A total of 250 acres of New York City landfill space is planned to play host to multiple solar installations, for a total of 50 megawatts of energy production.

The city has more than 3,000 acres of landfill space, which could potentially hold enough solar capacity to power 50,000 homes, according to Reuters. The array would even be able to provide that level of supply in the summer heat.

A New York solar installation at the landfill is an addition to PlaNYC, a program started in 2007 to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030, the news source reported. It was signed into law and subsequently updated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

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By SAMANTHA GROSS

NEW YORK -- The city will phase out the use of polluting heavy oils to heat buildings and will begin building solar power plants on capped landfills, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday in his first update to a 4-year-old environmental plan that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2030.

Under the plan, the phase-out of heavy oils from the city's boilers would start right away and be completed by the 2030 deadline. It would reduce the presence of airborne fine particulate matter, which the city says is killing 3,000 residents each year and forcing 6,000 to seek emergency asthma treatment.

The use of the heaviest heating oil, known as No. 6, would end by 2015. A lighter heating oil known as No. 4 would be eliminated by 2030. They would be replaced in part by natural gas and low-sulfur oil, the city said.

The change is aimed at the 1 percent of city buildings that produce 86 percent of the city's building soot pollution. The mayor's office said that the city would seek to encourage property owners to make the change right away, by working with energy companies to increase the distribution of natural gas and by making it easier for landlords to get permits for the work.

The city also plans to use $40 million in federal stimulus funds to start a loan program to help property owners pay for energy-efficiency upgrades. The New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation would partner with the commercial lending industry and philanthropic organizations.

The shift is part of PlaNYC, which the mayor launched four years ago, on Earth Day 2007. Since then, the administration said, the city has added more than 200 acres of park land and increased transportation options. Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 13 percent from 2005 levels, the city said.

Bloomberg said the city will explore public-private partnerships for renewable energy projects such as building solar power plants on top of larger areas of the city's capped landfills.

On Thursday, Bloomberg also released some details of a previously announced program that will invite city residents to suggest ways to green the city while also connecting them to environmental projects and organizations.

The "Change by Us" program will ask residents how the city could improve energy efficiency, air quality and community composting efforts.

During a speech in Harlem, Mr. Bloomberg offered an overview of the 132 initiatives that are part of the updated PlaNYC.

""We've come an incredibly long way towards our goal," the mayor said. "But now, we're going to pick up the pace."

The new initiatives include:

*Adopting new regulations that phase out the use of heavy heating oils and accelerating conversion to cleaner fuels;

*Launching a new social media tool that encourages New Yorkers to help make the city "greener;"

*Establishing five more farmers' markets at community gardens and increasing the number of school gardens to 150;

*Replacing old toilets in city government buildings.

New York City’s long-term plan for a sustainable future – which was released yesterday, continues to demonstrate Mayor Bloomberg’s leadership on clean energy and climate change.  There is an important role for cities to play on this issue, and New York City serves as a strong model of innovation and bold, decisive action.

. Facilitating Energy Efficiency Upgrades

Energy efficiency is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to meet our energy needs and address climate change.  The new NYCEEC will play a critical role in helping to catalyze the development of a full-scale energy efficiency industry in New York City through the creation of an information center and the facilitation of energy efficiency financing.  This entity will make it much easier for people to navigate all of the efficiency programs that exist and will help to address one of the main obstacles to increasing efficiency - the lack of access to up-front capital.  NRDC worked closely with the Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability to launch this effort and we look forward to remaining involved to help develop its business strategy.

· Fostering the Market for Solar Power. 

The initiatives announced to increase solar power in New York City, including exploring the development of solar projects at municipal landfills and the creation of an online solar map to determine rooftop solar potential, will help harness the tremendous potential and many benefits of this untapped resource.  By promoting the development of a robust solar industry in New York, we can create jobs, increase the reliability of our electric grid, reduce transmission and distribution costs, and clean our air.  Solar power is at its peak when we need it the most – during those hot summer days.  The City’s efforts, along with the passage of strongState legislation, can help New York lead the way with respect to this clean, renewable resource.

