New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio gave a “Green New Deal” pitch for the city on Monday that would make Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proud.
The Democrat said the Big Apple will be downsizing in the years to come as its “own Green New Deal” makes “classic” skyscrapers a financial black hole for developers.
“We’re putting clear, strong mandates, the first of any major city on the earth to say to building owners, you’ve got to clean up your act, you’ve got to retrofit, you’ve got to save energy,” he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” crew. “If you don’t do it by 2030, there’s serious fines, as high as $1 million or more for the biggest buildings.”
Fellow New Yorker Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has pushed a “Green New Deal” at the federal level, which she sees as a last-ditch effort to stave off an environmental catastrophe.
“We have twelve years left to cut emissions by at least 50%, if not more, and for everyone who wants to make a joke about that, you may laugh, but your grandkids will not,” she said April 3 on Instagram.
Mr. de Blasio says New York’s regulations will use various means to make traditional skyscrapers unappealing.
“We’re going to ban the classic glass and steel skyscrapers, which are incredibly inefficient,” he said, the Washington Free Beacon reported. “If someone wants to build one of those things, they can take a whole lot of steps to make it energy efficient, but we’re not going to allow what we used to see in the past. … We are going to get all of our energy from renewable sources in the next five years.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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