The New York Times’ reports that New York Senator and Park Slope resident, Charles Schumer, wants to create national energy-saving standards and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

“Senator Charles E. Schumer said yesterday that he was introducing a measure that would require cities and states to increase energy efficiency in new buildings by 30 percent in the next five years and by 50 percent before 2022. Under the measure, to be introduced next week as an amendment to the Senate energy bill, cities and states would face penalties unless they adopted a standard nationwide code or their own codes requiring energy-efficient systems and designs. Cities that met the standards would be exempt from the penalties even if their states failed to do so, Mr. Schumer said. The amendment, he said, is meant to bring the country in line with the standards in California and New York City, which recently overhauled its building code to require so-called green-building practices.”