Local Law 97, passed in 2019, requires buildings to lower emissions beginning in 2024. Property owners who fail to comply will face penalties calculated based upon how much their buildings’ emissions exceed the city’s benchmarks—what a new lawsuit decries as “draconian.”

The lawsuit, first reported by Crain’s New York, was filed Thursday in New York Supreme Court on behalf of Glen Oaks Village Owners, 9-11 Maiden LLC, Bay Terrace Cooperative Section I. The complaint names New York City and the Department of Buildings as defendants.

The complaint, forwarded to City Limits by the law office representing the defendants, alleges that the city’s key emissions law is “ill conceived and unconstitutional” at the expense of  building owners, landlords and shareholders. It calls the penalties written into the law “draconian.”

Local Law 97, passed in 2019, requires buildings over 25,000 square feet to lower emissions beginning in 2024, reaching a reduction of 40 percent in 2030 and 80 percent in 2050. Owners who fail to comply will face penalties based on how much their buildings’ emissions exceed the city’s benchmarks.

READ MORE: Progress and Delays in Putting Milestone Emissions Law into Action

The complaint claims that the law is preempted by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, the state’s aggressive climate legislation also passed in 2019. “The CLCPA sets ambitious targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions statewide and lays out a clear and all-encompassing plan by which New York State will implement these goals over the next several decades. It therefore preempts the field and leaves no room for localities to legislate in this area,” the complaint reads.

It also criticizes the calculation of penalties and the short timeframe for building owners to become compliant. Furthermore, it claims that it disproportionately targets buildings in densely populated areas and with longer hours of operation as well as buildings that by their nature use more power, including grocery stores, laundromats and restaurants.

Since taking office in January, City Comptroller Brad Lander has been vocal about his support for Local Law 97 and the need for the mayor’s office to fund and support regulation of the legislation. The office would not comment on the pending lawsuit, but Louise Yeung, the comptroller’s chief climate officer, noted the office’s commitment to retrofitting buildings.

“The city has provided various resources to educating owners on how to convert buildings, and we support proactively ramping up these programs to work towards our collective emissions reduction by 2050,” Yeung told City Limits.

Environmental advocates claim the lawsuit and overall resistance from building owners is merely an attempt to skirt regulation.

“There’s a set of regressive landlords that are delaying upgrading their buildings because they hope [and] think that the Adams’ administration is going to let them off the hook,” said Pete Sikora, climate & inequality campaigns director of New York Communities for Change.

Sikora also took issue with the suit’s claim that the local law conflicts with New York State’s CLCPA, noting other city legislation aimed at reducing emissions.

“The entire body of laws that regulate fuel use, including the city gas ban in new construction and bans on certain types of high polluting fuels, all of these help the state achieve the targets it’s set for itself under the CLCPA. But CLCPA does not preempt local decisions to reduce pollution,” he said. “That’s simply absurd.”

Others say it’s more complicated.

Bob Friedrich, president of the first named plaintiff in the suit, Glen Oaks Village, which houses 3,000 residents in 134 buildings, has been vocal in public meetings about his opposition to the law as it is written. On April 13, he testified at a committee hearing on Local Law 97, calling the measure financially burdening.

“The New York City Council has imposed crippling financial costs and penalties on our families,” said Friedrich, in the hearing. “The Climate Mobilization Act requires us to undertake costly retrofitting of our heating and hot water systems regardless of our ability to pay and regardless of need.”

He explained that a study of the Glen Oaks heating plan estimated it would cost $17–$20 million to retrofit the boilers. Even with those improvements, he added, the algorithm would impose a fine of more than $800,000 a year. The boiler replacements would require each family to pay $7,200 on top of a 5percent increase in maintenance fees, he said.

“This is insanity,” he added.

In New York, residential buildings emit more than 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, making them the city’s biggest source of pollution. In a recent report by the American Lung Association, The Bronx, Manhattan and Queens received “failing” grades for their high levels of ozone pollution—which is linked to vehicles and fossil fuels burning in buildings and power plants. Meanwhile, a new dashboard by the comptroller’s office shows the city is still far from the targets of greenhouse gas emission reductions required by the CLCPA by 2050.

Rohit Aggarwala, the city’s chief climate officer and commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), has spoken in favor of being lenient with building owners during the transition to Local Law 97’s full rollout. “We need to understand the challenge of building space and undertaking the work that needs to be done, and we need to do everything we can to help them,” Aggarwala said during a more than four-hour City Council committee meeting about the law in April.

The Department of Buildings offers free personalized guidance for building owners to make energy updates with retrofit and sustainability experts through the NYC Accelerator Program. The program has already served more than 9,000 buildings, according to the agency.

