NEW YORK CITY—The Bloomberg administration and the City Council have reached an agreement on a bill intended to reduce the legal limit of sulfur used in heating oil. The measure, which the council is expected to pass later this week, is intended to complement the administration’s PlaNYC sustainability initiative, Mayor Michael Bloomberg says in a statement. It will be the first local law to come out of the city’s efforts to decrease environmental pollutants from heating oil and improve air quality.

Known as Intro 194-A, the bill will cap the sulfur content of number 4 heating oil at 1,500 parts per million, half the current legal limit, while requiring that all heating oil used citywide after Oct. 1, 2012 contain at least 2% biodiesel fuel. Although number 4 oil is consumed in only about 4,000 of the city’s 975,000 buildings, they’re generally larger structures, while the oil itself is “among the dirtiest used in the city,” says Adam Freed, acting director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, in a release.

The bill’s sponsors, who include James Gennaro, chairman of the council’s environmental protection committee, cite an Environmental Defense Fund report that says the combustion of heating fuel causes “approximately 14% of the local emissions of fine particulate matter, more than vehicle traffic or power plants. Particulate matter and other pollutants, such as sulfur and heavy metals, contribute to asthma, heart disease and other public health problems.” Using biodiesel fuel, they write in Intro 194-A, would “reduce the emission of air pollutants, reduce cleaning and maintenance costs, increase the ease of handling fuel oils, provide other operational benefits, strengthen the alternative fuels market, support regional farmers and local businesses and increase energy independence and the diversity of our energy supply.”

Numbers 4 and 6 heating oils, which are used in a total of about 10,000 buildings citywide, are more polluting than number 2 oil, itself the subject of statewide legislation earlier this year, according to 194-A’s sponsors. Citing the New York City Community Air Survey’s 2009 winter data report, the sponsors say that “the strongest predictor of particulate matter and sulfur dioxide in the air in New York City is the density of nearby buildings that burn fuel oil.” Boilers that burn “heavier residual oils,” such as numbers 4 and 6, “also require more maintenance because of the need to clean burners fouled by the high sulfur content of the oil and the need to heat the non-viscous oils before they can be pumped and burned.”

In a release, Gennaro says the city consumes one billion gallons of heating oil annually, “more than any other city in the United States.” The 2% biodiesel requirement, he says, will replace 20- million gallons of petroleum each year “with an equal volume of renewable, sustainable, domestically produced biodiesel. We are already home to what will be the largest biodiesel processing facility in the country”—the Metro Fuel plant in Brooklyn, where Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn announced Monday’s agreement—“as well as a growing grease collection industry, and we expect to see more green-collar jobs and green economic growth as a result of our legislation.”

Earlier this month, Gov. David Paterson signed a bill that reduces the sulfur content in number 2 heating oil by 99% throughout New York State. Number 2 oil currently accounts for more than 70% of the heating oil used throughout the city.

Instant Insights /

Bloomberg Moves to Clean Up Heating Oil

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