The most energy-wasting landlord in the New York City is the city itself. Officials worry that metering energy use would saddle residents with bills they could not afford.

Crain's New York Business reports:

The most frustrating job in New York City might be curbing energy use at Housing Authority developments, which have 400,000 tenants on their leases but probably house about 700,000. The residents face challenges in their daily lives, but saving energy is not one of them—because the majority get no electric or heating bills.

It’s safe to say that Earth Day came and went Saturday, April 22, without much fanfare in the projects, which use 40% more energy than similar-size private buildings. The annual tab is $280 million.

Public-housing units tend not to have individual meters to measure electricity use. But some do, and what we know from them is extraordinary: Tenants without meters—who pay the same rent regardless of how much power they use—consume four times as much electricity as tenants who pay their own bills.

The authority’s energy czar, Bomee Jung, is honest about why the agency has not metered every unit: the fear that tenants would run up bills they could not afford. Many own inefficient air conditioners (which are cheaper to buy than Energy Star appliances) and blast them all summer—to keep their pets cool or so they can return home to a chilled apartment—and might not change their ways. Some elderly ones would do the opposite, keeping their units too hot and putting their health at risk.

But that is defeatist thinking. It patronizes tenants and cannot be justified given public housing’s desperate financial situation and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s goal to cut the city’s carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. All units should get meters and efficient ACs. This work would soon pay for itself.

Socialism does mean.... inefficiency. Don't you be a science denier.