Database of New York State Municipal Laws on
Green Buildings, Alternative Energy, and Energy Efficiency
Local laws intended to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions have recently proliferated as part of a municipal-level response to climate change. Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law has prepared a database of many of these laws in New York municipalities relating specifically to green buildings, solar energy, wind energy, and energy efficiency. The database can be downloaded here:
The database is sorted by county, but it can also be sorted by subject matter or municipality. Each statute is classified as a green buildings, solar energy, wind energy, or energy efficiency statute. A total of 372 laws are currently catalogued in the database. To avoid an unwieldy structure, only the most essential portion of each statute is summarized. In almost every case, the statute has provisions additional to those provided in the database.
The user can access the unabridged statute by clicking on the hyperlink, identified by blue, underlined text, provided with each statute citation. Most links lead to the municipality’s entire code database. From here, the user can easily access the relevant portion of the code by referencing the citation given. Some links lead directly to the precise portion of the code in question and navigating the code database is not necessary.
While the database contains a substantial number of statutes, it is not currently comprehensive. CCCL welcomes any additional information regarding New York state municipal laws related to climate change or corrections of existing entries in the database. Please email such additional information to jjames@law.columbia.edu.
Please also see the Gaining Ground Information Database maintained by the Land Use Law Center at Pace Law School, which focuses on local land use ordinances. Columbia and Pace are working together on these issues.
CCCL would like to acknowledge the efforts of the following individuals in compiling this database: Kelly Cataldo
Courtney Chin
Juliana DeVries
Jane Friedhoff
Alessandra Gregg
Danni Pi
David Raisler
Michael Stennis
Working Paper on Developing
Municipal Wind Energy Ordinances in New York State
A wide variety of municipal wind energy ordinances exist in New York State. This working paper developed by CCCL cdiscusses the choices that a municipality in New York must make in drafting a wind energy ordinance, with reference to how existing codified wind energy ordinances and model municipal wind energy ordinances have dealt with these choices.
