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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Danielle Manley, Manager of Policy at Urban Green Council, on Intro 994
2:32:41
·
142 sec
Danielle Manley from Urban Green Council provides feedback on Intro 994, which aims to address extreme heat risks in New York City by ensuring cooling access for residents. While supporting the bill's goals, she highlights several challenges with its current form and offers recommendations for improvement.
- Challenges include utility costs, implementation timeline, potential for inefficient equipment, grid strain, and technical hurdles.
- Recommendations: require cooling in new buildings, target vulnerable residents, conduct a stakeholder study, and consider efficiency standards for window ACs.
- Urban Green Council expresses willingness to collaborate on refining the bill.
Danielle Manley
2:32:41
Dear Council Member Sanchez, Ressler, and members of the committee, thanks for the opportunity to comment today.
2:32:47
I'm Daniel Manley and I'm the manager of policy at Urban Green Council.
2:32:50
We're a nonprofit with a mission to decarbonize buildings for healthy and resilient communities, and I'm here to submit our feedback on intro 994.
2:32:58
As others have said, extreme heat is the deadliest climate hazard in New York City, claiming an average of 350 lives each year, and climate change is making our summers hotter.
2:33:07
As we see it, Inter 994 aims to achieve two goals to address this problem.
2:33:11
1st is to mitigate life safety risks for the most heat vulnerable New Yorkers, and second is to enshrine a right to cooling for all residential tenants in the same manner that there's a right to heat.
2:33:22
Urban Green strongly supports both of those goals, and we welcome the opportunity to work together to achieve them.
2:33:29
But as others have said, there are key challenges with the bill as drafted right now, and we think that thoughtful engagement is needed to navigate them before moving forward.
2:33:38
My written comments offer more detail, and some of these have been set already, but those challenges include, 1, that utility costs are a major barrier because those who need cooling often cannot afford to pay for it.
2:33:49
2, most large buildings will not have heat pumps in the 4 year time frame laid out in this bill.
2:33:54
3, that means that inefficient and secondhand window units will become the lowest cost option, unintentionally leading the city's most vulnerable residents getting the worst performing equipment.
2:34:05
4th, the grid is already stranded most polluting on hot summer days.
2:34:10
And last, there are some building science and technology hurdles that practitioners say are difficult or insurmountable, and we want this to succeed.
2:34:24
And so we recommend 4 steps.
2:34:26
1st is to start with a requirement for cooling in all new buildings.
2:34:29
Don't leave the option on the table.
2:34:32
2nd is to identify the truly vulnerable residents without AC and target programs for them today.
2:34:37
We don't have to wait to help them.
2:34:39
3rd is to require a study with broad stakeholder engagement to navigate the issues that have been raised today that are sometimes at odds with one another in a citywide right to cooling bill and offer funding in the city's budget for it.
2:34:52
And 4th, consider minimum efficiency standards for window air conditioners in this or any other future bill on this topic.
2:35:00
Thank you for your time, and we look forward to collaborating on a path forward for this.