You didn’t think they’d stop at gas stoves, did you?
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has drafted new regulations that would require pizzerias utilizing traditional baking methods, like wood and coal-fired ovens, to reduce carbon emissions by as much as 75%.
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” DEP spokesman Ted Timbers said in a statement. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”
Under the proposed rule, any pizzeria with a wood or coal-fired installed prior to May 2016 would be compelled to buy expensive emission-control devices. A city official claims that less than 100 restaurants would be impacted by the rule.
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Paul Giannoni, the proprietor of Paulie Gee’s, told the New York Post that he’s already invested $20,000 in an air filtration system. In addition to the substantial installation expenses, he highlighted the ongoing maintenance costs associated with the system. “I got to pay somebody to do it, to go up there every couple of weeks and hose it down and, you know, do the maintenance,” he told the paper.
An unidentified pizza shop owner expressed strong opposition to the proposed mandate and blasted politicians and bureaucrats for meddling with their pizza ovens. “This is an unfunded mandate and it’s going to cost us a fortune — not to mention ruining the taste of the pizza — totally destroying the product,” he said. “If you f—k around with the temperature in the oven, you change the taste. That pipe, that chimney, it’s that size to create the perfect updraft, keeps the temp perfect. It’s an art as much as a science. You take away the char — the thing that makes the pizza taste great — you kill it.”
The DEP insists that an advisory committee of restaurateurs helped draft the proposed rule.
“The advisory committee and DEP were unable to finalize a rule in that time frame due to the difficulty of crafting a rule to manage technical and cost concerns that are attendant to the installation of emission control devices,” DEP officials explained.
“For example, costs for controls for existing cook stoves can be difficult to manage as the spaces in which these cook stoves operate are often aging structures that were not designed to accommodate emission control devices,” the officials said. “In addition, many of the locations where existing cook stoves are used are not owned by the operators of the cook stoves, and changes required to install such devices require obtaining the landlord’s permission.”
If the mandate passes, restaurants with wood and coal-fired ovens would be required to hire an engineer or architect to evaluate the viability of installing emission control devices with the aim of attaining a 75% decrease in particulate emissions. In the event that isn’t possible, alternatives must be considered to potentially reduce emissions by at least 25%.
Restaurants have the option to seek a variance or waiver, but they must provide compelling evidence demonstrating a hardship to justify an exception.
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