 the Lenape. So my name is Briana Carvajal, the state legislative manager at We Act for Environmental Justice. Pronouns are they she. And we are so excited to have you here with us to learn more about this initiative. If you aren't familiar with our organization, We Act for Environmental Justice is a 33 year old Northern Manhattan based organization. Our mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health policies and practices. We work to inform and engage residents so they may participate fully in decision making on key issues that impact their health and community so they become the primary advocates for strong and equal environmental protections. We Act also does a lot of community based participatory research on indoor and outdoor air pollution, toxic chemicals, childhood lead poisoning, and transportation to name a few of our legislative priorities. And we also advise on city and state programs to budget advocacy work amongst many other things. We have a city, state and federal federal legislative team to implement environmental justice legislation on all levels of government. So for today, the goal of power up NYC, the study is to develop specific actions the city government can take to move us away from an energy system dependent on dirty fossil fuels towards one that's equitable, sustainable, resilient and affordable for all New Yorkers. It's specifically important for Manhattan residents to get involved in shaping New York City's energy future. Our community has faced issues related to Manhattan concerns which is high energy bills, air quality. So NYCHA, which is our public housing, represents 8.2% of the city's rental apartments and is home to 4.9% of the city's population to 10.4 million tons of carbon dioxide from natural gas alone, which is the largest source of emissions in the state. In city, over 50% to 400% higher than homes with electric stoves. And this means that gas stoves release NO2. Sorry to interrupt. Oh, it tries to get back on. Connie, would you mind kicking us off? Am I back? You're back. Okay. Where did I get off? You were talking about... Sorry for gas stoves. Apologies, everyone. NOx from gas stoves. Great. Thank you. Yeah. So gas stoves are NOx, which is a lead in respiratory and cardiac issues in children along with IQ deficits. They're also incredibly high rates in northern men, high rates of asthma in northern Manhattan and the lower east side. And right now it's summertime. So right now actually going back to gas stoves, we're doing a campaign called out of gas in with justice in which we're doing an energy study to replace these gas stoves that are unhealthy to induction or electric stoves. And we are very excited to see what the outcome is on that. And that is in public housing at the moment. There is also incredibly high rates of asthma in northern Manhattan and the lower east side. So these are incredibly... These are issues that are incredibly related to low-income communities of color. And we work hard to defend these communities through various campaigns we're doing. So we're also doing heat energy study. And as we know, heat is... It means a lot for utilizing higher energy in our homes with air conditioning. And that also leads to higher utility debt and peaker plants coming on, which increases the air pollution in communities of color predominantly as are cited in predominantly low-income communities of color. So this is very much a relevant issue for Manhattan in general. And overall we look forward to community feedback and shaping an energy future that benefits the communities you represent we act. So an overview of our agenda. The goal of the community town hall is to introduce you all to the Power Up NYC Energy Planning Initiative, provide an overview of the proposed research topics to be included in the study, and give you all a chance to provide us with feedback and help shape the development of the city's plan. There will be a second round of community town halls held in fall 2022, where the public will get another chance to participate in the development of the plan. Our agenda breaks down nine research topics into four sections. After each section we will have time for questions or comments. So I will now get into the guidelines of our questions. We invite you to share your thoughts on which topics the city should consider. Use the raise hand function at this time. Use the raise hand function when it's your time to speak and we will call your name when it's your turn. We will be limiting comments to one minute so everyone gets a chance to speak. At the end of the session we will be sharing a survey and other information and we encourage you to share your feedback as well. So at this time, if you have any questions or you want to share concerns during the section overview, you can type them in the Zoom chat or you can message the host directly who I believe is Angel. And yes, thank you. So I will pass it off. Thank you so much for that intro Brianna. Hi everyone. My name is Claudia Villa-Linmen, I'm an Energy Policy Advisor for the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice where I spent the last three years or so supporting the energy transition. So I figured I would just start with addressing the question, what is a just energy transition? And actually echoing many of the priorities that Brianna just so eloquently laid out, to me a just energy transition means making sure all New York City residents can afford to pay their energy bills, making our buildings more energy efficient so that they're healthier and more comfortable to live in, investing in more resilient energy like backup battery storage that can provide clean power during emergencies and extreme weather events, shutting down New York City's in-city power plants and achieving 100% clean electricity generated from sources like rooftop solar and offshore wind, making sure that truck and bus fleets are electric and zero emissions so they don't pollute our streets and kids growing up in New York City don't take asthma as a given. So at the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice our team is really dedicated to helping New Yorkers access the benefits of the energy transition while also adapting our neighborhoods and preparing for the increasing impact of climate change. So while our team has really big ambitions for the work that we want to do in partnership with New Yorker, you all here today, I think it's really important to start by recognizing the legacy of past government actors who have marginalized Black, Brown and low-income communities with practices like redlining, like building highways that carve up neighborhoods and saddling low-income communities with the burden of polluting infrastructure like power plants and waste transfer stations. Our energy transition really needs to focus on righting the wrongs of the past and prioritizing the needs of frontline communities. So