In its April 29, 2009 Washington Update the National Multi Housing Council provided a brief summary of recently proposed New York City legislation that would address building energy consumption. As NYC is often looked to by other localities as a model when creating their own legislation on a particular issue I wanted to reproduce NMHC’s brief here just in case anyone missed it in the Washington Update. Any questions regarding this legislation can be direct either to myself or NMHC directly.
On April 22, New York City (NYC) Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a package of laws designed to reduce the city's energy consumption. In making the announcement, he called it the world's most comprehensive package of legislation to reduce GHG emissions from existing government, commercial and residential buildings. Noting that buildings account for 80 percent of NYC's carbon emissions, Bloomberg's six-point plan calls for:
- Legislation that creates a New York City Energy Code that existing buildings will have to meet whenever they make renovations;
- Legislation that requires buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to conduct an energy audit once every 10 years and make any improvements that pay for themselves within five years;
- Legislation that requires commercial buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to upgrade their lighting to more energy-efficient systems that pay for themselves through energy savings;
- Legislation that requires buildings of 50,000 square feet or more to make an annual benchmark analysis of energy consumption so building owners can better understand what steps they can take to increase efficiency;
- A revolving loan fund using $16 million in federal stimulus money to provide loans for property owners to pay the upfront costs for the efficiency upgrades that eventually pay for themselves; and
- A jobs program that will work with the real estate and construction industries to train the workforce that will fill the estimated 19,000 construction jobs the legislation will create.
City officials estimated that it would save property owners roughly $750 million a year in energy costs. The program would begin in 2013, with 2,200 buildings performing audits and beginning upgrades each year for a decade. To overcome political objections, buildings would only be required to make improvements if the energy audits showed that the costs of the improvements could be recouped through declines in energy bills within five years. More information on the initiative is available here.
In addition to the NYC initiative, Congress is also considering legislation addressing energy efficiency retrofits to buildings. These improvements would not be mandatory, and the government would provide financial incentives for property owners to meet certain metrics. We have urged lawmakers to provide multifamily properties with the same reimbursement rates offered to commercial buildings for improvements.
Scot Haislip - Manager, State & Local Policy, National Apartment Association