BEACON – The Beacon City Council Monday night passed environmentally friendly legislation, which will require all electric construction beginning in 2024.
“We think it’s the right thing to do,” said City Councilman George Mansfield. “We will be leading by example and hopefully others will follow suit.”
Mansfield and others gathered at a park across from city hall prior to the city council meeting to praise residents for supporting this legislation.
“There will be no more gas hookups, no more oil heat,” said Mansfield. “It will be all-electric, and then ultimately we hope all-electric will be generated in sustainable ways.”
Beacon becomes the third city in the state, after New York City and Ithaca, to pass bans on new building construction using fossil fuels as part of the design. Buildings are considered the largest polluters in the state, releasing 32 percent of the state’s greenhouse emissions.
The State Assembly and Senate recently endorsed statewide bans on fossil fuels in new construction in their budget proposals.
And Dan Aymar-Blair, a Beacon city councilmember, thinks Beacon should do its part, too. “Beacon has to do its part in cutting emissions,” he said.
