Council members James Gennaro and David Weprin at a Queens gas station, calling for the expanded use of domestic biofuel, which they say is cheaper and more eco-friendly than fossil fuels.

Lawmakers, environmentalists and the heating oil industry are pushing Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Unaff.) to enact a policy that would encourage the use of biofuels to reduce the amount of carbon emissions from apartment buildings.

But the green-friendly mayor is stalling until clearer guidelines on biofuels become available. His hesitation is frustrating supporters of the policy, including a number of environmental groups that are encouraging Bloomberg to broaden his prior requirements that all municipal building furnaces use blends of biofuel and heating oil.

Both the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board are in the process of developing biofuel and low-carbon fuel standards. California is expected to be done by year's end. EPA standards are expected to take longer.

Though the timeframes are unclear, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has been advising Bloomberg to wait for them, insisting that New York not tackle the issue before the outside agencies develop biofuel standards which would be acceptable throughout the country. So far, Bloomberg has been obliging, keeping a pair of bills introduced in the Council in stasis, reluctant to pass a policy which might have to be rewritten to fit whatever standards emerge.

That has frustrated many biofuel supporters, including two Council members who have often been allied with the mayor.

“The position that some have taken is that it's absolutely necessary to wait for California before we can do a bill in New York City, and I just don't believe that to be the case,” said Council Member James Gennaro (D-Queens), who, as chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, held hearings in January on his bill.

Gennaro dismissed the idea that amending the policy to account for new guidelines, whenever they arrive, would be a problem.

“We can do the bill in such a way to indicate in the law that there'll be an ongoing review,” he suggested.

His bill, like one by Council Member David Yassky (D-Brooklyn), would require all heating oil used in the city to be “B20 bioheat,” a mixture consisting of 80 percent standard heating oil and 20 percent biodiesel, by the end of 2013.

Gennaro argued that his bill would help decrease the city's greenhouse gas output, almost 80 percent of which comes from homes and apartment buildings.

Despite the mayor's preference to wait, Gennaro said he was confident the bill would get a vote sooner than later.

“I think you'll see some softening in the doctrine that says, ‘Thou shalt wait for California before making a move in New York City,’” he said.

Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), though, is apparently following Bloomberg's lead on biofuels, according to a spokesperson who explained that she is mindful of the outside issues concerning the legislation and is monitoring the situation.

Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor's Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, explained that Bloomberg supports the use of biofuels, but believes having scientifically sound standards is more important than rushing passage of any legislation.

“It's one of these things where there's so many uncertainties, the responsible course is to take a moment to think of the right way to do this well,” Aggarwala said, referring to lingering questions about the environmental and economic impact of biofuels. “And sometimes that takes time.”
Recent studies have suggested that biofuels, which include ethanol from corn as well as fuels derived from vegetable oil and soybeans, can be as harmful to the environment as fossil fuels because so much land must be converted to support the growth of these products.

A growing worldwide food crisis is also serving to throw a wrench in the food-for-fuel movement. This year, as a result of the share of the corn crop going into ethanol in America and the European Union, EU began implementing its own biofuel targets, as wheat and rice prices have risen to their highest level ever.

“We're eager to move forward on both the cleanliness of heating fuels and biofuels,” said Aggarwala, “but we do feel that we have to make sure we have a good way to ensure that nothing we do winds up hurting food prices.”

But bill supporters say that this position does not take into account the specificity about the sources of biofuels incorporated into the Council bills.

“This is not ethanol,” said Josh Nachowitz, policy director at the League of Conservation Voters. “According to the bill, 80 percent of the material comes from soybeans,” he said. Since soybeans are grown in upstate New York, the bills would be a boon for the state economy, Nachowitz said.
Nonetheless, NRDC senior policy analyst Nathanael Greene said that the details were too vague in the bills, despite their good intentions.

“Depending on how you cultivate your feedstock and turn it into fuel, biofuels can be either part of the climate solution or part of the climate problem,” Greene said. “Because of scientific, agricultural and economic vagaries surrounding biofuels, Bloomberg has a responsibility to ensure that a formal accounting system is in place to regulate their use in the city.”

That makes waiting essential, he explained.

“I can't imagine why we'd want to rush this,” Greene said.

But Yassky, who is trying to beef up his environmental credentials in preparation for a run as the green candidate for city comptroller, said that the demise of the mayor's congestion pricing plan explains some of the urgency he and others feel about biofuels.

“Congestion pricing took all the oxygen out of the room on several key environmental initiatives,” Yassky said. “Now that it’s off the agenda, it’s time to get back to these critical initiatives. And I think bioheat is one of them.”

Michael Seilback, senior director for public policy and advocacy at the American Lung Association of the City of New York, agreed. He said that passing the biofuels bills could result in immediate declines in pollution, and that delays harm communities where sulfur emissions from building furnaces have contributed to high asthma rates.

“In areas that are being pummeled everyday with air pollution, this is something that is going to be an immediate local air quality benefit, which could happen pretty much with the act of passing a bill and the mayor signing it,” Seilback said.

The effort behind the bills has made for an unlikely coalition of environmental and public health groups, like the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, the New York League of Conservation Voters and the New York Oil Heating Association—a coalition of terminal operators, equipment installers and fuel distributors.

From a business perspective, the delays on the bill are both troublesome and costly, said John Maniscalco, executive vice president of the New York Heating Oil Association.

“I'm not sure what all this hesitation is about,” he said. “The industry needs time to ramp up. You can't just flip the switch and all buildings go to using biofuel tomorrow.”