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Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2.0: Landfill Solar Power! Less Dirty Oil!
By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 21, 2011
Modified Apr 21, 2011
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By
Garth Johnston
Published Apr 21, 2011
Modified Apr 21, 2011
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Four years after he laid out his PlaNYC blueprint for a greener, greater New York, Mayor Bloomberg today made some ambitious additions. To go along with all of those trees they've planted (among other things) Hizzoner now wants to plop solar panels on our shuttered garbage dumps, rid the city of the "dirtiest grades" of heating oil by 2030, and create an energy efficiency finance corporation (with federal funding) to help private building owners with energy upgrades.
The original plan called for the city to reduce its carbon-gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 and, according to the Mayor, we're well on track towards that. Greenhouse gas levels in New York are now 13 percent below what they were in 2005. So it isn't that surprising that in the midst of a troubled third term Bloomberg would want to keep the ball rolling. The new plan, which you can read below, has 132 new initiatives and hundreds of milestones for the city to try and reach before 2014.
The most ambitious, and press friendly, of the plans is easily the solar panels. New York City has nearly 3,000 acres of shuttered landfill in our borders, and Bloomberg now wants to install solar panels on 250 of those acres (producing 50 megawatts of power, enough for roughly 50,000 homes). The city wouldn't run, or pay, for the panels, though. Instead they want a private operator to lease the land and build their own plant. The idea being that "The time when solar is most productive here also coincides with the time when the peak load is really needed—the hot days of summer," according to David Bragdon, the mayor's director of sustainability.
The other big plan is the push to get the city off of dirty heating oils. As Bloomberg explained today: "This #4 and #6 oil produces more soot pollution every year...listen to this...than all cars and trucks in New York City combined, and is a major contributor to deadly respiratory diseases." So of course our mayor (who worries about our lungs constantly) wouldn't like it. But the city won't just be dropping the oils cold turkey; instead it'll gradually step back itself while pushing for buildings and neighborhoods to convert to cleaner systems in tandem (to make the process cheaper). The city will also partner with the Environmental Defense Fund to "educate building owners and tenants about the public health impacts associated with #4 and #6 heating oil, the potential costs and savings associated with conversion, and the steps buildings can take to convert to cleaner fuels."
Especially as the Mayor's office seems to have made a real effort to assure that the new plan won't cost the city more money (and may even save us some in the long run), we're all for it. You can check out the whole slew of other ideas and goals in the full plan right here:
Tagged
earth day
Landfill
mayor bloomberg
michael bloomberg
nyc 2030
PlaNYC
solar power
Garth Johnston
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