New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced the winners of $3.4 million in funding from the state’s Clean Transportation Prizes program for 17 projects to decarbonize trucking and busing, including five in New York City.
“As New York continues to pursue its nation-leading clean energy and climate goals, we must ensure that we are not leaving behind our traditionally underserved communities,” Hochul said in a statement. “The transportation sector is one of New York’s largest sources of pollution, and, too often, low-income New Yorkers and communities of color are forced to bear the brunt of the consequences.”
Among the projects is one by Volvo to deploy an electric garbage truck and an electric refrigerated truck in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood, as well as build a new charging hub for the area’s two dominant sectors, food and waste.
The neighborhood, across the East River from Riker’s Island, hosts the largest wholesale food hub in the U.S., nine waste transfer facilities and several large recycling yards, as well as 13,000 residents, all in the southern part of the poorest urban congressional district in the U.S.
The prize program, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, is intended to help the state achieve its target of an 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Each of the 17 winning projects will receive an award of up to $200,000, including $100,000 for further proposal development, up to $50,000 in funding for community partners, and up to $50,000 in in-kind support from technical consultants.
They will also be eligible to compete for larger prizes in Phase Two of the program, under which the Clean Neighborhoods Challenge, for example, includes up to three $10 million awards to innovative projects that address air pollution reduction at scale in underserved communities.
The state award for the Bronx project builds on an earlier city initiative to electrify trucking at Hunts Point, which in August directed a portion of its Volkswagen diesel settlement funds to purchase five new electric Volvo trucks.
“Targeting emissions from the transportation sector, particularly in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution from cars and trucks, will advance efforts to reach New York’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals while protecting public health and ultimately saving lives,” Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos said.
New York is trying to reduce transportation-related pollution not only through decarbonization, but also by increasing the availability of public buses and light rail and developing greenways to make bicycling safer and easier. (See NY Using Multitude of Strategies to Clean up Transit.)