The All-Electric Building Act would ban gas hookups in new construction across New York starting in 2024.
The bill, sponsored by state Assemblywoman Emily Gallagher and Sen. Brian Kavanagh, seeks to move the deadline on gas hookups in single-family homes up a year, according to NY State of Politics.
“We think this deadline is really important because the climate science that’s already out there shows that we have a limited window in which to make this change until we are beyond the point of no return,” said Gallagher, a Brooklyn Democrat.
Fellow Democrats Sen. Todd Kaminsky and Sen. Kevin Parker have questioned moving the mandate up by a year, and so have business leaders.
“What’s the right pace? What degree of flexibility should be built in these kinds of mandates? And what’s the context? What other kind of activities are necessary to support these movements?” asked Ken Pokalsky, senior advisor to the president of the Business Council of New York.
Gallagher points out that similar legislation has already passed in New York City, and other state legislators have introduced bills to make the energy grid more affordable.
Pokalsky says the Climate Action Council’s Draft Scoping plan, released in December 2021, still needs to go through its public comment period.
The Climate Action Council previously expressed support for the ban on gas hookups in single-family homes to go into effect in 2025, not 2024 as legislators now propose.
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