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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New York bets big on green economy with climate innovation hub in Brooklyn
This story was originally published on Smart Cities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Smart Cities Dive newsletter. A consortium of Los Angeles and New York City economic development nonprofits is creating a 200,000-square-foot climate innovation hub on the waterfront in Brooklyn, New York. The BATWorks hub — named after the Brooklyn Army Terminal, an industrial campus where it's located — will provide green-economy startups with space to conduct research and development and will include workforce training and job placement programming for New Yorkers, according to a press release from New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is part of the consortium. BATWorks is 'cutting edge,' said Andrew Kimball, NYCEDC president and CEO, in a statement. The innovation hub 'will unlock new opportunities for startups and entrepreneurs, advance new innovative climate solutions, fuel job growth and strengthen Brooklyn's working waterfront,' he said. BATWorks will join several cleantech incubators that have opened throughout the country over the past decade. Nonprofit Greentown Labs has opened workspace to environmental and energy sector startups in Houston; and Somerville, Massachusetts. The University of Tennessee launched the Spark Innovation Center in Knoxville. And this year, the Seattle Climate Innovation Hub launched through a collaboration involving the city of Seattle and the University of Washington. NYCEDC announced its BATWorks partnership with Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator on May 22. LACI, which has taken a leading role in providing space and support for cleantech startups since it was founded by the city of Los Angeles and its Department of Water and Power in 2011, launched the National Coalition of Clean Energy Incubators in 2020. Tech and science coworking space company Cambridge Innovation Center will also lead the BATWorks consortium. LACI will advise climate programming for the new hub and lead a pilot program that allows emergency climate technology companies to test products in a live built environment — part of its Climate Innovation Challenge, which provides funding and assistance to companies testing out their innovations, the NYCEDC press release stated. BATWorks is also part of New York Mayor Eric Adams' development plans for the city's waterfront and its Green Economy Action Plan, which lays out the city's goals for addressing climate change and creating 400,000 green economy jobs by 2040, the press release stated. NYCEDC, which invested $100 million into the new hub, says it expects BATWorks will create more than 600 jobs, service 150 startups over 10 years and generate $2.6 billion in economic impact for New York City. The new facility will provide companies with space to build products, quickly prototype new technology and carry out research and development, the press release stated. It will also provide green-economy job workforce training to people living in the city. Construction will begin on the hub this year, and it is expected to open in 2028, said Chelsea Sudaley, an NYCEDC spokesperson. Recommended Reading How Washington, D.C.'s first climate week came together Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Alstom opens new passenger rail car manufacturing plant in New York
This story was originally published on Smart Cities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Smart Cities Dive newsletter. Alstom, a global supplier of rail vehicles, locomotives and related infrastructure, opened a $75 million manufacturing facility Monday in Hornell, New York, adding to its existing production site. The 135,000 square foot plant will begin producing 200 multilevel commuter rail cars for Metra, Chicago's commuter rail system. The fourth plant on the site will manufacture stainless steel car body shells for passenger rail vehicles, bringing production back from Brazil. Buoyed by growth in its Americas region, Alstom's plant expansion enables it to reshore production of car body shells to the U.S. That could be essential for the company to win contracts that must comply with the Buy America Act, which requires that at least 70% of each rail car be made in the U.S. and that final assembly must take place in the U.S. Some of Alstom's current projects include multilevel rail cars for New Jersey Transit, an automated people mover system at Los Angeles International Airport and Amtrak's new Acela train sets for the Northeast Corridor. The new facility will create 258 jobs and retain 390 existing jobs, Alstom said in a news release. 'These are generational, family-sustaining union careers that benefit the entire community,' International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers President Brian Bryant said in a statement. Alstom benefitted from federal, state and local grants, job and tax credit programs toward the new plant. 'I was proud to secure $3.4 million in federal funding to put Alstom on the fast track to expand and house this new manufacturing facility,' Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. The high-tech facility includes automated welding robots to make precision welds for assemblies up to 80 feet long. Alstom says that will improve quality and lower costs for transit authority customers. 'When we invest in American manufacturing, we create good jobs that have a ripple effect across the entire region,' Michael Keroullé, president of Alstom Americas, said in a statement. 'Plant 4 upholds our long-standing commitment to making trains in America.' Recommended Reading FTA awards $631M to 3 transit agencies for new rail cars Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Congress votes to rescind California vehicle emissions waiver
This story was originally published on Smart Cities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Smart Cities Dive newsletter. The U.S. Senate passed three joint resolutions May 22 nullifying California's ability to set emissions standards for passenger cars, light duty vehicles and trucks that are stricter than national standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Auto and petroleum industry lobbyists targeted California's Advanced Clean Car II regulations, adopted in 2022, which require all new passenger cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by the 2035 model year. Federal law set in 1990 allows 17 additional states and the District of Columbia to follow California's regulations. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, announced the state's intention to file a lawsuit blocking the congressional resolutions, which await the signature of President Donald Trump to become law. California's ability to set its own vehicle emissions standards stem from the 1967 Air Quality Act, passed at a time when smog and poor air quality often permeated the Los Angeles basin. While air quality in California has improved over the years, experts fear a setback from the Senate's action. 