A Plan for A Greener City

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CHANGE FOR NEW YORK

A PLAN FOR A GREENER CITY

MARK GREEN
May 11, 2009


INTRODUCTION: PUTTING THE "NEW" BACK IN NEW YORK

Campaigns are usually about politics -- about money, polls, endorsements, attacks. Sounds obvious, right?

But ideally -- and certainly during a crisis -- they should be even more about policies and ideas. As figures from Keynes to Galbraith to Gingrich have noted, "ideas matter" -- indeed over the course of history, little else does.

My public life has been about advocating good ideas and then trying to put them into practice. In my work as a public interest lawyer, public official, and author, I successfully initiated 311, stopped tobacco promotions to kids, organized "Kick Butts Day" and "Tuesday Night Out," prohibited companies from firing domestic violence victims, fought for importing RU-486 into America, punished abusive cops, enacted multiple public grants matching small donations -- and proposed scores of other ideas advancing national progressive reforms in Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President.

In my campaign to again become the Public Advocate, I want to focus more on ideas than politics by showing how to put the new back in New York -- how to advocate for fresh ideas that can be implemented in office. And since I just did this for the Obama Administration in my January book, Change for America, I intend to produce in effect a Change for New York.

So over the course of the next four months, I'll be proposing ideas for the next Mayor, City Council & State Legislature in several policy papers that explain a problem and propose ideas for fixing it. And then I’ll in effect put them out for comment on my website so constituents can provide feedback on what works and what doesn’t. So policies will be drafted, not just by me but by us.

Having learned more from the 40th Earth Day last month, I'll look today at environmental and energy issues affecting NYC. Just as Obama is bringing progressive change to Washington, this paper offers several proposals for a "Greener City" in the spirit of O Henry who observed that New York "would be a wonderful place if they ever finished it." Perfect. For continuous self-examination and self-improvement are the hallmarks of both a dynamic democracy and a creative city.

PROBLEMS & HISTORY

Over the decades -- through Kyoto, culminating with Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth -- we have learned that we are soiling our nest, our City, our planet, with devastating effects on our health and economy. The world will be coming together this August in Geneva for the World Climate Confrence-3 to discuss global, national and local solutions to preserving our environment. Nationally, President Obama will be pressing Congress on a new national power grid, stricter appliance standards, more renewable energy and cap-and-trade system. But until the world and Washington can take action, New York City must.

Our City currently confronts a crisis that simultaneously involves multiple parts -- the economy, energy, environment, and sustainability.

On the economic front, our City has lost nearly 200,000 jobs since last year, and now has an unemployment rate of 8.1% and climbing, including a staggering 10.5% in the Bronx. These job losses come half from Wall Street and business services and the rest coming heavily from the blue collar jobs that were once New York City’s backbone. On the energy front, the cost of electricity in New York City is higher than anywhere else in our nation, save Hawaii. While higher costs might ordinarily be coupled with a more reliable energy infrastructure, New Yorkers have been faced with multiple blackouts in the past decade. Environmentally, New York City faces the same global warming crisis as any other, with the unique reality that as a coastal city we are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and intensifying storms that could submerge large parts of the five boroughs underwater. And on the sustainability front, we continue to build a city with insufficient infrastructure to support the additional energy, waste, transportation, and other resources needed to support more than 9 million residents by 2030.

Coupled with a global economic crisis, these challenges project a more expensive, less productive and less healthy city – unless we develop and enact "A Plan for a Greener City." Even beyond the coincidence of my last name, I have a long history on "green" issues, especially over the 11 years I was the Commission of Consumer Affairs and the Public Advocate. We:

• launched the effort to end the "mob tax" corruption in commercial waste removal;
• brought pioneering cases against businesses (like Proctor & Gamble) committing "green collar fraud" by falsely claiming products were biodegradable;
• successfully led the opposition to the proposed Brooklyn Navy Yard incinerator;
• was one of the first to expose health risks at the Fresh Kills landfill;
• against Mayor Giuliani’s strong opposition, advocated for recycling by demonstrating jobs creation, cost savings, and reduced burden on land fills;
• proposed financing and rebates for installation of energy efficient appliances in rent regulated, NYCHA and other City-owned buildings;
• advocated for alternative energy and energy conservation to lower fuel costs following the first Gulf War;
• forced dry cleaners to stop using dangerous chemicals;
• led the effort to reduce lead paint poisoning of children; and
• proposed the use of natural gas buses in order to reduce high asthma rates in low-income communities that result from the diesel fuel used by our fleet of vehicles.