· Adopting and Promoting Energy-Aligned Leases.

Commercial landlords often defer opportunities to invest in energy efficiency opportunities that appear to generate reasonable financial returns, because leases fail to align the initial cost of energy efficiency improvements with the benefit of energy savings.  This “split incentive” for operating efficiency is a result of standard leasing practices for commercial buildings, under which tenants are typically the primary beneficiaries of decreased operating expenses resulting from energy efficiency improvements implemented by landlords.  The City will help to address this barrier by developing and promoting the adoption of voluntary model lease language that ensures both landlord and tenant benefit from energy efficiency savings.  It will also lead by example by adopting this language in new leases where the City is a tenant.  The City is already off to a good start with the signing of the first commercial energy-aligned lease in New York City two weeks ago.

Building Green credentials:

Solar Plants Could Grow Atop Old City Landfills Under Mayor's New Plan

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Bloomberg's Green Jobs Vision 

From the Village Voice: 

Imagine one day looking up like a tourist at countless vertical wind turbines along rooftops on Fifth Avenue spinning energy to help power the heat.

Cue AeroCity Windpower, a company looking to create and install self-starting vertical-axis wind turbines for city buildings. It was funded with a $1 million grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to develop turbines—looking less like a traditional windmill than the love child of a parking meter and an egg beater—that could be installed atop city buildings to harness the winter wind. AeroCity CEO Russell Tencer also hopes it could "provide a foundation for green jobs in New York City" that could keep the tax base warm.

Investment in green sectors is supposed to be the great jobs generator of the new now. The U.S. Conference of Mayors projected last year that more than 4.2 million green jobs nationwide could be created in the next 30 years through renewable energy development, retrofitting buildings, the creation of clean fuel for cars, and research and consulting. And where there's talk of jobs and being green, one is likely to find Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

"Stand up. Do the right thing..The American Public is smart enough to understand that." 

Michael Bloomberg on Candidates' Green Policies Georgetown University - Georgetown University Georgetown University welcomed industry leaders, scholars, and policymakers for panel discussions examining environmental challenges facing the world.New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg opened the Newsweek Environment Leadership Conference with a keynote address in Gaston Hall - Georgetown University

See Bloomberg video here

Hon. Michael Bloomberg, City of New York 

Leith Anderson, President, National Assn. of Evangelicals 

William J. Bratton, Former Police Chief, City of Los Angeles and City of New York

Hon. Julian Castro, Mayor, City of San Antonio

Michael Chertoff, Former Secretary Homeland Security

Gov. John Engler, President and CEO, Business Roundtable 

Hon. Eric Garcetti, City Council, President City of Los Angeles

Carlos Gutierrez, Former Secretary of Commerce

Raymond Kelly, Commissioner, New York City Police Department

Mel Martinez, Former United States Senator/Chairman, Florida, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean JP Morgan Chase

Greg Page, Chairman and CEO, Cargill

Federico Pena, Former Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy

John Podesta, CEO, Center for American Progress

Charles Ramsey, Chief of Police, City of Philadelphia/President, Major City Chiefs

Al Sharpton, President, National Action Network 

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former California Governor

Richard Trumka, AFL-CIO

John C. Wester, Bishop, Archdiocese of Salt Lake City 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is chair the C40 Climate Leadership Group. Launched in 2005, C40 is an association of major cities around the world committed to reducing carbon emissions and slowing climate change.

Bloomberg Cleanup Begins On Contaminated Williamsburg Site 

Will Clear the Way for $15M Housing Development

WILLIAMSBURG — Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and Council Speaker Christine Quinn Monday symbolically broke ground on the cleanup and redevelopment of a vacant lot in Williamsburg.

The cleanup and redevelopment are part of the PlaNYC New York City Brownfield Cleanup Program, the first municipally run brownfield cleanup program in the nation.

Brownfields are vacant or underutilized properties whose redevelopment or reuse is complicated by environmental contamination. Another well-known Brooklyn brownfield, for example, is the Public Place site near the Gowanus Canal, the former site of a gas-manufacturing plant.