of course to do that it's really critical that we're prioritizing centering community voices and shaping the energy transition planning process. So that's sort of the goal of what we're trying to do with this study and I think that the success of Power Up NIC will only really be possible with close coordination with you all, our community partners and so your feedback will really enable us to develop a report with specific commitments that are really grounded in the needs of New York City communities especially those that have been historically underserved. So it's really a privilege to partner with We Act on this important work. Obviously We Act has been leading the charge on this front for many decades and we really hope to start rebuilding that community trust between city government and communities and really jump start transformational change. So thank you all for being here today as part of that process. We're really looking forward to working from you and learning from you today and I guess with that I can kick it back over to the KC3 team. Thank you so much Claudia. I will actually now be sharing a video but before we start I just wanted to reiterate some of the Zoom rules. We did want everyone to use a raise hand function during the questions and comment section just so we can ensure you know folks can have a fair chance to speak and yeah I will get started. NYC is a collaborative year-long effort to catalyze city government action to clean up our air, make energy bills more affordable, create good paying jobs and create opportunities for local community-owned clean energy. Through PowerUp NYC, MOCHA is working with community leaders, energy experts and New York City residents to develop policy solutions and actionable strategies city government will advance in the next four years to achieve a vision by 2050. PowerUp NYC will work with city agency partners to co-create practical solutions that are aligned with the energy and needs and targets of the city and state, reflective of an inclusive approach to energy leadership and governance and grounded in the needs of New York City residents prioritizing frontline communities and communities that have been historically underserved. Excessive reports and analyses have been published regarding the future of New York City's energy system and a significant transformation that will be needed in the coming years to meet our climate and equity targets and mandates. The PowerUp NYC study will synthesize this existing body of work to inform specific pathways of city government action over the next four years to put us on track to meeting long-term energy goals. However, in some areas, more research may be needed in order to make informed recommendations for city action. Our team identifies key research areas that have not yet been studied that will be carefully designed to provide outputs that directly inform actionable strategies that can be taken in the next four years. We begin with two building electrification research area studies. Building electrification, assessing the feasibility and cost of heat pumps. In December 2021, New York City passed into local law mandate phasing out the combustion of fossil fuels in new buildings and accelerating the construction of all electric buildings. The law requires further study of the technical feasibility of heat pump technologies that can provide heat and hot water in new all electric buildings. For each of these technologies, the PowerUp NYC team will pull from existing research and conduct new analysis as needed to understand a series of questions. Is the technology capable of serving 100% of heating load during the coldest days of the winter? What are the costs to install the technology? What are the costs to operate the technology based on forecast energy rates? What will be the environmental impacts of the technology mostly in terms of reduced emissions? Confirming the fitness of existing technologies to satisfy the local law will provide the city with a clearer path forward for decarbonizing new buildings at minimal costs and maximum benefit to owners and residents. Next up is building electrification, exploring and addressing affordability challenges. Reaching our climate goals will require many existing buildings to switch their heating and hot water systems from fossil fuels to clean electricity. It is imperative that this transition be planned appropriately so as to ensure it is affordable for all New Yorkers. The second Building Electrification Research Area study will focus on how to prioritize housing affordable to low-income residents in the building decarbonization transition. The study will look at a series of example buildings that are representative of low-income housing stock and the barriers to decarbonization of these buildings. Some of the barriers included will be the need to remediate housing quality issues such as mold, failing envelopes, and pests before decarbonization. The possibility of high electric bills after switching from fuel to electric heating and the upfront costs of heat pumps and weatherization. The study will identify the technology solutions best suited to overcome these barriers for each example, giving the city a roadmap for decarbonizing key low-income building typologies. The study will also estimate the total cost of decarbonized low-income housing and the fraction of this cost that cannot be covered by existing and anticipated federal, state, and utility programs. With this information, the power of NYC team will identify strategies that the city can employ to shrink this remaining cost while preserving and improving housing quality. We will now pause for questions or comments. You may either type your questions or comments and put them in the Zoom chat for us to answer or you may use the raise hand function on Zoom and we will have our moderator unmute you when it is your turn to speak. If you are speaking, we ask that you keep your comments to under one minute so that everyone has a chance to share. Yes, hi everyone. My name is Sonal Jaisal. I'm the Director of Policy at WEACT and we already gave our introduction but I'm happy to be here with you all today. So what we're doing is taking about 10 minutes to hear your questions about what was just presented. I do want to start with a little bit of a backup and then take questions. Some of you might not know what building electrification is or what heat pumps are and what this technology is. So just some quick definitions. Building electrification is the idea that you're moving away from using energy sources like natural gas or fuel oil in your home and instead might be powering everything in your home with electricity. So for New York City a lot of that time means you're getting all of your energy from con Edison for example or if in your public housing you might be getting your energy from the New York Power Authority. So in general