NYC to use solar energy to curb dirty heating oils
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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Thursday a clean heat campaign to restrict the use of polluting heating oils by installing solar panels over landfills.
The announcement came ahead of the Earth Day, which falls on Friday, April 22, and on the anniversary when PlaNYC, the city's sustainability plan, was first announced in 2007. The clean heat campaign will phase out low-grade heating oils with the help of solar panels to be installed over landfills and on some city rooftops as well.
"The earth was not given to you by your parents," said Bloomberg at a press conference in Harlem, recalling an old proverb. "It was loaned to you by your children. ... We will make sure that the city we return to our children is a sustainable one."
The mayor also said that the use of the heaviest heating oil, known as No. 6, would end by 2015. A lighter heating oil known as No. 4 would be eliminated by 2030. They would be replaced in part by natural gas and low-sulfur oil.
PlaNYC aims to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 when compared with its 2005 levels. As of 2011, emissions have dropped by 13 percent.
