Rent Stabilization Association president Joseph Strasburg calls mandating anything beyond Mayor de Blasio's call for an 80% emissions reduction in NY buildings by 2050 “ridiculous.”

Strasburg argues in a Tuesday op-ed in Crain’s that many landlords don’t have pockets deep enough to cut big checks for extensive retrofits. His conclusion? The most effective way to cut emissions is for building owners to do it voluntarily on the basis of the energy savings they’ll get.

He was responding to an op-ed published on Monday by Climate Works for All campaign director Daisy Chung and New York City Environmental Justice Alliance executive director Eddie Bautista. That piece puts the onus on the Administration to pass even tougher restrictions on landlords than the "80 by 50" already called for.

Why? Chung and Bautista say NYC’s carbon footprint tops those of 97 entire countries, and they point to the city's biggest buildings—those of 50k SF and bigger—as the real energy guzzlers, claiming they take up just 2% of the total building stock but use 45% of the city’s energy. [Crain's]