the understanding is that we need buildings to go towards electricity and move away from natural gas and fossil fuels because natural gas and fuel oils are fossil fuels which is the fuel sources that create climate change and so we need to move away from those so that we can have homes that are running on electricity and the energy comes from solar and wind and other renewable energy sources. So the question is how do we do that in New York City? And heat pumps is one of the conversations that we have where this is a new technology or a new ish technology where it's a more efficient way of heating or cooling your home. It's called a heat pump but it can also cool your home so it's a little bit more like a central air unit instead of a window AC unit for example that might go into your window that might you might put in your window yourself. So heat pumps is a little bit more something that can be centralized in a building. With that being said I would like to open it up to questions that people have or comments around putting in heat pumps so basically putting in new technology to cool and heat your home more efficiently. What are the questions you have? What are the barriers? And then the second piece around affordability is in general as we move away from natural gas if we are using more electricity in our homes how can we do that in a way that everyone no matter their income can do that? What are the issues that you're worried about? What are the barriers coming up? So if you have a question please raise your hand or put your question in the chat. I believe we have a question from Marion in the chat. Are the resources or other benefits if you enroll? Marion if you would like to come raise your hand or get on camera we can address your question a little further with clarification. Okay Marion no problem so you're wondering if there are resources out of benefits if you enroll. I assume you mean if you enroll in getting a heat pump or enroll in getting your building to be electric. So I'm wondering if Zach wants to talk about what kinds of programs that might be that they're exploring and if that's a question we want to add to our research questions. Absolutely and good evening all Zachary Sittily with E3. E3 is one of the consulting firms that's helping do the research that's envisioned by this project. I'll start by saying that both the state the city and the utility have all been conceiving different ways to fund heat pumps. There's an upfront cost of any infrastructure that you purchase and there's also if you're switching fuel from natural gas to electric or from fuel level to electric there potentially are going to be additional costs associated with that electricity. Heat pumps are really preferred because of the efficiency so overall they're going to provide a greater efficiency and to address your question directly about funding there are some existing funding sources that exist. This research is thinking about the overall cost the life cycle cost of that equipment and what additional funding may be necessary. So what we envision researching is essentially what we call a missing money analysis where we look at grants and incentives that exist and then what it would actually cost the user and figuring out what that difference is and finding ways to fill that. So potentially an output of this research would be some sort of city program that could potentially fund this. It could be advocacy that the city carries out to find other funding from the state or from the federal government. I hope I answered your question and if not feel free to shoot it in the chat and then we can follow up. Thank you and so these are all questions that you all are putting in the chat which are amazing and they're all questions that the team will be incorporating into answering in the energy study that they're doing. So all of these questions are really helpful. Another question is what are the financial constraints to transitioning to a heat pump? So it might cost more money to put in a heat pump than pay for your own AC to put in your window and what are those financial constraints? And there's also questions about questions about what was said for WEACT which I think is maybe a little bit of an aside from the energy program that we're working on here but yeah we do have um there this the pilot study that was mentioned is the only study we're currently working on but the city is also working on like this energy this power of NYC study for example is for all of the boroughs so our organization isn't working on the other boroughs with our program but that's part of this power of NYC program. Another question that's coming in is how New York can be helping to stand up against frat gas utilities that are resisting electrification? Is that a question that we are exploring in the energy plan? We can jump in on that one so thanks so much for your question. I think that this is definitely something that we're considering as part of part of our study the role of that utilities are going to play in transition so electricity is going to be an essential part of the transition so just as Zach was mentioning and others were mentioning we want to switch away from fossil fuels to electrifying as many end uses as possible which include buildings that were previously relying on sources like natural gas we want to electrify them when we can cars and trucks when they were previously relying on gasoline or diesel we want to electrify those as well so electricity is going to be a huge part of the transition and of course our current utilities are providing electricity so figuring out the best way to get the utilities on board to switch change to cleaner sources of energy is absolutely a priority. There's many proceedings that are happening at the state level Conradisson is regulated by the public service commission that determines what Conrad is allowed to spend money on so there's definitely a lot of deeper conversation that we could have on the different things that Conrad is investing in but the city is absolutely encouraging the transition to clean electricity and in fact the state mandates 100% clean electricity by 2040. Could I just have a quick follow-up is that okay? Sure go ahead. Okay yeah I know we're part of the Conradisson rate case now that's being determined by the public service commission and in there what they're requesting is is like a massive expansion of millions and millions of our dollars building out fracked gas infrastructure so we want them to not do that so we can push for electrification so I just like hope that the city is going to really like stand with us on that and be more vocal because we really need you. Thanks for that comment. Yep the city is definitely very involved in the rate case proceeding. I think the purpose is this of this call just to save time and to stay focused we'll just focus on the research that is being