This item kept appearing in my news feed, if that is what the annoying square on the bottom right of the computer screen is called, and I ignored it until just about now, when the penny dropped. Coal and wood-fired pizzas have the reputation of being the best pizzas; I checked this with the Italian woman who is working opposite me on a computer in the community centre. My extensive research indicates that New York pizzas have the reputation of being the best of the best; who am I to disagree? I never eat the stuff, too much dough which gives me terrible IBS.
Anyway, under the insane climate change mandates of New York, worse than anything we yet have in Oz, these pizza makers have to slash carbon emissions by up to 75 percent. This will be a big expense, tens of thousands of dollars, and will probably put the smaller operators out of business. While this does not seem of international importance, it illustrates the brutal impact of climate change policies upon small business, and we can expect more of this in all jurisdictions, so, get ready. The climate change elites feel that they have the high moral ground, and are totally merciless.
“Historic Big Apple pizza joints could be forced to dish out mounds of dough under a proposed city edict targeting pollutant-spewing coal-and-wood-fired ovens, The Post has learned.
The New York City Department of Environmental Protection has drafted new rules that would order eateries using the decades-old baking method to slice carbon emissions by up to 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 Sunday. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”
The rule could require pizzerias with such ovens installed prior to May 2016 to buy pricey emission-control devices — with the owner of one Brooklyn joint saying he’s already tossed $20,000 on an air filter system in anticipation of the new mandate.
“Oh yeah, it’s a big expense!” said Paul Giannone, the owner of Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint. “It’s not just the expense of having it installed, it’s the maintenance. 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.”
Giannone added that while the air filter is “expensive and it’s a huge hassle,” it also has some upsides.
“My neighbors are much happier. I had a guy coming in for years complaining that the smoke was, you know, going right into his apartment and I haven’t seen him since I got the scrubber installed.”
Other iconic pizza joints facing the heat include Lombardi’s in Little Italy, Arturo’s in Soho, John’s of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Patsy’s in Turtle Bay and the Upper West Side and Grimaldi’s near the Brooklyn Bridge — that pride themselves on having their pies baked in coal-and-wood-fired ovens.
A city official said that under 100 restaurants total would be impacted.
One pizza restaurateur, who requested anonymity, told The Post that sensitive negotiations are currently taking place with DEP officials on whether to grandfather in or exempt the dozens of coal-and-wood-oven-fired pizza joints from the mandate.
He said politicians and bureaucrats should stop messing with their crust.
“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,” the restaurateur, who has a coal-fired oven, fumed.”
Better not fume too much my American friend, the “fumes” will be taxed as another carbon emission!