Over time, New York City has become one of the most environmentally efficient cities in America. But, like the Yankees, our City has never been satisfied with being the best in our league. Facing these new crises, we have an opportunity to once again lead our nation as we invest in green innovation and development.

My bedrock premise going forward was best express by Van Jones in Change for America before he was selected by President Obama as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

The best way to address our climate and energy crisis is to build a more prosperous green economy—strong enough to lift millions of Americans out of poverty and into a stronger middle class. We cannot ‘drill and burn’ our way out of our energy, economic and environmental problems, but we can ‘invest and invent’ our way out …the majority of ‘green-collar jobs’ in energy efficiency and renewable energy are also living-wage, ‘middle-skill’ jobs. Despite misconceptions, the green economy will not be built by a small handful of scientists and engineers alone. It will be built by electricians, sheet metal workers, machinists, lab technicians, and other workers in familiar professions. These jobs are well within reach for low-income people, including those with barriers to employment, such as low educational attainment or past criminal convictions.

GREEN JOBS

"Green Jobs" typically describes employment that originates in the environmental sector; for example, a mining job providing metals for SUVs would be regarded as a blue-collar job, while those same metals used to build windmills would be a green-collar job. Our plan for a "Greener City" will create a new generation of"Green Jobs" locally which run the spectrum across more than twenty-two sectors and can last for generations to come. These jobs have low barriers to entry, are in growing sectors, and cannot be outsourced. The combination of these factors should provide low-income families with access to good jobs that provide living wages, benefits, and advancement opportunity.

Green Job Training. We must retrain our workforce for the next generation of green jobs that will be created by the Federal stimulus as well as State and City initiatives, such as environmental engineers; weatherization and insulation professionals; alternative energy development, manufacturing, installation and maintenance; green roof design, landscaping, and maintenance; and environmental clean up. Then, businesses will have access to a highly trained workforce ready for green industry and our City will gain tax revenues from new businesses that are attracted to our highly trained job force.

New York City’s many workforce programs must be consolidated and refocused on long-term career development and job training (which will be discussed in greater length in our Economic Development Policy Paper). We should expand our current investment to retrain our middle class to give them all the same tools to succeed in our new green economy, which includes advocating for allocating a portion of New York City’s $70 million from the Stimulus bill to "Green Job Training."

Green Job Incubators. Our City is the professional and creative talent capital of the world, hosting a unique mix of art, fashion, finance, law, technology, and other technical expertise that any new business needs to thrive. Unfortunately, there are often high barriers to entry due to steep formation requirements, layers of regressive taxes, and high costs for space and health. New York City must become a Mecca for green start-ups through a commitment to "Green Job Incubators" which would provide a unique mix of tax incentives, business support services, and office space to help grow "Green Jobs" right here in our City.

For examples, New York City can begin to encourage the formation of new green businesses through a tax incentive program for the first few years that they are operating. Firms currently choosing where to start are often deterred from setting up shop in New York City because of our corporate taxes on net income in addition to other applicable City, State and Federal taxes. Providing a partial exemption or quarterly deduction from our City’s corporate taxes for qualified new green businesses will allow our City to provide a nurturing environment for such firms to grow into strong sources of tax revenue and new green jobs.

Entrepreneurs with great ideas for a green future often find it difficult to start a small business without the right support services. These vital support services include business plan development, accounting, marketing, financial planning, workshops, seminars, training, legal, advice on doing business with the government and, most importantly, funding opportunities such as loans and grants. Many of these entrepreneurs must meet specific qualifications in order to gain access to small business services such as these which are offered by Federal, State, City and non-profit organizations. New York City must provide centralize these resources under one office so that more green businesses can flourish into a central part of our City’s emerging green economy.

A hurdle for growing start-ups into established businesses is securing financial investors. Mayor Bloomberg’s new "NYC Angel Fund" and "VC Connect" programs will offer start-ups an opportunity to recruit investors for funding. The City should also provide these start-ups with preferences in our City’s bid process. Giving our green start-ups a preference in securing City contracts will help us to grow more local jobs, make sure our valuable budget dollars get spent locally further stimulating our economy and set us on the road to making New York City THE green city.

