(Abdul–Rahman Oladimeji Bello, Headline USA) New York City leftists ignited a firestorm of controversy when the latest target of their radical climate alarmist agenda took aim at pizzerias.
Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’s Department of Environmental Protection is pushing new rules that would mandate all city restaurants to drastically change the way they use coal-and-wood-fired ovens to cook pizza and other foods, demanding they cut carbon emissions by up to 75%, according to the New York Post.
“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air, and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” insisted department spokesman Tim Timbers.
First, they came for your gas cars.
Then, they came for your gas stoves.
Now, they’re coming for your pizza.
Un-American! https://t.co/3ZVNWH4mgA
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) June 26, 2023
Restaurant owners and their patrons blasted the new rules, which critics said would require costly equipment upgrades and take a major slice of the pizzas’ unique flavor and texture. The proposed rules require eateries using coal-and-wood-fired ovens to hire an expert to assess the possibility of installing emission control devices to reduce so-called particulate emissions.
“This is an unfunded mandate and it’s going to cost us a fortune, not to mention ruining the taste of the pizza, totally destroying the product,” an anonymous pizzeria owner who uses a coal-fired oven told the Post.
“That pipe, that chimney, it’s that size to create the perfect updraft, keeps the temp perfect, it’s an art as much as a science,” he said. “You take away the char, the thing that makes the pizza taste great, you kill it.”
Dave Portnoy, a wildly popular pizza critic and founder of Barstool Sports, eviscerated NYC leftists for destroying their iconic pizza as their city crumbles.
“Some f–king little liberal arts, Ivy-League, pink-haired, crazy Liberal who’s never worked one day in the real world is trying to get rid of coal oven pizzerias in New York City,” Portnoy said in a blistering response to the city’s new rules.
“Do you know what’s going on in New York? You got people getting slashed in the subway. You got flash mobs robbing stores. And you’re coming for coal-oven pizzerias?”
Rep. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., expressed the same sentiment, but with a more refined tone.
“Instead of virtue signaling, let’s talk reasonable solutions that might actually help keep our air and water clean and leave New Yorkers’ pizza alone,” Garbarino tweeted.
“I’m all for responsible environmental practice, but tell Al Gore to take one less private jet or something. Give me a break!” Brooklyn Heights resident Saavi Sharma told the Post. “I’ve been bragging about this pizza to my family for like five years. Don’t mess with this.”
Headline USA’s Mark Pellin contributed to this report