“In NYC, our buildings are the largest emitter of the greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change, and we are committed to fully enforcing Local Law 97,” said Andrew Rudansky, DOB press secretary. The agency will review the lawsuit when it has been served, he added.

This legal measure is not the first time opponents have sought to stop or delay enforcement of a key city environmental law. In 2020, a statewide measure to effectively ban plastic bags was challenged in court by plastic bag manufacturer Poly-Pak Industries, the Bodega and Small Business Association, a Bronx grocery store and two grocery store owners. A State Supreme Court judge later upheld the Bag Waste Reduction Law, allowing for enforcement to begin in mid-October, about seven months later than the Department of Environment Conservation originally anticipated.

READ MORE: Plastic Bags Still Ubiquitous in NYC Shops, Months After Enforcement of Ban Began

Sikora said he’s heartened that the DOB seems committed to forging ahead as planned.

“That’s the kind of message that the administration should be putting out,” he said. “That this is a law; the law is reasonable. It’s necessary. It creates jobs, saves lives and reduces pollution. And the city is providing loads of resources for building owners to help them comply.”

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Asking the right questions can better identify people at risk for suicide, especially those with access to firearms, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network.

About half of those who try to kill themselves or died by suicide answered that they were not thinking about killing themselves when asked if they were thinking of taking their own life.

“But for whatever reason, higher-risk gun owners are just less likely to say that they’re having thoughts about suicide, even though they are definitely thinking about ways or methods to attempt suicide,” said Craig Bryan, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral health at Ohio State University.

Bryan, who has a doctorate in clinical psychology, led the study conducted with colleagues at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

He said the research suggests that “maybe we change how we ask a question, by specifically asking, ‘Have you been thinking about ways or methods to attempt suicide?’ As opposed to, ‘Have you been thinking about killing yourself

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According to Bryan, the findings have implications within the health system and for family members and friends.

“When we’re worried about someone that we care about, a loved one, many of us have learned to ask questions about: ‘Are you wanting to kill yourself? Are you thinking about suicide?’ And it may be helpful for all of us to also add just another question when we’re concerned about someone that says, ‘Have you been thinking about ways to attempt suicide?’” Bryan said.

Firearms account for half of all U.S. suicides. Bryan believes that’s because with just about every other method, there’s a longer period of time before a person would die. “And so there’s more opportunity for someone to change their mind, or for someone else to kind of intervene and help them,” he said.

Bryan said people frequently ask him what they can do to help loved ones they believe are at risk of suicide.

“The implication here really is taking steps to improve safety within the household by locking up, securing personally owned firearms; it’s probably the single most effective thing we can do to reduce suicides in the U.S.,” Bryan said.

He said moments of crisis that can lead to suicide tend to come on suddenly and don’t last long. He uses an analogy to illustrate how even a brief intervention might make a difference.

“When someone is intoxicated, it’s not safe for them to drive. So, we might temporarily take away someone’s car keys or restrict their access to driving. And it might be the same here, for suicide where if a gun-owner is going through a tough period, they’re experiencing intense stress, we might temporarily change access to firearms by locking up the guns, by using safes or other locking devices, maybe even just temporarily removing the firearm from the home,” Bryan said. “Once they get through that high-risk period, we can return the firearm. But it helps to reduce the probability of a bad outcome during that really, sort of, narrow period of time.”

WTOP has reached out to the National Rifle Association for comment regarding the study.

If you or someone you know is experiencing emotional distress, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255; you can reach the Crisis Text Line by texting the word TALK to 741741.

Starting July 16, everyone in U.S. will be able to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988.

Source

British Airways owner International Airlines Group (IAG) today said it believes the easing of global restrictions and the return of global travel will see it bounce back to profitability.

The firm – formed through the merger of Iberia and British Airways in 2011 – said its Q1 2022 passenger numbers were 65 per cent those seen in 2019, up from rates of 58 per cent in the previous quarter.

The Anglo-Spanish airline said it expects rising passenger numbers to drive profitability in the remainder of 2022, as it posted a €731m loss for the first quarter, compared to a €1.08bn loss over the same period last year.

The company said it currently expects passenger numbers to increase sharply in coming months, as it forecast rates would be 80 per cent of 2019 levels in Q2, 85 per cent in Q3, and 90 per cent in Q4.

The firm said higher passenger numbers were in part being driven by the highest levels of business travel since the start of the pandemic alongside strong demand for premium leisure.

The aviation giant blamed omicron on a higher number of cancellations in January and February but said it had not seen any impact on passenger number from the war in Ukraine.

AIG chief executive Luis Gallego said: “Demand is recovering strongly in line with our previous expectations. We expect to be profitable from the second quarter onwards and for the full year.”

“The welcome removal of UK’s stringent travel restrictions, combined with strong pent-up demand, have contributed to a steep ramp up in capacity.”