New York City has joined the list of cities banning the use of natural gas in new construction. The intention of the ban is, of course, to save the planet:

The New York bill, which establishes a threshold for how much carbon a building can emit, limiting the use of gas, could set an example for the rest of the country, environmental advocates said.

“To think that every new iconic skyscraper on the New York City skyline will soon be built without any fossil fuel use — I think it’s a game-changing moment for the climate movement,” said Jenna Tatum, director of the Building Electrification Institute.

Built without fossil fuels?  Whatever you say. The point is to use electricity to heat these mammoth structures:

“Furnaces, boilers and hot water heaters emit more carbon in New York City than all uses of electricity combined today, so electrifying those systems becomes our biggest way to fight climate change,” said John Mandyck, CEO of the Urban Green Council.

This measure has the potential to save about 2.1 million tons of carbon emissions by 2040, according to an estimate by the Rocky Mountain Institute. That’s equal to taking nearly half a million cars off the road.

“New Yorkers will look back years from now and say that it had a major positive impact on public health,” said LJ Portis, environmental policy and advocacy coordinator at WE ACT for Environmental Justice.

So where is all the clean, eco-friendly electricity coming from to replace all that bad, evil natural gas? Renewables. At some point. They promise.

And good luck getting NYC’s restaurants to shift from gas cooking to electric.