NYC Celebrates Earth Day with ‘Clean Heat’ Sustainability Plan
It's Earth Day! At Heat USA, we're celebrating by continuing keep you updated on energy efficient home heating and cooling products. (image: mycommentcodes.com)
In honor of Earth Day and the 4-year anniversary of the PlaNYC sustainability plan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined new details of New York’s environmental initiative yesterday at a press conference in Harlem, CNET News reported. The new plan is a product of “48 public meetings with 220 groups, yielding almost 1,000 ideas, suggestions, and feedback,” the mayor’s office announced.
The updated initiative features a Clean Heat heating fuel campaign that seeks to curb usage of the two least efficient types of heating oil through financial incentives and consumer education programs. Most households heated by oil use #2 heating oil, a fairly efficient fuel, but some energy users could be affected by the change in regulation.
“Just 1 percent of all buildings in the city produce 86 percent of the total soot pollution from buildings – more than all the cars and trucks in New York City combined,” Bloomberg’s report states. “They do this by burning the dirtiest grades of heating fuel available, known as residual oil, or #6 and #4 heating oil.”
The PlaNYC initiative seeks to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. Since the program was launched in 2007, emissions have dropped 13%. PlaNYC also pursues programs aimed at improving the city’s air quality, electricity consumption, land use, and water quality. The updated plan includes loans for green energy upgrades for homeowners, and a solar panel/landfill project that will turn part of the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island into a solar energy farm.
To get involved in some environmental activism in your area, check out the Earth Day Network’s schedule of events – there’s something going on in almost every major U.S. city! And with some information on home energy audits from Heat USA, we can help you do your part to conserve as much energy as possible.
