The city is scrambling to beef up its team of staffers who will enforce New York’s building climate law, Local Law 97, ahead of a fast-approaching 2025 deadline for property owners to submit reports proving that they are in compliance with the contentious law.
Newly proposed investments in Mayor Eric Adams proposed executive budget for the 2025 fiscal year allocate $4 million and 36 new full-time staffers to enforce the city’s landmark decarbonization law that began to take effect for some 50,000 buildings at the start of the year.
The new full-time positions would more than double the current team of 22 people working in the Department of Buildings preparing to enforce Local Law 97. With the additional staff, the city would have a total of 58 people dedicated to the implementation and enforcement of the law. That would be a dramatic uptick from the sparse team of 11 the Department of Buildings said it had focused on the issue in February, and would help ensure the measure has teeth in enforcing reluctant building owners to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
The investment is in advance of a May 2025 requirement for building owners affected by the law to submit reports to the building’s department detailing their annual greenhouse gas emission. If a building exceeds its carbon cap, owners will face fees of $268 for every ton of carbon dioxide over the limit. That could translate to fines of tens of thousands of dollars each year.
Buildings officials will be tasked with the work of collecting and analyzing thousands of reports, along with doling out and enforcing penalties to building owners who fail to meet their new annual emissions targets.
The new resources are a result of the city’s new climate budgeting process unveiled Tuesday to advance city sustainability and resilience efforts.
Recruitment for the positions has been particularly tricky for the buildings department because they require occupational licenses and the city faces robust competition from the private sector, according to city officials.
Climate advocates and City Council members have, in recent months, pushed in closed-door meetings for more staff and resources dedicated to Local Law 97.
“I think we’re generally seeing that the administration is recognizing the call to meet the greater need in this specific department,” said Shravanthi Kanekal, senior resiliency planner for the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance. “This is definitely a step in the right direction.”
Donna De Costanzo, the northeast regional lead for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said she was “heartened” to see that the Adams administration is giving the enforcement of Local Law 97 greater attention.
“It’s critical that New York City continue to allocate the capacity and resources needed to implement the law and ensure there’s an adequate and sustained budget to make it a success,” De Costanzo said.
Caroline Spivack , 2024-04-30 22:32:47
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