L.L. 2009/088

Enactment date: 12/28/2009

Int. No. 973-A

By Council Members Recchia, Jr., the Speaker (Council Member Quinn), Comrie, Dickens, Fidler, Garodnick, Gioia, James, Lappin, Mitchell, Nelson, Reyna, Rivera, Stewart, Liu, Yassky, Sears, White Jr., Mendez, de Blasio, Mark-Viverito, Katz, Vallone Jr., Gerson, Koppell, Vann, Avella, Vacca, Jackson, Brewer, Gonzalez, Ferreras, Barron, Arroyo, Crowley, Gennaro and Mealy

A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to upgrading lighting systems and the installation of sub-meters in certain buildings.

Be it enacted by the Council as follows:

Section 1. Declaration of legislative findings and intent. The Council finds that non-residential lighting is responsible for almost 18% of the energy used in New York City's buildings and roughly 18% of carbon emissions from buildings, that tenant electrical use can account for the majority of the electricity consumed in many large non-residential buildings, and that patterns of electrical consumption in tenant spaces are often not known by tenants. Rapid improvements in lighting technology in the past decades have made it feasible to dramatically reduce energy consumption by installing more efficient lighting systems, and any investments made to install such systems will typically be realized through operational savings. Furthermore, most large buildings have one master meter for electricity that measures building-wide usage, as opposed to separate meters that provide such information on a per tenant basis. The Council finds that the consumption of energy for lighting and other electrical equipment can be reduced if code-compliant lighting is installed in non-residential spaces and electrical measuring equipment is installed and data on electrical energy use is made available to commercial tenants.

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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]

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§ 3. Severability. If any section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase or other portion of this local law is for any reason declared unconstitutional or invalid, in whole or in part, by any court of competent jurisdiction, such portion shall be deemed severable, and such unconstitutionality or invalidity shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this local law, which remaining portions shall continue in full force and effect.

§ 4. This local law shall take effect immediately.