STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8431 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY November 17, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. GALLAGHER -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations AN ACT to amend the executive law, in relation to enacting the "all-e- lectric building act" The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as 2 the "all-electric building act". 3 § 2. The executive law is amended by adding a new section 382-c to 4 read as follows: 5 § 382-c. All-electric buildings. 1. As used in this section: 6 a. "All-electric building or project" shall mean a building or project 7 that uses a permanent supply of electricity as the sole source of energy 8 to meet building energy needs. An all-electric building or project shall 9 have no natural gas, propane, or oil heaters, boilers, piping systems, 10 fixtures or infrastructure installed to meet building energy needs. 11 b. "Building energy needs" shall mean all space conditioning including 12 heating and cooling, water heating including pools and spas, cooking 13 appliances and clothes drying appliances. 14 c. "All-electric ready" shall mean a building, project, or portion 15 thereof that contains electrical systems and designs that provide suffi- 16 cient capacity for a future retrofit of a mixed-fuel building to an 17 all-electric building, including sufficient space, drainage, electrical 18 conductors or raceways, bus bar capacity, and overcurrent protective 19 devices for such retrofit. The department of state shall promulgate 20 guidelines for an electric-ready building on or before January first, 21 two thousand twenty-three. 22 d. "Mixed-fuel building" shall mean a building that uses a combination 23 of electricity and natural gas, propane, or oil to meet building energy 24 needs. For the purposes of this section, "mixed-fuel building" shall 25 not include buildings that use geothermal or solar energy to meet heat- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11571-03-1A. 8431 2 1 ing and/or cooling building energy needs but are otherwise all-electric 2 buildings. 3 e. "Mixed-use building" shall mean a building used for both residen- 4 tial and commercial purposes. 5 2. a. No city, town or village shall issue a permit for the 6 construction of any new commercial, residential, or mixed-use building 7 that is not an all-electric building if the initial application for such 8 permit was submitted after December thirty-first, two thousand twenty- 9 three, unless the circumstances set forth in paragraph b of this subdi- 10 vision apply. For purposes of this subdivision, the initial application 11 shall be the first site or building permit application associated with 12 the building or project. 13 b. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph a of this subdivision, 14 a city, town, or village may issue a permit for construction of a new 15 mixed-fuel building upon a finding by the permitting body of such city, 16 town, or village that constructing an all-electric building or project 17 is physically or technically infeasible and that a modification is 18 warranted. Financial considerations shall not be a sufficient basis to 19 determine physical or technical infeasibility. Modifications shall only 20 be issued under this exception where the permitting body finds that: 21 (i) sufficient evidence was submitted to substantiate the infeasibil- 22 ity of an all-electric building or project design. Such evidence must 23 show that the building either: 24 A. cannot satisfy necessary building code requirements without the 25 usage of gas or oil piping systems, fixtures and/or infrastructure; or 26 B. if the building is specifically designated for occupancy by a 27 commercial food service establishment, that such establishment cannot 28 feasibly operate using commercially available all-electric appliances; 29 (ii) the installation of natural gas or oil piping systems, fixtures 30 and/or infrastructure is strictly limited to the system and area of the 31 building for which all-electric building or project design is infeasi- 32 ble; 33 (iii) the area or service within the project where gas or oil piping 34 systems, fixtures and/or infrastructure are installed is all-electric 35 ready; and 36 (iv) the project's modified design provides equivalent health, safety 37 and fire-protection to all-electric building or project design. 38 3. No local permitting body shall issue building or construction 39 permits that would convert an all-electric building or project into a 40 mixed-fuel building where the initial application was submitted after 41 December thirty-first, two thousand twenty-two. 42 4. On or before February first, two thousand twenty-three, the depart- 43 ment of public service, the division of housing and community renewal, 44 the department of state, and the energy research and development author- 45 ity shall report jointly to the governor, the temporary president of the 46 senate, the minority leader of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, 47 and the minority leader of the assembly, regarding what changes to elec- 48 tric rate designs, new or existing subsidy programs, policies, or laws 49 are necessary to ensure this section does not diminish the production of 50 affordable housing or the affordability of electricity for customers in 51 all-electric buildings. For the purpose of this subdivision, "afforda- 52 bility of electricity" shall mean that electricity does not cost more 53 than six percent of a residential customer's income. 54 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.