New York state, NYC take steps to electrify buildings, move away from fossil fuels

With the recent approval of a law that bans natural gas and fossil fuels in new construction—including furnaces and stoves—the empire state is moving itself quickly away from fossil fuels and toward electric utilities like heat pumps and induction ovens. 

The law was included in New York’s $229 billion budget deal recently signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. Beginning in 2026, all-electric heating and cooking utilities will be required in buildings shorter than seven stories, and in taller buildings by 2029. While dozens of localities have done so in recent years, New York’s legislature is the first to take such steps at the state level.

The state’s metropolitan center, meanwhile, New York City, which passed a local ban on fossil fuels and natural gas hookups in new construction in 2021, is doubling down further via a new, $15 million effort to reduce the usage of fossil fuels and build all-electric, affordable homes.

Announced Wednesday, the “Future Housing Initiative,” a state-local partnership, aligns the region’s housing needs with its climate goals by fast-tracking the creation of 3,000 affordable and energy-efficient homes within the city.

“This city and state collaboration is a major step toward a just transition, and will create healthier, more sustainable homes while reducing emissions and energy cost burden alike,” said Kizzy Charles-Guzman, executive director of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice. “Housing justice and environmental justice must go hand in hand.”

The fossil fuels reduction initiative builds upon a prior state-local partnership to retrofit existing mutlifamily buildings with energy efficient electric utilities that’s being overseen by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Announced in 2021, the original intiative “provided deep incentives through the HPD Retrofit Electrification Pilot to support building electrification and energy efficiency retrofits in multifamily buildings in HPD’s preservation pipeline with poorly performing systems where electrification is a big win. This pilot is expected to upgrade approximately 1,200 affordable homes,” according to an explainer about the latest project.

Statewide, homes and businessess generate about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, and two-thirds of emisssions in the city’s five boroughs.

“Decarbonizing our homes is essential to the health of our city and planet,” said Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi in a statement about the project. “The Future Housing Initiative will deliver clean energy benefits to thousands of families who will breathe cleaner air, face lower utility bills, and be healthier and safer in their homes and communities.”

In practice, the initiative will streamline development financing and grants to affordable housing projects currently in housing preservation department’s pipeline. Funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s $6 billion Clean Energy Fund, the program will cover “the incremental costs of implementing high-performance, all-electric ‘Future Homes’ standards, such as electrification of hot water and heating systems in design and construction to provide energy savings, resiliency, and improved air quality for future residential,” according to the explainer. 

Applications for the first round of the fossil fuels reduction initiative, with $7.5 million available, will be accepted through June 1. A second round will follow in 2024.