Category: Policy

[caption id="attachment_20670" align="alignleft" width="198"] Casa Celina, Magnusson Architecture and Planning PC[/caption] NYC is now the largest city in the U.S. to propose legislation relating to the electrification of buildings. On May 27, 2021, the NY City Council introduced Int. 2317-2021, which promotes the electrification of new and substantially retrofitted buildings. The bill will become effective two years after its enactment, and includes important exemptions; for example, the use of emergency…

Dear Chairman Wyden, Chairman Neal, Ranking Member Crapo, Ranking Member Brady, Thank you for your leadership and hard work to develop and advance the Clean Energy for America Act and the GREEN Act. Utilizing tax credits to jump start the decarbonization of our economy has a proven track record. However the current provisions in the tax code and modifications discussed to date simply do not incentivize the scale of energy…

If you can support this effort, please sign this letter to Congress by the end of the week and encourage others to do so as well.  We’d like to get this proposal to Congress before the July Fourth recess. More details on this suite of tax credits are below. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to discuss these tax credits further. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLEwpVy35it-lAp80n8S2fMIyHg2g1GxWio-02s0I5REWhQw/viewform A Comprehensive Suite of Tax Credits…

By Amy Turner This week marked significant growth for the building electrification movement, as the legal pathways in use by local governments to catalyze electrification doubled in number. Previously, local governments had pursued building electrification through building code provisions requiring or incentivizing electrification expressly, or through affirmative “bans” on natural gas hookups to new and renovated buildings. More than 40 local governments in California have taken the former approach, in…

On October 17, 2020, the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter Executive Committee voted unanimously to update its January 25, 2019 resolution on Passive House to highlight the public health as well as environmental rationales for promoting this green building design. The resolution, which I introduced, states: “It is the position of the Atlantic Chapter that all new buildings in NYS that receive any form of public financing and, optimally all new…

This bill would prohibit the combustion of a substance that emits 50 kilograms or more of carbon dioxide per million British thermal units of energy in any new building or any building that has undergone a major renovation. The bill provides an exception for emergency standby power, a hardship preventing compliance with the bill, where the combustion of the substance is required by certain enumerated industries, and where the combustion…