'Public health could potentially suffer as a consequence,' said Michael Kleeman, a professor at the University of California, Davis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 'This is, plain and simple, a vote against clean air to breathe," said Aaron Kressig, transportation electrification manager at Western Resource Advocates, in an emailed statement. He warned of potential lost days at school or work and premature deaths. 'Over 150 million people in the United States are already exposed to unhealthy levels of air pollution,' Steven Higashide, director of the Clean Transportation Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in an emailed statement. 'The standards are based on the best available science, and were finalized with extensive public input.' Along with public health concerns, the debate around California's emissions waivers include policy, auto and petroleum industry resistance and debate over states' rights. Republicans argue that California overstepped its prerogative. 'The California waivers rules are an improper expansion of a limited Clean Air Act authority and would endanger consumers, our economy, and our nation's energy supply,' Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said May 20 in the Senate chamber. Industry opponents of the emission waivers cheered the Senate's action. 'The fact is these EV sales mandates were never achievable,' John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an auto industry lobbying group, said in a statement. Bozella noted the automakers key concern: 'The problem really isn't California. It's the 11 states that adopted California's rules without the same level of readiness for EV sales requirements of this magnitude.' Petroleum industry leaders weighed in May 23 with a joint statement. 'The United States Senate delivered a victory for American consumers, manufacturers, and U.S. energy security by voting to overturn the prior administration's EPA rule authorizing California's gas car ban and preventing its spread across our country,' said American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers in a published statement. California and 10 other states formed a coalition to foster cleaner and more affordable vehicles, Newsom announced May 23. Led by the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan group of 24 governors, the Affordable Clean Cars Coalition said in a news release that it would 'consider next steps for our clean vehicle programs' and work to preserve the states' authority under the Clean Air Act. Participating states include California, Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington. 'The fact remains that states have the legal right under the Clean Air Act to protect their residents from vehicle pollution,' Sierra Club Climate Policy Director Patrick Drupp said in an emailed statement. Recommended Reading Congress could soon revoke California's vehicle emissions standards Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Boston unveils new path to first-time homeownership
This story was originally published on Smart Cities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Smart Cities Dive newsletter. A Boston program is offering first-time homebuyers down payment assistance for co-purchasing arrangements in which multiple families purchase a two- or three-family home under a single mortgage. The Co-Purchasing Housing Pilot Program, which launched in March, offers as much as $50,000 in zero-percent interest-deferred loans to cover down payments or closing costs to eligible families of two earning roughly $176,000 in combined yearly income. The program allows families who have been priced out of Boston's expensive housing market to 'come together and combine the assistance and any other down payment resources that they saved to get into a multifamily property,' said Paige Roosa, director of Boston's Mayor's Housing Innovation Lab. The cost of buying a home in Boston is out of reach for many middle-income earners. According to Boston's Housing Innovation Lab, the price of a market-rate two-bedroom condo in the city in 2024 reached $790,000. Boston, like many cities and states throughout the U.S., has a first-time homebuyer assistance program to help make homeownership obtainable for middle-income earners. The city's new program provides up to $50,000 to households earning up to 100% of the area median income or up to $35,000 to households earning up to 135% of AMI, said Roosa. Households that earn a combined income of roughly $130,000 — about 100% of AMI — have a purchasing power of about $500,000, said Roosa. In 2024, only 12% of the homes in the Boston market sold for less than that amount, she said. To afford a home, some people have opted to go in on multifamily properties with other friends or family members, said Roosa. However, when two or three families are put on a single mortgage to buy a two- or three-decker home — a common type of housing in Boston — their combined income exceeds the income limit for the city's existing first-time homebuyer assistance program, Roosa said. That's an issue, given that a 2024 Boston Housing Innovation Lab survey found that 55% of people interested in co-purchasing a home said they did not have enough savings for the down payment and closing cost. But through the Co-Purchasing Housing Pilot Program, everyone on the mortgage is evaluated individually for eligibility, she said. Under the pilot program, each household included on the mortgage needs to be a primary resident of the home, said Roosa. Eligible households must also be considered a first-time homebuyer and have less than $100,000 in liquid assets (excluding government-sponsored retirement accounts). Like the city's normal first-time homebuyer assistance program, households earning up to 100% of AMI can receive up to $50,000, or up to $35,000 if they earn up to 135% of AMI. The program will not cover the entire down payment needed for two or three eligible households to buy a $1.2 million triple-decker home, but it will help, said Roosa. These types of co-purchasing arrangements can come with financial risks but also benefits such as sharing transportation and food costs and chore duties, she said. 'It ends up being a really cooperative and efficient and happier way of living,' she said. Recommended Reading Tariff concerns mean uncertainty for multifamily housing, industry economist says
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Congress could soon revoke California's vehicle emissions standards