The Williamsburg cleanup will enable construction of a $15 million housing development that is estimated to generate 100 new jobs, plus more than 100 construction-related jobs.

“We have solved the problem of developers being reluctant to clean and redevelop land because the liability for cleanup was too unpredictable and potentially costly,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “The city-run Brownfield Clean-up Program, the first of its kind in the nation, breaks the cycle of disinvestment and abandonment.”

Green Party Legend has it that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took a liking to the green-tinted lanes after seeing a successful bike network in action on a trip to Paris, which has embraced the two-wheeled lifestyle.

A few years and hundreds of miles of bike lanes later, New York is starting to catch up to its Gallic counterpart. Not every New Yorker is happy about it, but the French certainly seem pleased.

At a luncheon this week at the French consulate on Fifth Avenue, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, France’s minister for ecology, sustainable development, transport and housing, was asked to ponder the question: Can a Parisian-style bicycle network work in New York City? Her first response was to laugh. “I spent so much time stuck in traffic jams yesterday,” she said. “I am sure you would gain much in health, and also in economics, with less traffic jams and more softer ways of transportation.”

Ms. Kosciusko-Morizet, in town for a round of meetings at the United Nations, is an innovative environmentalist who has worked to combat climate change by creating healthier, more sustainable urban spaces — not unlike her New York counterpart, the city’s transportation commissioner (and fellow hyphenate)Bloomberg appointee, Janette Sadik-Khan.

Read more here.

Mayor Bloomberg Announces First Ever Lease for Commercial Office Space that Contains Groundbreaking Language That Incenetives Energy Efficiency

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today joined WilmerHale co-managing partner William J. Perlstein and World Trade Center developer Larry A. Silverstein at the signing of WilmerHale's 7 World Trade Center lease, which is the first to incorporate groundbreaking language crafted by industry leaders working with the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability to promote enhanced energy efficiency and sustainability.

NEW YORK – Just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a New York City program aimed to create a fuel-efficient taxi fleet, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and TLC Commissioner/Chair David Yassky stood in front of City Hall today to announce the Green Taxis Act will be re-introduced in both houses of Congress this week. This federal legislation would allow all major cities to raise fuel efficiency standards for taxis. With the City’s green taxi plan now at a legal impasse, an act of Congress is required to give the City and other local governments the ability to upgrade to fuel-efficient taxi fleets. More than a dozen cities across the country joined in support of the City's appeal to the Supreme Court to reverse the lower court’s decision.

http://www.empirestatenews.net/News/20110329-3.html

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg participated in the signing of the first commercial office space lease that incorporates language to incentivize energy efficient improvements. The lease, signed by World Trade Center developer Silverstein Properties and tenant law firm WilmerHale, is a product of collaboration between the Natural Resources Defense Council Green Lease Forum, the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning Sustainability, and real estate, energy efficiency, and law experts.

 

http://www.csemag.com/industry-news/more-top-stories/single-article/commercial-lease-language-provides-energy-efficiency-incentives/5756443b78.html 

By MICHAEL HOWARD SAUL

Former President Bill Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Wednesday they will join forces to combat climate change, combining the two environmental organizations they lead.

Mr. Clinton also beguiled reporters with a colorful account of his first visit to Times Square.

The Clinton Climate Initiative has been working with the world's largest cities to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions that have been linked by many scientists to global warming. The group has been helping cities make energy-savings improvements to buildings, transit systems, lighting and waste management.

The mayor is the current chairman of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, a forum for major cities around the globe that are committed to reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.

By merging both groups' efforts, Mr. Clinton said, the alliance hopes to "hammer home" how it's possible to "change the way you consume and produce energy in cities in a way that is good economics."

Mr. Clinton's group teamed up with the city of Los Angeles in 2009 to make the city's street lights more energy efficient. Officials hope to save $48 million over seven years by swapping out all 140,000 of the city's street lights and replacing them with LED lights.

Mr. Bloomberg said, "President Clinton and I believe this new integrated structure will retain and enhance the strengths of each of its component parts, helping make this the preeminent climate action organization in the world.