Critics sounded off Monday against New York City's proposed crackdown on coal- and wood-fired ovens in the name of climate change.
"This is utter bs. It won’t make a difference to climate change," Elon Musk tweeted, reacting to the New York Post report that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is proposing new rules that would require eateries – including the Big Apple's famous pizzerias and bagel shops – that use coal- and wood-fired ovens to reduce carbon emissions by 75%.
"You don’t mess with a New Yorker’s Pizza or Bagels. Period," tweeted Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who represents the county that borders the Queens, New York City.
"Here in Nassau your local pizza place will continue to be able to make your pie the same way they have been for decades," Blakeman wrote. "We have some of the best pizza in the world, and it’s going to stay that way!"
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"Now the enviro crazies want to wreck New York pizza. Can’t we have a rebirth of common sense?" Jeff Clark tweeted to his more than 55,100 followers Monday.
"If there’s a single issue that could flip New York red it would be banning pizza ovens," Florida's Voice CEO Brendon Leslie commented to his nearly 130,000 Twitter followers.
Video also circulated online that showed activist Scott LoBaido confronted by a police officer Monday while LoBaido tossed slices of pizza over the gate to City Hall in protest of the proposal.
According to the Post, city officials said the plan would affect less than 100 restaurants citywide, but those that use coal- and wood-fired ovens installed before 2016 would be forced to buy expensive emission-control devices.
Paul Giannone, the owner of Paulie Gee’s in Brooklyn, told the Post that he has already shelled out $20,000 on a new air filtration system in anticipation of the city edict.
"It’s not just the expense of having it installed, it’s the maintenance. I got to pay somebody to do it, to go up there every couple of weeks and hose it down and, you know, do the maintenance," he reportedly said.
Other famous pizzerias that could be affected include Lombardi’s in Little Italy, Arturo’s in Soho, John’s of Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, Patsy’s in Turtle Bay and the Upper West Side, and Grimaldi’s near the Brooklyn Bridge.
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"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," DEP spokesman Ted Timbers said in a statement to the Post on Sunday. "This common-sense (sic) rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible."
Another pizza shop owner, whom the Post kept anonymous, said that DEP officials are privately negotiating with some pizza restaurants on whether to grandfather in and exempt dozens of businesses from the mandate.
"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," he said.
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"If you f--- around with the temperature in the oven, you change the taste. 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. You take away the char, the thing that makes the pizza taste great, you kill it," the business owner said. "And for what? You really think that you’re changing the environment with these eight or nine pizza ovens?"
FOX Business also reached out to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for comment Monday.
