Learning PlaNYC 2030’s Plan to Improve Heating Oils in NYC New York City (NYC) set a goal back in 2007 to have the cleanest air in any big city around. They created the PlaNYC 2030 plan to clean up the city’s dirtiest buildings by replacing heating oils with cleaner fuels. The full plan has some one hundred and thirty-two initiatives and over four hundred milestones to hit in the coming years. The plan has included the Department of Environmental Protection as a safety net to ensure the plan is carried out.
So what is PlaNYC The Department of Environmental Protection made a rule to phase out the worst forms of heating oil around. This new rule states that at the end of 2015, all boilers will have switched over from traditional heating oils to a better, cleaner fuel. This simple switch should affect about eighty-five percent of the soot population that NYC experiences today. There aren’t many buildings that still use the worst kinds of fuel—i.e. only about one percent of all NYC buildings use these heating oils. Cleaning up that one percent is expected to make all the difference in the world. So aside from cleaner skies and better smelling air, what could cleaning up eighty-five percent of the air do for the city as a whole? NYC’s health department reported that on a yearly basis, over three thousand people have died because of soot related issues. Two thousand are hospitalized and over six thousand are sent to the Emergency Room for Asthma related issues. To think the lives, the money and the time we could save just by replacing one percent of all the furnaces in the city. Those numbers are astounding. Included in that one percent are over four hundred and seventy-eight schools. With the current financial state of the city, it is hard to imagine that they will be able to afford to switch out the heating unit of so many buildings.
The Next Generation Creative solutions need to be made to make this possible if PlaNYC is going to be affected. Aside from just trying to hit a goal though, the initiative to fund or make this project possible needs to happen soon. The rising generation is the next group of leaders this country can rely on to keep it on top. We owe it to them to keep them safe. We could easily injure one of the next great leaders of our nation, just by neglecting the air they breathe. Maybe we can get some of the local companies to take an initiative and help the situation.
A fund raiser or donation of the smallest amounts could do so much to help these kids out. Now these changes can’t happen overnight. Trading out these boilers is pricy and not every company can afford to make it happen right away. PlaNYC has accounted for that set back by setting the due date for 2015. They reported that real progress was being made as of January of 2011. Although the ultimate goal has not yet been made, the initiative is running strong and the lives of residents are improving. Changing the heating oils in NYC is taking hold. Keep an eye on it and find out how you can get involved.