The Dutchess County city of Beacon is the first Hudson Valley municipality to ban fossil fuels.
Mindful of the statewide All-Electric New Building Act, which would ban cooking equipment that uses natural gas or other fossil fuels in new construction, the Beacon City Council passed legislation March 20th requiring all-electric construction for all new buildings and major renovations starting in 2024.
Food & Water Watch Hudson Valley Organizer Emily Skydel says it’s a landmark.
"We're super proud of the work that we've done with legislators and Beacon to pass this landmark gas ban, that moves buildings off fossil fuels, we're really proud of the our ability to mobilize New Yorkers to demand bold legislation, which ends our reliance on fracked gas," said Skydel. "So we're also obviously working at the state level, to ensure Governor Hochul passes a statewide all electric building act, through her budget, to bring these benefits statewide. And we really see this as a huge step in that direction."
Ward 4 City Councilmember Dan Aymar-Blair originally proposed the law. He says it came about after Beacon resolved to try to beat the New York state climate goals.
"We eventually proposed, with a certain city attorney's advice to, we would upgrade where we would, we've made changes to our energy code and not our building code. And that made things much smoother, much easier, grounded in the green infrastructure in the green amendment to the state constitution," Aymar-Blair said. "And we have a really great law, and we're really proud of it. It took a lot of work, we have really great conversations and made it better in many ways. So we, for example, with the mayor's help, we made some exemptions from the law that were reasonable and were in line with what is happening at the state level. It's a really great law, it covers all new construction, it covers all major renovations 75% renovation or higher. And it basically says that there's no more burning fossil fuels indoors."
Central Hudson spokesperson Joe Jenkins says the utility supports taking meaningful action to reduce carbon emissions.
"Since 2009, we've helped facilitate the installation of more than 21,000 electric heat pumps in existing homes," Jenkins said. "When we look at the, like a local ordinance like Beacons, can the electrical system handle it? Generally speaking, yes. But we need to be mindful of the financial impacts that a more wholesale transition or the proliferation of local ordinances might have on the electric grid. And also the potential impacts of electric reliability. So we are certainly supportive of building electrification, we just want to be mindful of the impacts that it could have as it spreads beyond local ordinances. And certainly we want to put forth a plan that leaves all technology resources on the table at this early stage of the transition. We feel that by leaving all options on the table and giving customers the abundant choice, really, that we can make meaningful impacts in reducing our carbon emissions, while having a minimum of financial impact on our customers."
Ithaca and New York City had previously banned fossil fuel technology in new construction.
