Your Home... Your Choice...
You probably don't know this, but you can keep the systems you have that use gas. It's already written into Local Law 97. The law gives you more than one way to comply. The City just hasn't set the "number" for low carbon gas, and until it does, buildings that could comply with the boilers they already own are being pushed toward rip-and-replace electrification they can't afford.
Sign the petitionCall your elected officialLocal Law 97 lets my building comply with low carbon gas in the boiler I already own.
Who decided I have to rip it out and buy a heat pump?
The law gives you more than one way.
We support Local Law 97 as written... no changes necessary. We're asking the City to use all of it. Local Law 97 doesn't say what to burn or what to plug in. It sets an emissions limit, measured the same way for everyone: energy used, times a carbon coefficient. The law lists coefficients for electricity, gas, oil and steam, then planned for everything else:
Notice the word shall. Not may. The Council put that job on the Commissioner's desk on purpose, and DOB has already set that "number" for biofuels (it's in DOB's own rule, linked below). It hasn't set one for low carbon gas. Biomethane, renewable natural gas and gas made by converting CO2 travel through the pipe that already feeds your boiler. Lower carbon gas means lower emissions and lower penalties, with no rip-out, no new electrical service and no waiting on the grid. All that's missing is the "number". It was written into the original and existing law.
Your Home. Your Boiler. Your Money. Your Choice.
Sign the petition
One specific ask, in the words of the law, so it can be handed to the Commissioner, the Mayor, a Council committee, or a judge. We're asking for buildings, not just people: a signature from a board member, manager or resident of a building covered by Local Law 97 carries weight.
Administrative Code section 28-320.3.1.1(7) requires that greenhouse gas emissions attributable to other energy sources "shall be determined by the commissioner and promulgated into rules of the department." That duty has not been carried out for low carbon gas, including biomethane, renewable natural gas and synthetic methane made by converting CO2.
We, the undersigned owners, board members, managers and residents of buildings covered by Local Law 97, ask the Commissioner to determine and promulgate a greenhouse gas coefficient for low carbon gas without further delay, so that our buildings may comply with the law using the heating systems and pipelines we already own, and so that the cost of compliance is not shifted onto the New Yorkers who can least afford it.
Co-ops, Mitchell-Lama developments and rent-regulated buildings house the New Yorkers with the least room in their budgets, and they're the most exposed to Local Law 97 penalties. Rip-and-replace electrification means special assessments, maintenance increases and rent hikes. A coefficient costs the City nothing.
Add your name and your building
Ask the people who decide
Three offices decide this: the Department of Buildings (the law names the Commissioner), the Mayor (who appoints the Commissioner), and the City Council's Committee on Housing and Buildings (which oversees DOB). Everyone else exists to make those three feel the weight of the request. Keep the ask identical everywhere, name the statute, and give your building's number.
NYC Department of Buildings, Commissioner Ahmed Tigani
The law puts the coefficient on the Commissioner's desk. Primary target.
Email the LL97 team: BEAM_LL97@buildings.nyc.gov
Email the Commissioner (web form)
Sustainability Help Center 212-566-5584. Customer service 212-393-2550.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani
Appoints and directs the Commissioner. Ran on affordability; this is an affordability issue.
Or call 311 and ask that your request be logged to the Mayor's office and DOB.
City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings
Oversight of DOB. Can ask the Commissioner, on the record, why a mandatory duty has not been carried out. Chair: Pierina Ana Sanchez. Speaker: Julie Menin.
Your City Council Member
Constituent volume is what a member notices. Every resident, every board.
311
Creates a logged, countable record inside the City's own system.
nyc.gov/311 or dial 311. Ask that it be logged as a service request to the Department of Buildings.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams
Takes constituent complaints about agencies and can press DOB publicly.
advocate.nyc.gov, 212-669-7250, gethelp@advocate.nyc.gov
Your Borough President
Housing advocates with a direct line to City Hall and the Council.
Bronx 718-590-3500. Brooklyn 718-802-3700. Manhattan 212-669-8300. Queens 718-286-3000. Staten Island 718-816-2000.
Your State Senator and Assembly Member
Albany funds Mitchell-Lama and HCR. State bill S7133A would set a renewable natural gas standard for utilities.
