Last week, building electrification secured an important victory in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. In Association of Contracting Plumbers of The City of New York, Inc. et al v. City of New York, plumbing and building trade groups challenged New York City’s Local […]
Buildings
13 posts
On his first day in office President Trump axed the Biden-era federal Buy Clean program. Buy Clean was designed to leverage the federal government’s buying power to help grow the low carbon building materials industry. Killing it will have consequences—buildings are responsible for a major share of global carbon dioxide […]
Last Friday, December 20, 2024, the Sabin Center submitted an amicus brief to the New York State Court of Appeals – the state’s highest court – in support of the City of New York in Glen Oaks Village Owners, Inc., et al. v. City of New York. At issue in […]
Over the last five years, at least 25 states have expressly preempted local governments from enacting requirements, or even incentives, to construct new buildings that do not rely on natural gas as a fuel source. On December 6, 2024, two local governments finally fought back in court. Seattle and King […]
A New Way Forward for the Middle Class: A Plan to Lower Costs and Create an Opportunity Economy (the “Opportunity Economy” plan) yields just ten hits on the word “climate,” eight of which are in citations to other sources. Still, the Harris-Walz vision for an “Opportunity Economy” maps neatly onto […]
On June 20th, 2024, the Sabin Center filed an amicus brief in support of the City of New York’s Motion for Leave to Appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals in Glen Oaks Village Owners, Inc., et al. v. City of New York. Glen Oaks – a 2022 […]
Building codes have a major influence on how local governments respond to climate change. They prescribe enforceable requirements for the materials that buildings are made of, for how living and working spaces are designed, and critically, for what kinds of environmental possibilities new buildings must be prepared to accommodate. For […]
Last week, the New York State Supreme Court for New York County dismissed Glen Oaks Village Owners v. City of New York, a 2022 lawsuit brought by a group of cooperative apartment and other building owners seeking to invalidate Local Law 97 of 2019, New York City’s building performance standard […]