Landlords can buy their way out of NYC’s climate law starting this week
As a candidate, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani pledged to close loopholes allowing landlords to limit compliance with the city’s landmark building emissions law.
But later this week, landlords will be able to buy their way out of the climate law through an energy credits program launched by his predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams.
Local Law 97 is intended to force landlords to cut building emissions, which account for about two-thirds of the city’s carbon pollution. Many landlords and co-op owners have said they cannot afford the required retrofits and that noncompliance penalties are onerous.
Adams pitched the credits in 2023 as a way to fund clean energy projects while protecting building owners from crippling costs. There is no limit on how many credits a building owner can buy.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will sell the first credits Wednesday. The sale is projected to generate nearly $1.8 million for the Champlain Hudson Power Express transmission line, which will bring hydropower from Quebec to New York City.
The minimum purchase is 1,000 credits at $35.52 each.
Credits can only offset emissions from sources away from the building, such as electricity generation. They cannot be used to offset emissions from a fossil-fuel boiler inside a building.