GREEN ENERGY

New Yorkers are using technology developed more than 100 years ago to power their homes and businesses. It is no wonder that the City suffers from blackouts, brownouts and the highest electric prices in the nation. New York’s grid also prevents cheaper and cleaner green electricity from being available to our residents. Our City will need an additional 500 megawatts of electricity by 2012, but with only one new power plant scheduled to go online in New York State by then, providing less than one-eighth of the power we need, prices may skyrocket. We can overcome these challenges by improving our energy infrastructure through a "Smart Grid" and encouraging "Alternative Energy."

Smart Grid and Smart Meters. The "Greener City" plan would require Consolidated Edison, Inc. ("ConEd") to modernize our power grid to include smart meters and to be smart grid ready. Both ConEd and early adopters would realize long term savings through the increased availability of alternative energy and the ability to scale back use during peak hours, which would result in a lower burdens on ConEd’s energy plants.

With most power meters, the electric company comes to read the meter once a month, and then bills the consumer for that usage. A smart meter changes all that by allowing consumers themselves to monitor electricity usage and prices in real time, and adjust their usage accordingly. Smart meters will save New Yorkers money -- repaying the cost of installation after only a few years, strengthening our grid’s reliability by preventing blackouts, and saving the City money by lowering power usage during peak hours, thereby pushing back the need to build new power plants.

New York City residents will be among the ultimate beneficiaries of a proposed national smart grid, which promises to make electricity widely available and less expensive. A smart grid provides for a more efficient, cost-saving method of moving electricity along major long-distances to the disparate end-users, using computers and sensors to better manage the flow of electricity. While New Yorkers may currently use energy generated on Long Island, a smart grid would allow our energy to come from much farther away, mitigating price hikes. A valuable side effect, especially for New York City, would be that instead of relying on customers to report power outages, outages would be discovered automatically by a smart grid.

Our City’s outdated power grid causes local power outages, thwarts our ability to receive alternative energy from Upstate New York, and will keep us from joining the proposed national power grid. The Queens 2006 blackout was related to failed equipment that had been in service for an average of 16 years, with one cable in service for 59 years. Since 2006, New York City has continued to experience intermittent power outages in various neighborhoods.

To reduce power outages and lower the cost of energy in the long run, our City must invest in a smart grid with smart meters in every home. These smart initiatives could be implemented at low cost by requiring that new construction and renovation replace old equipment with smart equipment. Funding could also come from the Federal stimulus which has dedicated billions to creating our nationwide smart grid. Millions in cost saving would also be generated from not having to pay damages to consumers who lose power.

Alternative Energy. New York State currently gets the bulk of its electricity from natural gas, coal, oil, and nuclear, with only 18% coming from hydroelectric and 2% from renewable sources. With our City’s coming need for an additional 500 megawatts of electricity by 2012, and plans to provide only one-eighth of this new power, we must expand "Alternative Energy" production throughout New York City to avoid this shortfall.

Our City’s rules make it difficult to install clean energy, such as windmills and solar panels. Home and business owners wishing to save on energy costs have to jump through hoops to get this done – four separate application processes, three separate inspections and the drawings of a licensed architect. Even the installation of unobtrusive small-scale windmills on rooftops requires the same application process as installing a new roof. Our City needs a streamlined application process for clean energy projects.

New York State’s tax incentives for installing solar and wind power lag behind other states and municipalities. One obstacle to the development of this industry is the high upfront costs. While solar and wind energy pays the owner back with energy savings after only a few years, they can cost upwards of $15,000 to install. In some California municipalities, local government pays the upfront costs of the installation of solar panels, and taxes the owner’s use for 20 years. This desirable program lets home and business owners to see lower energy bills right away, and local government to recoup their investment.

Green Fleet. In 1999 as Public Advocate, I proposed the use of natural gas buses in order to reduce high asthma rates in low-income neighborhoods that result from the diesel fuel that is still used for our fleet of vehicles. While the New York City Transit has implemented this proposal with 400 of its buses, New York City must expand this initial proposal to include the purchase of hybrid, electric, flexible fuel, natural gas, and ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) vehicles as we naturally replace our aging fleet. Not only would we see a reduction in asthma rates, but also the added costs from purchasing new alternative fuel vehicles and advanced vehicles would quickly become a cost savings with reduced fuel consumption on the heavy duty cycle that our City’s fleet faces.

GREEN BUILDINGS

Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn’s green buildings plan represents an important step by requiring certain buildings with 50,000 square feet or more to upgrade lighting, have an annual benchmark analysis of energy consumption, and to have energy audits every ten years with implementation of cost saving improvements within five years.

