New York State building code update would ban fossil fuels in new buildings

New York’s Building Code Council is set to include the All-Electric Buildings Act in its 2025 code update.

The Act would ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new buildings. The 2025 code update will undergo a public comment period before the council votes on the new code provisions.

If the council votes in favor, all-electric cooking and heating will be required for new buildings of less than seven stories by 2026, and 2029 for taller buildings. To meet its 2050 net-zero emissions goal, New York will have to install an estimated 396,000 heat pumps above expected sales.

Funds from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law are available to convert existing buildings to all-electric status. Low-income New Yorkers can qualify for electrification and climate efficiency rebates.

New York City has two very large buildings dedicated to answering the 911 calls of its five boroughs. With more than 11 million emergency calls annually, it makes perfect sense. The second of these buildings, the Public Safety Answering Center II (PSAC II) is located on a nine-acre parcel of land in the Bronx. It’s an imposing 450,000 square-foot structure—a 240-foot-wide by 240-foot-tall cube. The gleaming aluminum cube risesthe equivalent of 24 stories from behind a grassy berm, projecting the unlikely impression that it might actually be floating. Like most visually striking structures, the building has drawn as much scorn as it has admiration.