Twitter titan Elon Musk spearheaded the backlash against New York City’s crackdown on coal-and-wood-fired pizzerias in the name of climate change.
The drafted new rules by the city’s Department of Environmental Protection requires eateries with such ovens installed prior to May 2016 to buy pricey emission-control devices —to slice carbon emissions and particulates by up to 75%
The new regs comply with Local 38 of 2015 approved by former Mayor Bill de Blasio — who was widely mocked after he was pictured eating a slice with a fork and knife.
“This is utter bs. It won’t make a difference to climate change,” Musk, the billionaire honcho whose Tesla company manufactures cleaner electric cars, said on Monday in a tweeted response to a Post story on the new city particulate emission rules targeting iconic slice makers.
Some slice-loving city politicians were beside themselves.
“We will save the planet by putting 9 or 10 fantastic #NYC pizzerias out of business! Gunna really change things you guys!,” said City Council Republican Minority Leader Joe Borelli.
Democrat-turned Republican Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan told city officials to leave his beloved Totonno’s crust coal oven pizzeria in Coney Island alone.
“Socialist Democrats believe Totonno’s pizza in Coney Island is a bigger threat to public safety than their defund NYPD and pro-criminal policies. We will stop them and this insanity,” Kagan tweeted.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is urging diners to visit his Long Island pizzerias, noting his government is not imposing pollution rules on them.
“You don’t mess with a New Yorker’s pizza or bagels. Period,” Blakeman said in a tweeted statement.
“Here in Nassau your local pizza place will continue to be able to make your pie the same way they have been for decades. We have some of the best pizza in the world, and it’s going to stay that way!,” he said.
Other iconic pizza joints facing the heat 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, Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint Grimaldi’s near the Brooklyn Bridge — that pride themselves on having their pies baked in coal-and-wood-fired ovens.
Meanwhile, the conservative shock artist Scott LoBaido said he was holding a symbolic protest — the New York Pizza Party akin to the Boston Tea Party by the Brooklyn Bridge.
“The Boston tea party, they tossed tea. Today will be the New York Pizza Party. I’ll be tossin Slices!,” Lobaido said.
“The woke-ass idiots who run this city are doing everything in their power to destroy it.”
This story originally appeared on NYPost
