After you have attended my debate Tuesday evening (July 25) at the Soho Forum, if you are looking for another event to attend in the New York area while you are in town, I have one for you. It’s the Queens Town Hall on LL97. This one will take place on the very next night after my debate, July 26. The location is the Parish Center of the Queen of Angels Church in Sunnyside, Queens, at 43-18 Skillman Avenue. Time: 6:30 PM. Here is a screenshot of the flier for the event:

The organizer of this event is daughter Jane, who also contributes from time to time to this blog.

If you live anywhere near this site, and have any interest in this subject, we’d love to see you at the event.

For those not up to speed on New York City policy — and even for those who are — “Local Law” 97 is a New York City Council-passed statute that effectively requires all residential buildings in New York City of 25,000 square feet and above to upgrade their building envelope and also convert to electric heat by 2030, or else face massive fines. Allegedly, this is how we are going to “save the planet.” Essentially all apartment buildings other than the very smallest are above the 25,000 square foot threshold.

This statute was passed by the City Council (and signed by then-Mayor de Blasio) at the behest of environmental activists and without any serious consideration or understanding of the practicalities or costs of trying to comply. Most significantly, the City is requiring a huge increase in electricity demand for heating buildings while at the same time the State of New York under its own “Climate” Law is forcing the shut-down of much of the reliable natural gas power generation that actually keeps the lights on in this state. The politicians who have passed these statutes have not done any kind of detailed planning or feasibility studies to assure that there will be enough electricity to accomplish their schemes.

Meanwhile, the organization that actually does the planning and calculations to be sure that the power will be there when needed — that would be the New York Independent System Operator — is warning in the clearest terms possible that on the current trajectory within a few years there will not be enough electricity. The ISO has an updated version of its regular “Power Trends” Report that came out in June. Here are a few key quotes:

[P]ursuant to public policies, fossil fuel generation is retiring faster than renewable resources are entering service, leading to declining reliability margins across the state, but most acutely in the New York City area. . . . The NYISO’s first quarter 2023 STAR report shows that the growth in demand due to electrification coupled with the retirement of fossil fuel based peaker plants is leading to declining reliability margins statewide and most acutely in New York City.

The bold is from the original.

In other words, the City by statute is supposedly requiring co-op boards to invest millions of dollars of shareholder money to electrify the buildings, while at the same time the ISO is clearly warning that there is no plan to have sufficient electricity supply to accomplish the task. It’s madness, but then we specialize in madness here in New York.

The “Intro 913” legislation referred to in the flier would simply delay implementation of LL97 for seven years. That would be a start. I hate to break this news to them, but their grand plans for wind and solar generation are never going to come anywhere close to providing the amount of electricity to replace all of our current fossil fuel generation and power the state. Within a few years this will all come apart. The only real issue is how many people will be seriously harmed in the meantime. Buildings that make the mistake of electrifying now run the not-small risk of finding themselves without heat for substantial periods on the coldest days in the later part of the decade.

Anyway, hope to see you there in Queens next Wednesday!