proposed as part of the PowerUp NYC study but absolutely I hear you. Thank you I think we're getting to time where we need to go on to the next one but I'll say there's a lot of questions coming in the chat which are wonderful and are all questions that are forming the PowerUp NYC study so thank you all for putting your questions and please keep putting them in and they they are meant to be addressed both through the chat and then in this study so I'll pass it off to move to the next. We will now move on to transportation electrification research area studies. Transportation electrification strategically deploying electric vehicle charging using spatial mapping analysis to prioritize environmental justice goals. New York City's transportation sector is unique compared to most other cities. Here New Yorkers walk and rely on public transit more than any other major city in the United States. Despite our reliance on public transit there are more than 2.5 million light duty vehicles registered in New York City. Decarbonizing the transportation sector will require replacing these vehicles that run on gasoline with clean alternatives. The predicted widespread adoption of new electric vehicles in the future will necessitate major investments in charging infrastructure. This research area study will help the city understand the best location for those chargers. The project will have a specific focus on making charging infrastructure accessible in frontline communities and to ride share service drivers. The study will use advanced analytics to predict where EVs are likely to be adopted and will consider how income eligible fundings could encourage EV adoption in neighborhoods that currently do not have many EVs. The research will help New York City meet their 2030 goals by informing strategy and location for installations. The next transportation electrification study looks at preparing for New York City school bus electrification. New York City has ambitious goals for transitioning diesel school buses to electric buses by 2035. In partnership with the city the New York City School Bus Umbrella Corporation an independent nonprofit that will manage school bus operations is pursuing an aggressive goal of having an all electric school bus fleet by 2030 and becoming a model for electrified urban pupil transportation. To help achieve these goals we will conduct research on key questions related to electric school bus adoption. Some areas of focus will be what are the key barriers to school bus electrification for private companies and for the New York City School Bus Umbrella Corporation and how can they be overcome. What approaches will maximize benefits to frontline communities for example by supporting the local workforce. What innovative and more affordable technologies might be available and what funding opportunities might exist. The research findings will inform the city's action plan for electric school bus adoption. We will now pause for questions or comments. You may either type your questions or comments and put them in the zoom chat for us to answer or you may use the raise hand function on zoom and we will have our moderator unmute you when it is your turn to speak. If you are speaking we ask that you keep your comments to under one minute so that everyone has a chance to share. Hi everyone so please open up just like we did with the buildings section. Please put any questions you have in the chat about transportation and energy use and to reiterate this transportation sector is really important. It is the number two contributor to greenhouse gas emissions which causes climate change in New York City so it's really important that we are reducing our use of fossil fuels through transportation for that means using electric vehicles and vehicles that aren't polluting so much. So I'm handing it off to Liz on our team to field some questions. Hi everyone I'm Elizabeth I'm a Cecil Corbyn Mark Fellow with React and the first question that I saw sorry they're coming in super fast. One of them is asking from Andrew Banall Kars. There's another one that's asking about regarding the building electrification feasibility study and it's asking if there's going to be any efforts to capture non-energy impacts like health and energy insecurity and looking into ways to account for these in the context of building electrification. Yeah that's a good question yeah so Claudia maybe you guys can answer it while we're waiting for more transportation questions to come in about the non-energy benefits. Sure I think that's absolutely a priority. It can sometimes be a little bit more difficult to quantify but we definitely don't want a situation where we're encouraging building owners to do you know intense weatherization with air sealing if there are mold or pest issues within the apartment so we absolutely are a priority rising health and quality of life and the way that we're envisioning building decarbonization transition that has to be front and center in order to achieve our just energy transition goals so appreciate you you pushing that to the forefront here I don't know if Zach you have more details on how the study would would be specifically incorporated. No I think that's good feedback for us to take back what we have as we started design the research started to think about ways to quantify the non-energy benefits and absolutely the point about housing quality is something that came to the forefront right as we started talking about this there's there's good reason to always start with efficiency and try to minimize the size of of the cost of electrification but then also at the same time this idea of tightening up homes and making sure that you know you're weatherized for efficiency potentially could have effects that that are not desirable so you have to think about both simultaneously so that would be captured in the research as as currently conceived. Great another question is asking about the possibility of partnerships with NYCHA and other subsidized buildings to provide charging stations as a revenue source that can benefit the tenants and provide rent stability. I was going to say that so we've we've spoken with staff at NYCHA on many topics including including this one and we're looking for partnerships not only with NYCHA but across many city agencies we think there's going to be lots of opportunity to leverage some of the existing work so we just had a call with NYCHA believe it was last week about some of the programs they have not only around rooftop solar but also some pilots they have to install charging stations so absolutely the goal of this is to figure out what's going on around the city and make sure that good models are being replicated elsewhere. Thank you Bailey is asking about if this is also applicable to Department of Sanitation sanitation trucks as they pollute and contribute a lot to pollution. Yeah that comment I made