Prevent the next tragedy
Don’t give up on Build Back Better
COURIER L 28 IFE, JANUARY 14-20, 2022
EDITORIAL
OP-ED
No amount of money can
compensate for the destructive
fi ve-alarm fi re
at a Bronx apartment building
on Jan. 9 that claimed at
least 17 lives, eight of them
children.
In an instant, a peaceful
morning turned into a horrifi
c tragedy, as the blaze — apparently
sparked by a faulty
space heater — quickly spread
throughout two fl oors.
But, as is the case with most
fi res, the fl ames themselves
did not cause such horrifi c loss
of life. Rather, it was the thick,
acrid smoke that spread across
the 19 fl oors of the Twin Parks
North West tower — fi lling the
stairwells where people tried
to escape, and becoming into a
death shroud.
The incredible heroics of
fi refi ghters who ran in and
pulled one unconscious person
after another out of the building
were incredible to witness.
Some had run out of oxygen in
their own tanks, but still ran
in, managing to get victims
out as fast as they could.
And this horrifi c scene
happened because a self-closing
door wasn’t fully closed.
That door could have confi ned
the blaze to a single fl oor, and
spared so much heartbreak.
Whether the door was
faulty or was left open in human
error remains to be seen.
The investigation into this horrifi
c fi re is only beginning.
The circumstances are eerily
similar to another deadly
blaze in the Bronx in the winter
of 2017, when 13 people
were killed in an apartment
building fi re. As Fire Commissioner
Dan Nigro pointed out,
the smoke and fl ames were allowed
to spread throughout
the structure due to an open
door.
These tragedies remind us
of two simple, yet very important
tips that the New York
City Fire Department is quick
to remind the public.
If a fi re breaks out in your
apartment building, get out of
the premises — but make sure
you’ve closed the door behind
you. If the door isn’t closing on
its own, pull it shut. This reduces
the chances of the fi re
spreading.
Secondly, and this is particularly
important during
the cooler months, take steps
to operate your space heaters
safely.
Keep them at least three
feet away from any linens, including
bedding and curtains.
Plug the heaters directly into
a wall outlet, not an extension
cord or surge protector. Turn
the space heaters off if you’re
leaving the room or going to
sleep; never leave them operating
unattended.
Let’s do our part to prevent
the next tragedy from happening.
BY MICHAEL SACHSE
In the 20th century, America transformed
its built environment. We built
the roads, highways, and interstates that
made automotive transit effi cient and
fast. We built houses and apartments at
a pace and cost that made middle class
lifestyles much more broadly accessible.
And we built an energy grid that
made previously unimaginable things
ordinary: we press a button to turn on
a light, access hundreds of television
channels, or change the temperature in
our homes. Those investments fundamentally
transformed our lives.
We now have no choice but to do it
again. Climate change will remake our
world unless we remake it fi rst. Fortunately,
we know what to do. We need to
transition away from fossil fuels and
towards a low carbon economy, and we
need to fast. The challenge isn’t ideas,
it’s speed. As Professor Robert J. Gordon,
the self-professed “prophet of pessimism”
put it about the pace of innovation
more broadly, “Lots of things are
being proposed …but they are going to
happen very slowly.”
This is why it is so critical that Democrats
reach a compromise on Build
Back Better – the poorly marketed, onagain
off-again reconciliation package.
Once you scrape away the stories about
posturing and price tags, you fi nd it’s at
least as important to remaking our infrastructure
as the highly touted infrastructure
package that came before it.
In particular, the least controversial
components of Build Back Better will
jump start a transition in how we heat
and cool our homes. Residential and
commercial buildings account for 40
percent of America’s carbon emissions,
making enhanced energy effi ciency and
green transformation critical to any climate
change solution. Indeed, most of us
burn “natural” gas, a fossil fuel, to heat
our homes and offi ces. That must change
and change quickly. That’s why we need
to expand access to new renewable longterm
resources. As one example, in the
case of heating and cooling homes, heat
pumps, especially ground source, that
replace fossil fuel powered systems can
reduce a home’s carbon emissions by up
to 80%. At the same time, we need to fast
track electric generation from renewable
sources, and we need to do it with
US made products that aren’t vulnerable
to geo-political drama.
New York’s own communities are
leaders on fi ghting climate change, from
policies at the local to the state level
and to key partnerships and incentives
through the NY Clean Heat program
that empower homeowners and businesses
alike to afford to make changes
that make a difference that over time
will create a more robust economy and
higher quality of life.
The climate portions of Build Back
Better do more than any bill before it
to accelerate the transition in how our
communities heat and cool their homes,
and it does it through proven means. Often,
the challenge with energy related
investment is that the upfront costs are
usually signifi cant, while the benefi ts
are realized over many years. Tax credits
help solve this problem by lowering
the upfront costs so that those long-term
benefi ts are more likely to be realized.
This methodology has worked already.
Investment tax credits have been
most used by solar installers, helping
create surging demand for a once out of
reach technology that’s making buildings
more energy independent and carbon
neutral. The bill would broaden the
application of tax credits, applying them
to heat pumps, fuel cells, and extending
and expanding them for ground source
heat pumps. As a leader of a renewable
energy innovator scaling in New York
because of incentivized opportunities
for local residents who want to make the
switch, I have seen fi rsthand how much
acceleration is needed and the exponential
impact it can have on empowering
consumers to make decisions that will
preserve their communities for this and
future generations.
Build Back Better also makes these
tax credits more equitable by paying
them directly instead of deducting them
from a tax bill. This means that people
with lower tax burdens can benefi t from
the credits. It also means that schools,
churches, and non-profi ts will be more
incentivized to invest in renewable energy
as well.
Finally, Build Back Better puts its
fi nger heavily on the scale in favor of encouraging
the deployment of U.S. manufactured
goods by offering an additional
ten percent tax credit for goods primarily
manufactured in the U.S. On paper,
this is important because it means that
we’ll develop our own clean industries
and capabilities.
It’s also important for a larger, more
central reason. It’s trite to observe that
America is a divided country. While
there’s no single cure for that, it might
help to invest more in the physical world.
Building creates opportunity. It requires
college degrees and skilled labor. It demands
teamwork in the broadest sense.
And there’s a unique pride that comes
when, at the end of the day, you can look
and touch the results of your work.
When people look back fondly at our
past, they are often looking to a past
where we transformed the world and
made it better. We need to do it again
and quickly. Build Back Better can
still help us get there. I hope an agreement
is reached and we can start the
real work ahead, starting in New York,
and in every state across the nation.
Michael Sachse is the CEO of Dandelion
Energy, the nation’s leading home
geothermal company.
“Climate change will remake our world unless we remake
it first. Fortunately, we know what to do.