Buildings account for 71% of the nation’s electricity use and 38% of its greenhouse emissions. In New York, the numbers are even higher, with buildings accounting for 79% of greenhouse gas emissions. If we are serious about curbing our impact on the climate, we must start with converting our "sky scrappers" into "sky scrubbers" and building new green buildings.

Green Roofs. A green roof is partially or completely covered with vegetation and soil planted over waterproofing that forces rain water past the vegetation’s roots to minimize the amount of storm water runoff. One-third of New York’s landmass is covered by roofs. Logically, this is an area of opportunity to clean our environment. Green roofs hold rainwater which would help prevent subway delays associated with flooding and help stem the 27 billion gallons of untreated wastewater that overflows into nearby waters when our sewer system becomes overburdened. Green roofs also cool the air, as water in the plants evaporate when sunlight hits, rather than creating an urban heat island effect from higher temperatures in urban areas. If one half of New York City’s flat roofs were green, City temperatures would fall by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, saving $70 million in energy costs and strengthening our energy infrastructure. Green roofs also create open spaces where people can congregate and grow food, cuts down on CO2, and generally last about twice as long as normal roofs.

A New York City Green Roof Tax Credit now provides a one-year property tax credit of up to $100,000. The credit is equal to about $4.50 per square-foot of roof area that is planted with vegetation, or approximately 25 percent of the typical costs associated with the materials, labor, installation, and design of the green roof.

The next Public Advocate should work with community groups, developers and green roof businesses to maximize new green roof development. Funding for a City supplement could come from the $250 million dollars currently needed to upgrade our wastewater system, which some experts believe over time might no longer be needed with sufficient "Green Roofs"used to treat rainwater.

Green Government. Our municipal government -- the City’s largest employer at over 300,000 workers -- must become the leader in implementing green strategies to cut costs and develop a model for our private sector.

The adoption of "Green Lighting" and a "Green Energy Saving Campaign" can help reduce our City government’s annual $800 million energy bill, which accounts for 6.5 percent of City’s energy use. "Green Lighting" means gradually replacing lighting with low-energy and long-life fluorescent, compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), and light emitting diodes (LED). "Green Lighting" uses a fraction of the energy and offers 8 to 50 times the lifespan of old lighting, with LED’s lasting over 50,000 hours.

The easiest place to cut energy use is to avoid using energy where it is not needed. As Public Advocate I proposed installing motion sensor light switches in common public areas to ensure that when our employees go out, so do our lights. Similarly, our City should follow the Federal Energy Management Program’s recommendation to implement set-back timers in our City’s heating and cooling systems so that our offices are only heated and cooled during business hours.

Going "paperless" by making more materials publicly available over the Internet and upon request will cut paper, printing and ink costs for the City. Eliminating our practice of printing large quantities of City publications will reduce waste stemming from disposal of outdated materials. In line with our commitment to going "paperless," the City should enact Introduction Number 702 of 2008 (Lappin) to create electronic pay stubs for City employees, reducing our City’s paper and ink use and saving $2 million each year. A paperless campaign, however, can’t stop at pay stubs, and we must work to expand it to all areas where we find our City government wasting paper.

Lastly, the roofs of all City buildings should have solar panels or a green roof. Solar panels would be best suited for City offices, while placement of green roofs on public school buildings would be a great educational opportunity to help inspire tomorrow’s green culture. Each public housing complex would be offered a choice regarding how to use their roof top space.

Green Homes. Federal Stimulus dollars are currently available to provide many incentives for "Green Homes," such as weatherization, insulation, windows, home heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC). We must also expand and reinvest in the New York State Green Building Tax Credit which will expire in 2009. This program provides tax credits to new and rehabilitated buildings where all tenant or non-dwelling spaces are green, with additional credits for use of alternative fuel, solar cells, and green environmental systems for those green spaces.

We also need a program to educate New Yorkers about available tax incentives, especially green initiatives set to expire soon. It is worth noting that many of these incentives are aimed at owners of property. The next Public Advocate would also work with property owners, tenants, City and State to develop legislation that protected tenants from rent increases relating to green improvements for which owners are receiving tax benefits.

