The New York City Department of Environmental Protection is reportedly drafting a rule that would require restaurants with brick and wood-fired ovens installed before 2016 to reduce their carbon emissions by up to 75%.
The new rules being drafted would require these restaurants to assess the practicality of installing an emission control device to reduce emissions by 75%.
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The report says if the 75% reduction is not feasible or a control device is unable to be installed, the restaurant must reduce emissions by at least 25% or provide an explanation for why controls cannot be installed. A city official said under 100 restaurants in New York City would be affected by the proposed rule, as initially reported by the New York Post.
The new rule would apply to restaurants that had a brick or wood-fired oven installed before 2016, as a law passed in 2015 and enacted a year later already subjected newly installed ovens to meet the emissions standards. An advisory board, which included restaurants with these types of ovens, helped propose new rules for those not affected by the 2015 law.
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood- and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Ted Timbers told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
“This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible,” Timbers added.
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The proposed rules were to have been rolled out in 2020 but were delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The proposed emissions rules are in the public comment period and have not been enacted, per an official with the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.
New York City has credited better overall air quality in the city in recent decades to lower emissions from both local and regional sources. The new proposed rule would be an expansion of stricter emission standards.
