When I lived in New York City my favorite pizzeria was Arturo’s, on Houston Street. Coal–fired ovens made for a charred crust you could use to sop up sauce from an order of mussels. But joints like that are at risk as the city’s environmental regulators propose mandatory 75 percent reductions in emissions by restaurants that use traditional fuels in their cooking and baking—a goal many restaurant owners consider unachievable. The rule isn’t finalized, and it contains caveats that savvy business owners could use as a lifeline. But it’s the latest sign that environmental activists expect us to modify our lifestyles to meet their green priorities.
“The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP or the Department) is promulgating rules that would establish requirements for control devices to reduce emissions from cook stoves at restaurants in existence prior to May 6, 2016,” reads the city regulatory agency’s announcement of a July 27 public hearing. “The proposed rule provides that the operators of cook stoves that were installed prior to May 6, 2016 must hire a professional engineer or registered architect to assess the feasibility of installing emission controls on the cook stove to achieve a 75% reduction in particulate emissions. If this assessment concludes that a reduction of 75% or more cannot be achieved, or that no emissions controls can be installed, the assessment must identify any emission controls that could provide a reduction of at least 25% or an explanation for why no emission controls can be installed.”
The rule also specifies that “Cook stove means any wood fired or anthracite coal fired appliance used [primarily for cooking food for onsite consumption at a food service establishment…] for the preparation of food intended for onsite consumption or retail purchase.”
The Rattler is a weekly newsletter from J.D. Tuccille. If you care about government overreach and tangible threats to everyday liberty, this is for you.
War on Pizza
To most people, this sounds annoying and intrusive if very particular to old-school cookery. To New Yorkers in particular, though, it’s a declaration of war against pizza.
“If you fuck 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,” an anonymous restaurant owner who relies on a coal–fired oven told the New York Post.
The allowance in the proposed rule for feasibility assessments means that existing restaurants might escape enforcement. That’s a potential lifesaver, since $20,000 plus ongoing maintenance costs is the price tag for compliance cited by at least two restaurateurs. Businesses will have to shoulder all expenses for meeting the requirements of the proposed rule.
“You know how many pizzas I have to sell to pay for that $20,000 oven?” pizzeria owner Joe Calcagno complained to CBS News.
Ovens installed since 2016 are already subject to restrictive rules, meaning that you’re unlikely to see traditional fuels used in new installations. That means existing restaurants with wood– and coal–fired ovens will be it, dwindling in number as the years pass with inevitable attrition.
If this sounds familiar, that’s because demands that we all change the way we live our lives, our preferences be damned, have become increasingly common.
Your Gas Stove is Next
“In May, the Democrat-controlled New York State Legislature and Gov. Kathy Hochul inked a $229 billion state budget agreement that included a ban on residential gas stoves. By 2029, only electric ranges will be allowed in new residences,” Reason‘s Christian Britschgi reports in the August/September issue. “The policy is similar to bans imposed by local governments in places such as New York City and California. Advocates say those laws help curtail climate change by reducing natural gas consumption and protect people’s health by reducing in-home emissions.”
This comes after huffy initial denials that anybody wanted to ban popular gas stoves, which are preferred by many chefs as well as home cooks for their quick and reliable heat. Sixty-nine percent of respondents to a recent Harvard CAPS Harris poll opposed “governmental rules that would virtually eliminate gas stoves from kitchens.” Then there’s the bypassed discussion about the wisdom of eliminating alternatives to electric appliances and expanding reliance on a power grid that’s already overburdened and rickety.
“The U.S. power system is faltering just as millions of Americans are…