that comment because as we know Department of Sanitation trucks and the private sanitation trucks roam around the communities they don't stay in one community so that's the reason why I brought that up as well. Yeah it's a great point I don't think we've we've gone down that path yet but we certainly could reach out to Department of Sanitation and engage their level of interest. There are other fleet electrification studies ongoing so part of our effort was to understand what other city agencies are doing to make sure that we're not duplicative but we'll certainly take the action to reach out to DSNY and see if there's interest in being a part of this research. Another question is asking about the standard for the transition to all electric school buses the retrofitting of the current stock or the purchase of a new fleet. Will the variation in the cost of this transition be the subject of some part of the research? Yes absolutely and that's that's really the first topic is really to look at not only the private fleets but also nice bus and to see what options exist. These are very aggressive goals that were just set at the end of last year so part of what this research is supposed to do is kind of fill in the gaps of what it's really going to cost what options exist. There's folks who are advocating for repowering diesel buses as a way to promote jobs in communities. There's also obviously good reason to consider what the options and what the costs are going to be of electric fleet down the road to fully electrify buses and to purchase new buses. So that will be the the the purpose of this research. There's a question that's asking if there are any resources to any of the existing resource I'm sorry rooftop solar projects that are happening and they would love to share them. So we can certainly so one of the things that is going to be developed as part of this project is a a website where we can provide updates on the study and we can also provide links to other resources that exist. So we can start compiling those and share those with we act and the other CBOs who are participating with us as a way to get information back out to those who participate. We can also direct you to the website and we can start hosting links there if that's of interest. I think I understood the question which is can we get more information on those programs is that right? Um yeah I there yes. Okay very good yep we'll follow up with more info. There's a question that's asking how schools are going to be able to afford the new buses when most schools in urban communities are struggling with their budget. So I think with the research what we're what we're trying to determine is really what the cost is going to be and use that as a jumping off point to figure out how we can fund it. So we know it's going to be expensive and we're going to have to look for for ways to fund it and part of the research is going to be determining what actions the city can take and also where the city could potentially advocate for funds from outside the city whether it be from the state or from the federal government who is pushing lots of money into electrification of fleets as well. I think we'll pass it back to our host to move us on to the next section. Thank you so much everyone for your great questions it's really going to help inform the study. And please as you think of anything new anything around transportation the buses you use every day the subways you ride every day traffic anything you're concerned about please just put it in the chat it will be very helpful. The next four topics will be on clean energy and grid readiness evaluating the reliability and resiliency of the city's grid under electrification scenarios. This research area will examine the New York City grid's readiness in the face of demand growth as a result of widespread electrification. We will assess the impacts on New York City's electricity demand as the buildings and transportation sectors are electrified. For example the research will identify the impacts of electric vehicle charging on citywide electricity consumption patterns. To ensure that the electric grid remains reliable while demand grows we will also examine what new resources may be required in New York City in addition to the resources that are already under development. The research area will inform city strategies on ways to facilitate the acceleration of electrification while adopting practices to manage the impacts that electrification has on the New York City electric grid by encouraging electrification in local areas where it does not place additional stress on the electric grid and by incentivizing consumption during times of low demand. Next we have energy storage building utility scale storage on non-city owned land and as a strategy to replace fossil fuel power plants. This research area study will explore opportunities to build large scale battery storage across the city. By charging during times of high renewable output and discharging during times of peak demand storage can support the clean energy transition and help us reduce our reliance on fossil fuel powered plants. We will first examine the impacts of new clean energy and transmission resources that are being developed in New York City and across the state and how New York's clean energy transition will impact the amount that in-city fossil plants are operated. The research will then assess which fossil plants may become good candidates for placement and where the development of battery storage resources could be prioritized to support retirement or reduced usage of these fossil plants. The assessment will support city decision making to incentivize clean energy development to deliver the greatest benefits to New York City communities leading to reductions in carbon emissions and air pollution including where there may be opportunities to deliver concrete outside benefits for front line communities. Public land leveraging city real estate to support more clean energy infrastructure. New York City government is the largest landowner in New York City with thousands of buildings and land parcels across the five boroughs including schools, public housing and administrative buildings. This research area study will focus on how the city can use public real estate to support the interconnection of new clean energy resources like solar, storage and or electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It will also explore how the city can design agreements regarding the use of this land to maximize community benefits such as community ownership and or build discounts for front line communities. While city agencies like the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Economic Development Corporation have already made significant strides towards deploying clean energy on public land, significant bureaucratic and legal hurdles remain if we are to scale