In today's paper, Chris Meyer reported that our cozy Upper West Side is actually one of the dirtiest neighborhoods in all of New York City's five boroughs. But luckily there is a city program to help building owners switch to greener heating oils, which could prevent all the excess pollution caused by the environmentally damaging No. 6 fuel oil.
By the end of 2015, New York City Buildings will be expected to have shifted over to a cleaner alternative fuel oil such as No. 2 heating oils and biofuels. This of course will be a costly conversion for the building owners, so NYC Clean Heat is stepping in to provide financial support to ensure the conversion will be made.
Representatives from the program said they would help owners avoid fees for failing to meet the 2015 deadline:
"We’re not trying to offer you a program that is just an incentive, but rather, we’re trying to get in front of anyone getting any kind of penalty,” said Annemarie Eimicke, a community development analyst in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office of Operations and a former office manager at Columbia’s Earth Institute. “But I don’t think you’ll find anyone who says, ‘I want dirty air.’”
That's something all UWSers should be saying right now, considering that "144 of the city’s top 1,000 polluting buildings are on the Upper West Side," according to Ken Camilleri, the operations manager of NYC Clean Heat.
