I was listening to the Assembly debate over the state budget last week and they were debating the All Electric Buildings Act included in the budget. Some Republicans, grasping at straws were claiming that All Electric Buildings would interfere with the religious liberty of the Amish and make it hard for people to have off grid cabins and homes Upstate because wood stoves would be banned.

The thing is that wood is not a fossil fuel.

Wood is not by any means banned under a ban on new homes heated by fossil fuels.

Article 1 of the State Energy Law defines a fossil fuel. Wood in state law is not a fossil fuel. Even if you aren’t aware of the provisions of the state energy law, the ordinary meaning of the words and common law makes it pretty clear that wood is not a fossil fuel.

7. “Fossil fuel” shall mean coal, petroleum products and fuel gases

…..

3. “Coal” shall include bituminuous coal, anthracite coal, and
lignite.
8. “Fuel gases” shall include but not be limited to methane, natural
gas, liquefied natural gas, and manufactured fuel gases.
11. “Petroleum products” shall include all products refined or
rerefined from synthetic or crude oil or oil extracted from other
sources, including natural gas liquids.

You can read the All Electric Buildings Act in thePart RR of ELFA Budget Bill S.4006-D, which adds this new language to the State Energy Law:

17 (b) In addition to the foregoing, to support the goal of zero on-site
18 greenhouse gas emissions and help achieve the state’s clean energy and
19 climate agenda, including but not limited to greenhouse gas reduction
20 requirements set forth within chapter one hundred six of the laws of two
21 thousand nineteen, also known as the New York state climate leadership
22 and community protection act, the code shall prohibit the installation
23 of fossil-fuel equipment and building systems, in any new building not
24 more than seven stories in height, except for a new commercial or indus-
25 trial building greater than one hundred thousand square feet in condi-
26 tioned floor area, on or after December thirty-first, two thousand twen-
27 ty-five, and the code shall prohibit the installation of fossil-fuel
28 equipment and building systems, in all new buildings after December
29 thirty-first, two thousand twenty-eight.
30 7. (a) The provisions set forth in paragraph (b) of subdivision six of
31 this section shall not be construed as applying to buildings existing
32 prior to the effective date of the applicable prohibition, including to:
33 (i) the repair, alteration, addition, relocation, or change of occu-
34 pancy or use of such buildings; and
35 (ii) the installation or continued use and maintenance of fossil-fuel
36 equipment and building systems, including as related to cooking equip-
37 ment, in any such buildings.
38 (b) In addition, in effectuating the provisions set forth in paragraph
39 (b) of subdivision six of this section the code shall include exemptions
40 for the purposes of allowing the installation and use of fossil-fuel
41 equipment and building systems where such are installed and used:
42 (i) for generation of emergency back-up power and standby power
43 systems;
1 agricultural buildings as defined by the council, such exemption shall
2 include provisions that, to the fullest extent feasible, limit the use
3 of fossil-fuel equipment and building systems to the system and area of
4 the building for which a prohibition on fossil-fuel equipment and build-
5 ing systems is infeasible; require the area or service within a new
6 building where fossil-fuel equipment and building systems are installed
7 be electrification ready, except with respect to servicing manufacturing
8 or industrial processes; and minimize emissions from the fossil-fuel
9 equipment and building systems that are allowed to be used, provided
10 that the provisions set forth in this paragraph do not adversely affect
11 health, safety, security, or fire protection. Financial considerations
12 shall not be sufficient basis to determine physical or technical infea-
13 sibility.
14 (d) Exemptions included in the code pursuant to this subdivision shall
15 be periodically reviewed by the state fire prevention and building code
16 council to assure that they continue to effectuate the purposes of
17 subdivision six of this section to the fullest extent feasible.
18 (e) The code shall allow for exemption of a new building construction
19 project that requires an application for new or expanded electric
20 service, pursuant to subdivision one of section thirty-one of the public
21 service law and/or section twelve of the transportation corporations
22 law, when electric service cannot be reasonably provided by the grid as
23 operated by the local electric corporation or municipality pursuant to
24 subdivision one of section sixty-five of the public service law;
25 provided, however, that the public service commission shall determine
26 reasonableness for purposes of this exemption. For the purposes of this
27 paragraph, “grid” shall have the same meaning as electric plant, as
28 defined in subdivision twelve of section two of the public service law.
29 8. For the purposes of this section:
30 (a) “Fossil-fuel equipment and building systems” shall mean (i) equip-
31 ment, as such term is defined in section 11-102 of this article, that
32 uses fossil-fuel for combustion; or (ii) systems, other than items
33 supporting an industrial or commercial process as referred to in the
34 definition of equipment in section 11-102 of the energy law, associated
35 with a building that will be used for or to support the supply, distrib-
36 ution, or delivery of fossil-fuel for any purpose, other than for use by
37 motor vehicles.
38 (b) “Electrification ready” means the new building or portion thereof
39 where fossil-fuel equipment and building systems are allowed to be used
40 which contains electrical systems and designs that provide sufficient
41 capacity for a future replacement of such fossil-fuel equipment and
42 building systems with electric-powered equipment, including but not
43 limited to sufficient space, drainage, electrical conductors or race-
44 ways, bus bar capacity, and overcurrent protective devices for such
45 electric-powered equipment.