This story was originally published on Smart Cities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Smart Cities Dive newsletter. Environmental and public health experts warn that efforts to improve air quality will be hindered if Congress revokes an Environmental Protection Agency waiver allowing California to require all new sales of light-duty trucks and passenger cars to be zero-emission vehicles by the 2035 model year. The Senate could vote as soon as next week to nix the waiver, according to Politico. 'Without these provisions, manufacturers will be less likely to produce cleaner cars and trucks,' said Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All Campaign. 'We are concerned that if these waivers are overturned, that states will have more challenges in meeting their air quality targets. And what that means is more asthma, more health issues among the residents that live in areas or work in areas that are the most burdened by pollution from cars and trucks.' The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution May 1 to disapprove the waiver using the Congressional Review Act, a law that allows Congress to rescind certain regulations enacted in the last months of a presidential administration. In doing so, the House ignored a March 6 Government Accountability Office legal decision that the Clean Air Act preemption waiver was not subject to the CRA. The nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian separately also determined that the EPA waiver is not subject to the CRA. On May 1, 20 Democratic senators signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., warning of 'far-reaching and likely irreversible consequences' if the Senate ignores the parliamentarian's advice. 'If the current Senate Majority were to open this door, the CRA could be weaponized to retroactively invalidate decades of agency actions,' the letter states. At the heart of this debate is California's authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards, which goes back decades. In the 1950s, research found that hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides in automobile exhaust react with sunlight to form smog. The 1967 Air Quality Act preempted states from adopting their own emissions standards, but it carved out an exemption for California, recognizing the state's unique geography and expanding population. In 1990, Congress amended the act to allow other states to adopt California's standards; 17 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some portion of California's regulations. 'I grew up in Los Angeles, so there are tremendous strides here [on air quality] compared to the way it used to be when I was a kid,' said Ed Avol, professor emeritus at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. But while progress has been made, he said, 'We now better understand health impacts at more subtle levels' of air pollution. Air pollution has long been associated with lung diseases, but Avol explained that air toxins can also get into the human bloodstream. 'It affects your cognitive health. It affects the ability of children to learn in school … It affects the rate and speed of our mental decline and has been shown to affect Alzheimer's and dementia,' he said. Transportation in California is the source of about 50% of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, almost 80% of nitrogen oxide pollution and 90% of particulate matter pollution from diesel engines, according to the California Energy Commission. Congress and the Trump administration have targeted the California Air Resources Board's Advanced Clean Cars II regulations, adopted in 2022. The rule is often referred to as a ban on sales of gasoline-powered vehicles, or as an electric vehicle mandate, but the rule permits sales of plug-in hybrid vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in addition to EVs. Some automakers initially supported the ACC II regulations. General Motors said in a 2022 letter to CARB it is 'committed to emission reductions that are aligned with the California Air Resources Board's targets.' Former Tesla Senior Counsel for Policy and Business Development Joe Mendelson, speaking at a 2022 congressional hearing, said, 'The proposal is both achievable and paves the way for California to lead in electrifying the light-duty sector … Tesla encourages the Board to adopt today the ACC II regulations.' "There was a major campaign of the oil industry and of the auto industry that [has] been extremely adamant that these waivers should be overturned.' Katherine García Director, Clean Transportation for All Campaign, Sierra Club But the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry lobbying group, said in a Dec. 11, 2024, memo that automakers are unlikely to achieve the sales targets ACC II requires. The AAI noted that 11 other states, representing about 30% of the U.S. vehicle market, had adopted the California standards as of the date of the memo. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, which represents the oil industry, conducted what it called a 'major seven-figure issue campaign' in 2024 'meant to raise awareness about the various federal policies aimed at ending gas cars.' 'Based on conversations we had with members of the House, there was a major campaign of the oil industry and of the auto industry that [has] been extremely adamant that these waivers should be overturned,' the Sierra Club's García said. California is undeterred. No Clean Air Act waiver has ever been revoked, and the one previous denial was quickly reversed, according to CARB. 'The House's approval of the Congressional Review Act resolution is inconsistent with past precedent and violates the plain language of the Congressional Review Act itself,' CARB Director of Communications Lindsay Buckley said in an email. 'The vote does not change CARB's authority. CARB will continue its mission to protect the public health of Californians impacted by harmful air pollution.' More than 156 million people, representing 46% of the U.S. population, live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association's 2025 'State of the Air' report. Five of the 10 most polluted counties in the nation are in California. While the EPA sets national ambient air quality standards, state and tribal governments are responsible for meeting those standards. State and local governments in areas that do not meet the EPA targets set for them must develop implementation plans showing how they will reduce emissions to meet their targets and maintain air quality at those levels. Those plans can include stronger pollution laws. 'We are concerned that if these waivers are overturned, states will have more challenges in meeting their air quality targets,' García said. 'The innovations that have come out of California's need to [reduce air pollution] have benefited everyone and greatly increased public health,' said Michael Kleeman, a professor at the University of California, Davis, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Kleeman noted that today's automobiles are 'immensely clean' compared with those in previous decades. However, climate change has worsened ozone pollution, according to the American Lung Association. 'Our best estimate is that you need to reduce the emissions of oxides of nitrogen by something on the order of 40[%] or 50% in order to make a dent in the ozone problem,' Kleeman said. 'And you can't get there unless you can basically electrify a large part of the [vehicle] fleet.' Recommended Reading California sets road map to complete ban on gasoline-powered vehicle sales by 2035 Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
