The state’s highest court on Thursday threw out a group of building owners’ legal challenge to New York City’s carbon emission law.
The Court of Appeals found that the state’s climate law does not preempt the city’s Local Law 97, which requires greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by 40 percent by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050. The decision is a blow to building owners as they stare down fines for failing to meet carbon emission caps, with enforcement starting this year. Most buildings larger than 25,000 square feet must meet greenhouse gas emissions standards that went into effect in 2024 and will become stricter over time.
Shareholders of Glen Oaks Village, a co-op in Queens with 2,904 units across 134 buildings, along with the owner of a rental building at 9-11 Maiden Lane and shareholders of Bay Terrace co-ops in Queens, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Buildings in 2022.
The lawsuit sought to annul Local Law 97, alleging that the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act preempted the city’s law. The complaint also alleged that Local Law 97 was unconstitutional for imposing “excessive penalties” on building owners, even when they have acted as model environmentally conscious citizens.”
A lower court dismissed the lawsuit in March 2023, but an appellate court revived claims that the state law could stand in the way of the city’s measure.
The Court of Appeals held that the state law, which called for a 40 percent reduction in pollution (compared to 1990 levels) by 2030 and a 100 percent reduction by 2050, “does not preempt the field of regulating greenhouse gas emissions.”
“The Act does not expressly prohibit local regulation of emissions,” Associate Judge Anthony Cannataro wrote in the decision. “To the contrary, the Act’s legislative findings evince a sense of urgency concerning the implementation of mitigation measures in general and further express the legislature’s intent to ‘encourage other jurisdictions to implement complementary greenhouse gas reduction strategies.’”
Representatives for building owners who brought the lawsuit could not immediately be reached for comment.
“This court ruling upholding the city’s world-leading climate law is a victory for public health and the environment,” a city Law Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Thursday’s decision is the latest example of building owners trying and failing to secure relief from Local Law 97, which was approved in May 2019. A bill that would allow condo and co-ops to count green spaces like gardens as part of buildings’ square footage, which would in turn raise their emission limits, has seemingly stalled in the City Council.
Owners were required to start submitting reports detailing their buildings’ emissions by May 1, though they have until June 30 to do so without facing fines. The administration recently bulked up its enforcement staff in anticipation of this deadline.
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