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.