up deployment at the pace necessary to meet our targets. The goal of this research would be to work collaboratively with city agencies to identify best practices and new programs that could overcome those hurdles and accelerate the development of local community-owned energy on public land. We envision collaborations across several city agencies as well as private developers to explore what current barriers exist to developing energy infrastructure on city-owned property and viable solutions to accelerate the siding process. In addition, the study will explore how other New York State municipalities and government entities have leased and or transferred property rights or provided access to their property for solar, storage and electric vehicle charging department. The next topic is in-city wind, mapping wind energy generation potential within the five boroughs. This research area study comes from local law 104 of 2018 which requires the mayor's office to perform an in-city wind energy assessment as a part of long-term sustainability plans. Built energy wind turbines, BEWTs, are constructed on in or near buildings. They present an opportunity for expanding distributed generation in a highly visible way, yet technology is not as advanced as with more conventional turbine installations. Urban settings generally experience lower wind speeds and more turbulent air conditions. While there are successful examples, a number of urban wind turbines around the country have underperformed and gone over budget. It is important to understand the available resources to effectively guide future development. The research will bring together available wind mapping data and building height data to identify and map the areas of the city where wind resources are available for effective utilization. This will help the city identify opportunities for more detailed investigation and contextualize the possible technical limitations to keep in mind. We will now pause for questions or comments. You may either type your questions or comments and put them in the Zoom chat for us to answer or you may use the raise hand function on Zoom and we will have our moderator unmute you when it is your turn to speak. If you are speaking, we ask that you keep your comments to under one minute so that everyone has a chance to share. Great, so this section just to sum up and put it in different terms, this section is all about where is our energy coming from, how are we having our energy instead of coming from fossil fuels which again is what's causing our climate crisis, coming from other sources like solar which can be solar on rooftops or big solar farms, wind which is a discussion of the last piece and there's tons of other kind of forms of energy that that are not considered to be as polluting as fossil fuels like our natural gas for example. So reliability and resiliency of the grid, those terms really mean how are we making sure that our energy, our homes are always powered that we're not getting power outages whether they are planned or unplanned, we're not getting rolling brownouts when we're using a lot of energy to run our ACs on a heat emergency day that we don't have power outages because of that for example how are we making sure that we're not worried about things going wrong with our energy system in New York City and then building utility scale storage that's really important because if you generate renewable energy you want to store some of it somewhere so that you can use it when you're generating less renewable energy so where is that how are we creating facilities where we can store energy to use it that's also very important for resiliency if there is some kind of power outage now if we have backup energy that we can turn on for example and then I think that's covering the general things yeah so this is all about where is our energy coming from and how are we storing it so we want to hear your questions around that and this also is very related to our utility bills what is the impact on utility bills for example so we did have a question that came up in the chat early in this this portion which was about is the study looking at policies around green jobs and if I'm hoping you all Claudians that can comment on the green jobs portion so in several of the studies I think there's going to be a workforce development component there is other research that's being conceived right now in the city to do a larger green job study so we decided not to include it in this current proposal but if there's ways that you envision that the workforce aspect of a research topic would be salient and very important to the research we can consider including it within these topics wonderful thank you yeah I think it's a good a good thought to have that be something that we used throughout the study so thank you for that comment one Stuart is asking about whether it's well established or not that fossil fuel plants can be transitioned to storage facilities so the research topic that's focused on really whether you can replace the output of an in-city fossil plant with energy storage is really squarely focused on that oftentimes power plant sites are good locations for energy storage because of the existing infrastructure that was built up to send the power out it could also be used to absorb the power when you need it so absolutely they become good candidates there's lots of opportunity to potentially hybridize these plants which means add storage so that they run less we envision that over time as more and more renewable energy is fed into the local New York City system that these plants are going to run less so the first part of this project is really trying to predict with all the new resources that are planned how much these plants are actually going to run and then we envision if they're running less they're better candidates that be replaced by storage so it's really a two-step research project figure out what's on the books that's going to happen in the near term and then think about that future and think about how storage could replace it thank you um so there's a couple comments that i'll just underscore unless anyone that's made that comment wants to speak um and expand um so there's a comment to be vigilant of any kind of public health unintended public health consequences i'm not sure i'm familiar with a legionnaires issue but um that's a good comment to flag if that is something to be concerned about um and then another comment to factor in any for additional firehouse support in areas that store energy maybe if there is a good comment to make there from zacker claudia if that is something we need to be concerned about um just to kind of underscore that comment yeah absolutely that's that's often included as a concern as you think about energy storage they're they're dense they hold a lot of energy there have been examples of batteries that go on fire so