by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
As appearing in the Daily Sentinel
I’ve been waiting since May for the media feeding frenzy I assumed would develop, when the Biden administration announced new rules to further restrict home dishwashers.
There has been a deafening silence about it, though, maybe because such overreach no longer astonishes anyone. Or as Sen. Bill Armstrong often said, “The only thing shocking about this is that no one is shocked.”
Instead, the feeding frenzy has been directed at New York City officials for their plan that would put hundreds of pizza restaurants out of business. The new ordinance will require pizzerias with wood and coal burning ovens built before 2016 to install equipment to capture 75% of their carbon emissions. The cost of doing so is prohibitive for most small businesses, so most say they will simply close. They could convert to electricity, but that would defeat the purpose, since New York’s electricity comes from burning gas and coal.
There is evidence that variations of pizza were prepared in Italy as early as ancient Pompeii before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. But the American version we recognize was created by Italian immigrants in New York. It is so iconic that it is commonly known as “New York-style” pizza, as opposed to the deep dish “Chicago-style.” New York pizza is said to have originated in 1905 at Lombardi’s, 32 Spring Street in New York’s “Little Italy.” It’s still there, enormously popular, and like dozens of others, in danger of being shuttered because of its historic coal-burning pizza ovens.
