The last year of Michael Bloomberg’s 12-year term as mayor of New York City saw a remarkable and little-noticed deluge of new environmental laws. The City Council passed and the mayor signed more than 50 environmental bills. Over half of these laws were passed in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and focused on making infrastructure more resilient, improving emergency preparedness and response, and easing recovery for homeowners and businesses. In addition, laws were enacted concerning clean energy, improving energy and fuel efficiency, reducing emissions from vehicles, and strengthening the city’s recycling laws.
Post-Sandy Legislation
Thirty-one of the environmental laws enacted in 2013 relate to the post-Sandy recovery process. In early 2013, the council and the mayor convened the Building Resiliency Task Force, a group comprised of over 200 industry experts who spent six months developing recommendations on how to better protect the city’s buildings from the threats of future severe weather events. The task force, led by Urban Green, a local chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council, made a series of recommendations that resulted in the enactment of 17 laws that were designed to make buildings and infrastructure more resilient. In addition, the council held a dozen oversight hearings on the city’s emergency preparedness and response to Superstorm Sandy. Based on testimony received at these hearings, recommendations were developed that resulted in the enactment of nine laws that focused on improving emergency preparedness and response, as well as five laws that focused on making recovery easier for homeowners and businesses.
