#GreenNewDeal4NYC to Clean Up #DirtyBuildings

Thanks in large part to NYCC and our allies’ campaign, New York City is on the verge of passing world-first legislation (Intro 1253) to slash climate pollution from energy use in large buildings by over 80%. Buildings are responsible for about 70% of the city’s climate pollution – or about 35 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent. Just 2% of NYC real estate – the largest buildings over 25,000 square feet – generate HALF of this massive amount of pollution, as we documented in a report released in June.

Among the very worst polluters are super-luxury buildings like Trump Tower and Kushner’s 666 Fifth Avenue, which are among the city’s most polluting buildings, measured by pollution per square foot. Cleaning up these #DirtyBuildings requires upgrading them to modern energy efficiency standards, which creates thousands of jobs per year, especially good, union jobs hiring from communities of color.

This new legislation, introduced in November by Council Environmental Committee Chair Costa Constantinides and Council Speaker Corey Johnson, does exactly that. It is a #GreenNewDeal4NYC.

Worldwide, cities are responsible for about 70% of climate pollution, and energy use in buldings is the top source in many cities. Intro 1253, if enacted, will be the first law worldwide to set comprehensive standards that if all covered buildings comply will achieve the over 80% pollution cuts needed to achieve the Paris climate agreement and UN IPCC report recommendations.

Intro 1253 cuts climate pollution by about 40% by 2030 and over 80% by 2050 (in combination with a greening electric grid). The city’s dirtiest large buildings must begin to slash their pollution in 2022. It’s by far the strongest standard worldwide – and it’s also a world-first. If enacted, it will be the largest cut in climate pollution by any city ever. The real estate industry and its allies and front groups oppose the proposed legislation. They are trying to derail or weaken it, but we’re pushing hard for its passage.

NYCC is leading the charge for co-sponsors. Along with our allies, we quickly rounded up 34 co-sponsors for the bill (26 votes constitutes a majority in the Council) as of the New Year. NYCC also organized and turned out 200 people to the hearing on the bill and rally beforehand. We were the first organization selected to testify on the bill.

In dramatic testimony, NYCC members testified at the Council’s hearing about being crushed by Sandy, a city-wide climate disaster, as well as the increasing difficulty of dealing with asthma as the city gets hotter due to climate change. At the hearing, the de Blasio administration also declared strong support for the bill, so we’re in a strong position to pass Intro 1253 in the coming months.

The bill didn’t appear out of nowhere, of course: NYCC relentlessly pushed the Mayor and City Council to take bold action, intensifying our efforts in 2017 and 2018. We demanded that the bill not only slash pollution and create good jobs, but also not raise rents in rent-regulated housing, where state law allows landlords to raise rents permanently for “Major Capital Improvements,” while pocketing the savings of energy efficiency improvements.

The new legislation protects tenants city-wide from rent hikes, ensuring that climate pollution cuts are not pitted against affordability of housing in New York City, where 75,000 people sleep in homeless shelters each night; almost half of renters pay almost half their income in rent; and 1 in 10 public school kids is homeless at some point in the school year.

Getting the right bill introduced with the Speaker and Environmental Committee’s support was a major fight. Ultimately, we couldn’t be happier with their bold stance, which fully embraces the transformative approach needed to fight the climate crisis. The legislation is a testament to the leadership of Speaker Johnson and Committee Chairman Constantinides. We look forward to working closely with them, along with support from the de Blasio Administration, to pass it.

Some of the actions that NYCC was the main organizer or at the core of organizing that led to this bill’s introduction include:

• Training and developing a network of constituents pushing their Councilmembers for this legislation. NYCC created, trained and coordinated constituents in over 20 Council districts who are themselves lobbying their Councilmembers, which helps counteract the real estate industry’s lobbying.

• Nearly 5,000 people marching and rallying on the 5th anniversary of Superstorm Sandy in October 2017, with this legislation as a prime demand;

• About 3,000 people marching and rallying in September 2018 at the #RiseForClimate action, again with this legislation as the primary demand.

• Our report documenting the problem and exposing buildings like Trump Tower as among the city’s worst polluters.

• A 600-person town hall meeting in May of 2017 that focused on this issue (along with divestment)

• Relentless lobbying almost every Councilmember. NYCC held face to face meetings with over 25 Councilmembers and even in of- fices where we didn’t get a meeting with the Councilmember themselves, we briefed staff and repeatedly followed up.

• Organizing over 1,000 community leaders from across the City in every Council District to jointly write to Speaker Johnson, pushing him to introduce and move this bill.

• A teach-in in March 2017 inside Trump Tower in a public space to dramatize the building’s pollution and show the greedy real estate developers who oppose this legislation. Trump Tower tried to eject us, calling the NYPD and NYFD to try to get us out, but we used an obscure deal the city reached in the ‘80s with Trump to guarantee public access to a public terrace. In the end, we insisted on our legal right to the space, thumbing our noses at Trump’s minions while dramatizing the issue and generating media coverage.

• Developing vocal support from Councilmembers, including by getting 17 Councilmembers to sign a statement of support that pushed their colleagues and the Mayor to take bold action.

• Many smaller events such as small press conferences and rallies on the steps of City Hall with Councilmembers pushing the Mayor and Council to action.

In January of 2018, we won the city’s commitment to divest its mammoth, $190 billion (with a B) pension funds from oil and gas corporations. The city’s divestment is now on pace to begin pulling out about $5 billion from the likes of Exxon in 2019, with divestment completed within three years. Now, we’re setting our sites on New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who is the sole trustee of the even-larger NYS pension fund, which controls $200 billion and invests about $13 billion into oil, gas and coal corporations. DiNapoli puts $1 billion of the public’s money into Exxon alone.

We detailed the successful #DivestNY campaign at the NYC level in last year’s annual report. In 2019, along with our partners at 350.org and the #DivestNY coalition, we’re taking it to the state level. We hope to convince Comptroller DiNapoli that financing climate destruction with the state’s pension fund is both morally indefensible and a poor financial strategy, just as we successfully convinced NYC Comptroller Stringer and Mayor de Blasio, who are now strong advocates for fossil fuel divestment worldwide.

Unfortunately, Comptroller DiNapoli is resisting this effort. As a result, he’s rapidly becoming a “poster boy” for the fossil fuel industry, which praises his resistance to divestment. Sadly, it’s no surprise that the Comptroller continues to pour money into fossil fuel corporations since his Chief Investment Officer (CIO) left his operation to take a highly-lucrative, low-show position on the Board of Directors of the Williams pipeline corporation, a Fortune 500 fracked gas pipeline corporation.

DiNapoli’s former CIO will get about $300,000 per year to sit on the Williams fracked gas pipe-