East Hampton Town's energy sustainability advisory committee has recommended that the town board adopt legislation requiring a warning sticker on all fuel pumps in the town, drawing a connection between filling vehicles with fossil fuels and climate change.
Cambridge, Mass., recently became the first municipality in the country to require such stickers on fuel pumps. The stickers bear a message about "major consequences on human health and the environment including contributing to climate change" from the burning of gasoline, diesel, and ethanol. Similar actions have been taken in Canada and Sweden.
Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gases in New York State, accounting for 36 percent of emissions, according to the State Department of Environmental Conservation. The sticker, according to the committee, would be part of the town's education and outreach efforts to promote clean energy.
A fuel-pump sticker mandate, the committee said, would also help to promote electric vehicles, helping East Hampton achieve its energy sustainability goals in transportation by 2030, as well as the mandates of the state's Climate Leadership and Protection Act that all sectors in the economy be carbon neutral by 2050, with an interim target of a 40-percent reduction by 2030.