there's going to be challenges that need to be dealt with and the research is certainly going to take into consideration the density one of the things i think new york's done right is really be cautious in thinking about those challenges fdny has been very involved in all of the the work that's been done to figure out how to safely put these not only within buildings but within communities so there's a long history that many of you may be a part of as people have been trying to put batteries in the buildings for a number of years now i think the fdny is really focused on making sure that's done safely to address exactly those concerns that were raised thank you um and then i'll um uplift a comment that was made by pete sequora um around funding mechanisms for a lot of this work how do we get low-income people and housing to be able to afford moving towards electrification moving away from fossil fuels and he is putting in a an underscore for a um supportive supporting a pathway to doing that and so i mean i'll turn it into a general question that might be helpful is um how much of the or will the power nyc document include considerations recommendations for specific funding pathways for this work so absolutely the building electrification the second topic that was included in the building electrification topic is squarely focused on exactly that knowing that there's going to be a cost to electrifying and knowing that there's going to be communities and buildings that are tougher to electrify and have the least resources to electrify so that research topic is specifically focused on how to overcome those barriers specifically focused on housing that's affordable to low-income new yorkers the other area where i think this is really going to come into play is the leveraging city real estate research topic which is really focused on how to define and quantify the the community benefits so if the city is going to be leasing land to anyone whether it be um to another uh to a developer who wants to come in and and access that land there's got to have to be some determination of how to quantify that the benefits are actually remaining in the community so that research is squarely focused on how to better define that there are have been pilots that have been done but not nearly at the scale of that will need to be achieved in order to cite all of the renewable energy that's conceived to hit the goals that the city and the state have set so this is really thinking about red tape and how to more quickly allow these projects to happen and to do so in a way that ensures that the benefits are actually flowing into the local community and providing access whether it be you know helping reduce bills if it's providing actual steak and community ownership that would all be part of the research that's that's related to the leveraging city real estate topic thank you um and so i'll just remind folks that that these are all wonderful questions and i'm i'm getting some of them answered but there are also questions that are ultimately research questions that the power of nyc group is going to use to inform the final report so please continue to add questions or considerations you think we need to all have as we create the report like is there anything missing in what is being presented are we not thinking about a problem or not thinking about some aspect of a problem so please continue to put that in the chat and also if anyone wants to ask their question aloud you can raise your hand now and we're happy to follow on you Joel please ask your question so yeah i i wrote in the in the chat about you know just looking at all of this through a DEI lens and you know and if we don't know the accurate it means diversity equity and inclusion lens um you know i'm well aware of we at and you know and your mission but you know we're talking about city agencies and every single city agency that when you're discussing things of this nature you should really you know the language should be you know using a DEI lens you know making sure that you know it's one thing to say you know you're it's one thing to have these these town halls but it's another thing to kind of like speak the language and especially when we're talking about um marginalized communities you know so that that's that's what i wanted to say and then also obviously you know we're looking at the economic development aspects of this and you know focus on mwbe's etc etc thank you so much Joel um these are great considerations to have do some members of the power to make any comments or um we can move to another question in the chat as well i would just like to say that you know we're trying to be very intentional in not only how we structure these town halls and how we structure the research but uh really encourage continued engagement throughout the project so that we're really meeting that mark we provided these initial town halls we we've made some attempts at providing language access providing diversity and when and where they're happening any improvements you see we're certainly open ears and want to make sure that when the next town halls happen in the fall that we're improving on those and then specifically as it relates to the research i envision that almost all the research topics are going to have some component of thinking okay well what can the city do and then what does it need to do alongside its action around energy vis-a-vis economic development getting involvement from from those who maybe haven't participated in this discussion before so if we're saying things that are not landing as far as there there's too much jargon or they're not in a in a format that's understandable we certainly want your input on how to improve upon that thanks for that for that response um we have a question in the chat around title energy is that something that the power up nyc group is looking at and um also adding wind generation to bridges so there's a couple suggestions of areas to research so title energy not specifically at this point it is something that we can bring back to the table and we can speak with the mayor's office and determine if there's other research that's ongoing and that's been done before as i mentioned at the beginning of the call there's going to be a lot of topics that we can't research as part of this project that we're going to have to look elsewhere and find and synthesize research that others have done so title energy be one where i feel like we need to determine compared to the other research topics if we want to lift it up or if we want to include it in a broader synthesis of the many technologies that exist that could provide energy empowered in new york city related relatedly the the comment about wind on bridges that conceivably could be covered in the built in the in-city wind i personally don't have any experience with that but part of this research is to make sure that