Written by Kathleen Marquardt, an associate of Tom DeWeese

City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality

In New York City mayor Eric Adams says, “Everything you need to know about the latest proposal in ‘City of Yes’” we get to see one of the latest schemes to capture property rights – via carbon neutrality. What is carbon neutrality? According to the European Parliament it “is reached when the same amount of CO2 is released into the atmosphere as is removed by various means, leaving a zero balance, also known as a zero-carbon footprint”. To understand that better, we had a carbon neutral world up until the 1800s when crude oil/fossil fuels were discovered. That brought about the advances in our lives – automobiles, gas and electric appliances, phones, computers – you name it. Green energy can never produce the equipment needed to supply these modern tools.

(Note: quotes from the proposal article are in bold italics)

City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality would modernize our city’s zoning regulations to support our climate goals.

Yep, city zoning plans are no longer about what is best for the people who live there, it’s about removing their carbon footprint – just short of removing them permanently (for now).

The world is facing a climate emergency. To respond, cities across the globe — including New York City — have set ambitious goals to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. To achieve our goals by 2050, we need to transform our energy grid, retrofit our buildings, and shift to electric vehicles, transit and other modes.

You question my remark about doing away with the residents to achieve “carbon neutrality”? Don’t worry, there will be a hierarchy.

The Department of City Planning (NYC Planning) is working with the Department of Buildings (DOB), New York City Fire Department (FDNY), and Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice (MOCEJ) on this proposal to clear the way for the many green investments needed in our buildings.

Getting rid of carbon-based fuels will make energy far more expensive and green power can only provide energy; it cannot be used to make things. Only carbon-based fuels can. But I guess we don’t need much since, as Klaus Schwab keeps telling us, “You will own nothing and be happy”. If you own nothing, i.e. have no right to private property, you are a slave. And that is where all of this non-existent “climate emergency” is taking us.

City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality will help us decarbonize NYC. Decarbonize means reducing our reliance on carbon-based fuels, which are harming our health and our planet. Updating our zoning rules will make it easier to install green energy technology. City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality would modernize NYC’s zoning rules to make our homes, businesses, electric power grid and even waste streams much cleaner.

Ah, but your buildings might be flimsily built (or retrofitted to be carbon neutral), but like a Potemkin City, it will look like your old neighborhood.

City of Yes would address burdensome restrictions on wall thickness, height, and other regulations that limit building electrification and retrofitting. Our buildings could get energy efficient upgrades while maintaining the look and feel of New York’s neighborhoods.

And you think your taxes are high now, just wait.

Among other impacts, these changes would support environmentally friendly retrofits for over 50,000 buildings, including over 1 million homes, that are not currently feasible to retrofit today.

While far too many do not understand the underlying dangers of carbon neutrality, the degradation – even destruction — of human, animal, and plant life, they do understand the dangers to the culture.

Residents located in suburban neighborhoods in particular have expressed fears that the proposed changes will alter the character of their communities.

One of the posted complaints about the plan I found: “Imagine bustling massage parlors and late-night corner stores popping up on your quiet street corner. The “City of Yes” could turn peaceful residential areas into commercial zones, driving up noise, traffic and congestion. This rapid, unregulated development could also push property values and rents sky-high, displacing long-time residents who can no longer afford their own homes. Remember the recent uproar over migrants at Creedmoor? They’re just one example of our Eastern Queens communities worried about losing their cherished sense of suburbia.’”

While we watch carbon neutrality and net-zero being plugged into every city, people need to understand a couple things: 1- the fact that, even if green energy sources could provide us with the energy we need, few could afford what it will cost. I’m not exaggerating; it will be sky-high. And 2- we must have/use carbon fuels to produce the mechanisms that supply power – the wind turbines, solar panels, stoves, operating room equipment. Green energy will never be able to do that.

Carbon neutrality is just one of the thousands of weapons being used against us in this asymmetrical warfare of Cancel Culture. To fight better, we need to be working together. Join a Freedom Pod today, at americanpolicy.org, or start one in your neighborhood so you can better counter these attacks on our God-given constitutional rights.

To read the entire article go to: https://www.cityandstateny.com/policy/2024/04/everything-you-need-know-about-latest-proposal-city-yes/395601/

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Kathleen Marquardt has been an advocate for property rights and freedom for decades. While not intending to be an activist, she has become a leader and an avid supporter of constitutional rights, promoter of civility, sound science, and reason. She is dedicated to exposing the fallacies of the radical environmental and animal rights movements. She has been featured in national publications including Fortune, People, the Washington Post, and Field and Stream, as well as television news programs such as Hard Copy, The McLaughlin Group, Geraldo, and many others. Today, she serves as Vice President of American Policy Center. Kathleen now writes and speaks on Agenda21/2030, and its threat to our culture and our system of representative government.

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