GREEN CITY PLANNING

Congestion Pricing.Last year Mayor Bloomberg undertook the ambitious and necessary goal of implementing congestion pricing within a year of its proposal. Although his plan was ultimately rejected by the New York State Assembly, we cannot abandon efforts to reduce car use and improve public transportation. Our transportation system is the circulatory system of our City's economy, and future steep service cuts and rate hikes will have devastating consequences. We must take Mayor Bloomberg's proposal for congestion pricing and use it as a starting ground for further public discussion and action. First steps include full public auditing to restore confidence in the MTA and legislative protection for the MTA's funding stream so that it flows into a lockbox, safe from reallocation to unrelated government expenses. Then we can phase in additional items to generate revenue, reduce car use, and improve public transportation.

Green Neighborhoods. There are thousands of brownfields throughout New York City, the development of which would spur economic development, clean the environment and improve community morale. The Brownfield Cleanup Program passed in 2003 was supposed to combat inner-city blight by subsidizing the redevelopment of abandoned factories, gas stations, dry cleaners, and other polluted sites. The program ended up being abused by developers to build luxury condos and office space in Manhattan while the Erbogaph building in Harlem that was slated to provide senior housing will continue to remain vacant after more than half a century. The next Public Advocate world work with City, State and community stakeholders to develop better targeted incentives and streamline the process to make sure we turn brownfields into greenfields in struggling neighborhoods all across our City.

Green Spaces. Mayor Bloomberg deserves praise for his effort and vision behind PlaNYC, announced on Earth Day in 2007. That initiative has so far included 174,189 trees planted through MillionTreesNYC, 91 schoolyards opened as playgrounds, 141 miles of bike lanes with 2,011 new bike racks and reduced emissions from various fleets of vehicles.

New York City trees clean our air, removing over 2,000 tons of air pollution and 1.3 million tons of carbon annually. A single tree holds 1,432 gallons of storm water each year, strengthening our wastewater system, helping to stop flooding and raw sewage from being dumped into nearby waters. City trees provide shade, reduce wind speeds and cool the air, generating almost $30 million annually in energy savings.

Our City needs more trees, but not at the sake of cutting others down. A large, fully grown tree removes almost 70 times more air pollution than a newly planted tree. PlaNYC’s goal of a million trees in New York must account for trees that are cut down. Tree protection should be part of the approval process for any construction project. We should make it easier for individuals and community groups to plant new trees by streamlining the permit process and providing assistance when needed. We must also seek to lower pollution and corresponding asthma rates in low-income areas by planting trees and building parks there to green our urban environment.

Clean Water. New York City boasts having the cleanest water in the world. However, our State is currently considering drilling for natural gas near the Catskill/Delaware watershed that supplies New York with up to 90% of its drinking water. Hydraulic fracking will use large volumes chemically laced water to extract natural gas from marcellus shale rock formations in the immediate area. This process may leak into soil and contaminate New York City area’s clean water supply. which could force the City to spend billions of dollars in construction of filtration plants. The next Public Advocate must join City Councilmember James Gennaro in calling for a ban on drilling in the watershed area to protect our environment and the source of the world’s cleanest drinking water.

Recycling. Our current residential recycling goal is 25 percent, although we have only reached 16.5% as of 2007. In order to reach or exceed our current goal, we must expand the materials that we recycle, expand availability of recycling receptacles, expand deposits on bottles, establish electronic waste and plastic bag recycling programs, investigate clean waste-to-energy projects and further explore sustainable waste export and transportation.

Our next Public Advocate should also advocate for the wide spread proliferation of recycling throughout our City. That should include support for Introductions 673 (Lappin) and 752 (de Blasio) of 2008, which would have placed recycling bins in City schools and parks. Recycling must be a part of our children’s youth so that they grow up recycling out of habit. While these Introductions in the City Council represent a good first step, recycling should be wide spread with recycling receptacles also available in subways and train stations, and eventually any place our City maintains a trash receptacle. Through recycling our City can reduce waste, save money, and create jobs.

CONCLUSION

History is a series of seismic events and innovations, such as 9/11, the invention of electricity, refrigeration, containerization, and parallel data processing.

America and our City are on the cusp of the next great cultural and economic shift to a greener economy, producing more jobs and a healthier environment. Every so often a City brings together a cluster of talent at the right time to become a national leader, like technology in Silicon Valley, steel in Pittsburg, or cars in Detroit. New York City has tried to cultivate similar clusters in the recent past with biotechnology and "Silicon Alley," but fell short. "A Plan for a Greener City" will help guide New York City towards an economy flourishing from green jobs, energy provided from renewable sources, and a more sustainable City. When we look back in ten years and think of "Green Jobs," the world should think New York City.

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