The New York City Council voted Wednesday to ban the use of natural gas for heating or hot water in new construction or renovations beginning in 2024.

The statute prohibits the combustion of a substance that emits 25 kilograms or more of carbon dioxide per million British thermal units of energy, starting with buildings under seven stories permitted before Jan. 1, 2024, and in buildings seven stories and higher permitted on or after July 1, 2027. Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) negotiated changes to the bill this week and is expected to sign it.

“Buildings are responsible for nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions that are destroying our Earth every day,” said the bill’s primary sponsor, Councilmember Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D).

Gas ban bill sponsor Alicka Ampry-Samuel (D. 41, Brooklyn) speaks to the Council on December 15, 2021. | NYC Council

The bill addresses both climate and racial justice and essentially codifies the city’s emission reduction goals, Ampry-Samuel said.

The law directs the commissioner of buildings to deny construction permits for buildings that would require the combustion of such emitting substances, with exceptions for emergency standby power, a hardship preventing compliance with the bill, and where the combustion of the substance is used on an intermittent basis in connection with a device that is not connected to the building’s gas supply line.

This statute also requires the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability to conduct studies regarding the use of heat pump technology, and on the ban’s impact on the city’s electrical grid.

“This bill alone will yield a savings of 2.1 million tons of CO₂ by 2040, which is equal to the carbon produced from 450,000 cars in a whole year,” said co-sponsor James F. Gennaro (D), chair of the council’s Environmental Protection Committee, which oversaw the legislation.

National Grid, which distributes gas in the city, opposed the ban, saying it could increase energy costs, with a disproportionate impact on low- and fixed-income families.

“National Grid shares New York’s goal for economy-wide decarbonization,” National Grid spokeswoman Karen Young told NetZero Insider. “We recently announced the progress we’re making with our own decarbonization plan to transform our networks to deliver smarter, cleaner and more resilient affordable energy solutions.”

State lawmakers have written a broader bill, the “all-electric building act,” currently in committee, that would require new buildings statewide to be all-electric beginning in 2024.