Bloomberg Energy Mandates Will Raise Rents And Kill Jobs

It goes without saying that anytime the government mandates that businesses and private enterprises must take actions, the costs for those actions will be passed on to the end user.

In this case, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who loves spending other people's money, is calling for a revision of the building code to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and require that buildings undergo periodic upgrades. Of course, the Administration says that the costs will not be passed on, but how exactly can they force landlords to eat the costs?

The Daily News only reported the tip of the iceberg. The real extent of Bloomberg's plans are breathtaking in their scope:

The new laws would include:

* A New York City Energy Code which existing buildings will have to meet whenever they make renovations.
* Buildings of 50,000 square feet or more would have to conduct an energy audit once every ten years and make any improvements that would pay for themselves within five years
* A jobs program to work with the real estate and construction industries and train the workforce that will fill the estimated 19,000 construction jobs the legislation will create.
* A financing program that uses $16 million in federal stimulus money to provide loans for property owners to pay the upfront costs for the efficiency upgrades that eventually pay for themselves.

Bloomberg is demanding that others spend their money to fit his agenda. The energy code mandate would kill business because no one would expose themselves to the provisions of the Energy Code by going into a renovation project since it would expose them to additional costs that they would have to factor in. It would mean fewer renovations done, and they would be spaced further apart because of the additional costs to business, even after the costs are factored into rents.

It would actually slow construction rehabs in the City - not accelerate them. This has the potential to be a jobs killer, rather than expand the number of jobs as Bloomberg claims.

In fact, the whole notion of green jobs is a misnomer - and worse - it actually results in fewer jobs.