Your Member of Congress and U.S. Senators
Federal clean fuel and RNG policy shapes what the City can count. Let them know New York's buildings want the option.
Tell a reporter
What reporters lack is a resident with a number. "Our 1,400-unit co-op faces $X in fines unless DOB issues a coefficient the law already requires" is a story.
Habitat Magazine 212-505-2030 · THE CITY tips page · Gothamist tips@gothamist.com · City & State tips@cityandstateny.com
What to say
Be polite, be specific, and keep it to the "number". Don't argue about the caps. We support Local Law 97 as written; we're asking the City to use all of it. Copy, paste, and fill in the brackets.
Phone call (30 seconds)
Hi, my name is [name]. I live at [building] in your district, and my building is covered by Local Law 97. I'm calling to kindly ask the Council Member to request that our friends at the Department of Buildings set the carbon "number" for low carbon gas, as section 28-320.3.1.1(7) of the law directs them to. That one step lets buildings like mine comply with the boiler we already own, without special assessments or rent increases. Would you please pass that along and let me know how I can follow up? Thank you.
311 (creates a logged record)
Hi, I'd like to log a service request to the Department of Buildings. My building at [building] is covered by Local Law 97. Section 28-320.3.1.1(7) of the Administrative Code says the Buildings Commissioner shall determine the carbon coefficient for other energy sources. I'm requesting that DOB set the coefficient for low carbon gas. Please log my request and give me the reference number.
Subject: Local Law 97, section 28-320.3.1.1(7): please ask DOB to set the low carbon gas coefficient Dear Council Member [name], I'm writing as [a resident / the board president] of [building], a [co-op / Mitchell-Lama / rent-regulated] building of [N] units at [address]. We support Local Law 97 as written. Under the law we face an estimated $[X] in annual penalties beginning in [year] unless we cut our reported emissions, and the law itself gives us a way to do that. Section 28-320.3.1.1(7) says emissions from other energy sources "shall be determined by the commissioner and promulgated into rules of the department." Low carbon gas flows through the pipe that already feeds our boiler. With a coefficient, we comply with what we own. Without one, our only path is rip-and-replace electrification that our residents can't afford. I'm respectfully asking you to request that the Department of Buildings determine the coefficient for low carbon gas, as the law directs. This is an affordability issue for the New Yorkers who can least afford a special assessment or a rent increase. I'd be grateful for a written response, and our board is glad to meet with your staff. Respectfully, [name, title, building, contact]
Board or tenant association resolution
RESOLVED, that the Board of Directors of [building], representing [N] households, requests that the New York City Department of Buildings determine and promulgate a greenhouse gas coefficient for low carbon gas as required by Administrative Code section 28-320.3.1.1(7), so that this building may comply with Local Law 97 using its existing heating plant; and that copies of this resolution be sent to the Commissioner of Buildings, the Mayor, the Speaker of the City Council, the Chair of the Council Committee on Housing and Buildings, and this building's Council Member. Adopted [date].
Know your rights
You don't have to electrify. Nothing in Local Law 97 requires it. The law sets an emissions limit and leaves the method to you.
You can buy low carbon gas from anyone who sells it. Ask your energy consultant. Ask an energy broker. Call your gas supplier. Ask Con Edison. Ask National Grid. Search "renewable natural gas New York." When you call, ask two things: can you deliver it through the existing pipeline, and will you put the carbon intensity in writing? That written number is what DOB will need once it assigns the coefficient.
You don't have to buy ours. We hope you choose StandardRNG, but you having a choice matters more.
Read the law yourself
Don't take our word for it. Here's the law, the section that puts the "number" on the Commissioner's desk, and the DOB rule where the Department has already set that number for biofuels.
Take the flyer with you
From the campaign
Notes, dates and news from the team on the ground. Check back; this section changes often.
Latest update
Climate Week NYC is here and we're on the street with the flyer. Sign the petition, then make one call. More soon.
Where to find us
Look for the Got Cow Gas? team around Manhattan this week. Come say hello and grab a flyer.
In the news
Coverage and letters will be posted here as they come in.
Learn about the company at standardcarbon.com and about the fuel at standardcarbon.com/standard-rng.
