New York City is a global leader in growing a green economy and slashing pollution. In large part thanks to Local Law 97, New York leads the nation in clean energy job creation. It is vital that New York continue to lead, not fall behind.

Don’t Fall for the Real Estate Lobby’s Fear-Mongering & Disinformation:

Oppose and Do Not Co-Sponsor Intro 772, Which Would Destroy Jobs, Raise Pollution & Increase Utility Bills