Reactions pour in over NYC’s proposed crackdown on pizza ovens

Americans in New York and throughout the rest of the country are flaming over New York City’s alleged proposal requiring restaurants to slash emissions from their pizza ovens.

According to a report from the New York Post, NYC’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) drafted a proposal that included a 75% carbon emissions reduction for pizzerias that cook with coal and wood-fire ovens from before 2016. DEP spokesman Ted Timbers said the move is "common-sense" and that such ovens "are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality," according to the Post.

"Not only does this new legislation take aim at one of NYC’s societal cornerstones, but it also directly targets a field that makes up a large chunk of the city’s small business sector," said the pro-energy group Power The Future in a statement responding to the report.

"Reducing emissions from a handful of local pizza joints will hardly make a dent in reducing NYC’s inevitably massive carbon emissions," and moreover, it puts small business owners "under attack" while having their "traditional values and source of income" upended by "power-hungry bureaucrats," the group added.

Climate Depot founder Marc Morano responded to the report via an op-ed in the Post, where he claimed the proposal would take 849 years to cut as much emissions as John Kerry’s private jet emits in just one year.

"In 2021, Kerry’s private jet emitted an estimated 116 metric tons of carbon in less than a year," Morano stated. "By comparison… The 8 Billion Trees project estimates that the "carbon footprint of wood-burning stoves" can be up to 15.6 grams an hour or 374 grams a day," he wrote. 

"You would have to burn that stove for 310,160 days — that is, 849 years — to equal what hypocrite Kerry puts out in a year," Morano concluded. Moreover, one Princeton physicist, Dr. Will Happer, estimated emissions "will probably increase" as a result of the proposal if the ovens are replaced with electric alternatives. 

"Even for New York City, most of the electrical power probably comes from burning gas or coal," Happer reportedly told The Post. "For a gas-fired pizza oven, all the heat of combustion is used to bake the pizza. For an electrically heated oven, you have to convert electrical power back to heat."

"Give us pizza or give us death," Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy wrote in a captioned response video. Famous for his "One Bite Pizza Reviews," Portnoy jokingly blamed the proposal on a "pink-haired crazy liberal" in the DEP "who’s never worked one day in the real world."

"You know what [which] pizzerias use coal ovens? All the best," he said. "You [sic] got people getting slashed on the subway… flash mobs robbing stores, and you’re coming for coal oven pizzerias?"

"This ain’t going to happen," Portnoy added.

One man has already begun putting words into action. Conservative artist and New York resident Scott LoBaido went to New York City Hall and threw pizzas over the gate.

"The woke-a** idiots who run this city are doing everything in their power to destroy it," LoBaido said angrily.

Earlier this year, New York became the first state in the nation to ban gas stoves in new buildings. In May, NY Governor Kathy Hochul also announced her plan to mandate that new homes and buildings be "zero-emission" within two years.

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