we're understanding the full universe of in-city wind technology that exists and make sure that every time the city releases a report that they're refreshing that intelligence so we'll take that back and make sure we find a way to include that in the in-city wind research great i think i froze there for a minute wonderful thank you and then just the last comment and then we can go to the the next topic is distributed energy which in the chat is the DER that someone put in the chat and community solar is that covered in the study and if not can it be this is the comment there so for those who aren't familiar with the term distributed energy resource it's it's a pretty broad term it can mean lots of things so it can mean energy efficiency it can mean things like demand response where you're reducing your energy consumption at a certain period of time to alleviate some sort of issue on the grid whether it be a local or bulk issue on the grid it often is used synonymously with what's called distributed generation which is smaller scale renewable energy like like rooftop solar community solar projects storage projects so absolutely DER is all over this study in many different ways electrification often can be bundled with technology that would be considered DER so yes it's in the study specifically community solar and storage is very much a part of the leveraging public land research which i mentioned earlier one of the core components of that is really looking at opportunities to scale up community solar projects community storage projects in and around the fight boroughs thank you great so we will move on to the next section please everyone please continue to put your comments and your thoughts in the chat so thank you last but not least the renewable riker study understanding the feasibility of constructing renewables and battery storage on rikers island as many of you know rikers island has long been a site of tragedy but things in large part to the leadership and determination of community justice advocates incarceration will be prohibited on the island after august 2027 this research area study will look at the technical feasibility for installing clean energy infrastructure on rikers including solar storage OSW interconnection equipment and potentially innovative newer technologies like green hydrogen and geothermal district systems as well as various options for ownership structures to ensure the benefits of clean energy infrastructure are distributed to frontline communities and communities most impacted by the legacy of rikers in addition to being shaped by the power of nyc stakeholder engagement feedback this research area will also be guided by the renewable rikers advisory committee which is in the final stages of being formally appointed by the mayor and by city council while the mayor's office has contracted a separate consultant team for the study new york power authority and national renewable energy laboratory the end result will be incorporated into the power of nyc report there may also be key opportunities to integrate assumptions and findings from this research area into for example the power plant replacement study to ensure we are looking holistically at how rikers may be able to contribute to the city's broader energy goals ultimately the study will inform a broader master planning process that will be held regarding the future of rikers and ensure decision makers and community leaders are equipped with a better understanding of what is possible we will now pause for questions or comments yeah are there any questions or concerns about renewable energy at rikers feel free to raise your hand yeah this is charles um from we act and i'm just wondering is there a is there a timeline when this is going to happen as we know we've been working on this quite a long time and i wanted to know if do we still are the other are the jails being um another well for lack of better word um the other detention centers are going to be built in the other five girls what is the timeline for that and how would and what is the plan of moving those uh those people at rikers to those new detention centers that's a great question charles um unfortunately since i'm really just focused on the future of rikers and this energy feasibility study on rikers i haven't been as in the loop on the timeline of the general rikers closure i do know that the euler uh the the zoning change that officially designates rikers as public land was officially adopted this past spring so incarceration will be prohibited after august of 2027 um so i know that it has to happen by then but besides that i don't i don't have more details on the timeline unfortunately i can add that the um this plan renewables renewable rikers includes a process by which as parts of rikers penal colony closes the department of corrections is supposed to be handing that land over to the city um the department of citywide administrative services and eventually the idea is the department of environmental protection and so that parcels are being handed over piece by piece um and a cup that's happened a couple times already it's supposed to happen basically every six months until all of the land is transferred over but it happens every six months if there is something transfer at the six month period of time um and so that's something that groups are tracking is whether that's happening in the way it's supposed to and it is supposed to be set to close in 2027 um i think that there's a lot uh to talk about when it comes to renewable rikers and when people might have questions based on you know the idea that renewable rikers is meant to be a way to use the land that isn't harming human health i guess is the one of the big intentions of it by groups that pushed us forward because that space is considered quite toxic from research studies found that that it is not a healthy place to be in the penal colony or on the land just generally and so it was in general assumed it wasn't a feasible place for like housing development for example so um solar renewable energy generation putting um like a wastewater treatment facility on the land were ways that were considered helpful for the community's most impacted by rikers penal colony because what it's doing is allowing communities to have have a healthier healthier neighborhoods um particularly communities most impacted like in queens and salt Bronx and Harlem and tons of places and so that is there's a lot of intention around renewable rikers and um but it is a complicated topic so now I see questions are following and so Liz um can yeah um one question is asking sorry my computer's freezing um is one question was asking if there were any public forums on what the community would like to have rikers island be used for or if there anyone yeah that's a great question um so this is really the first steps in reimagining the future of rikers the goal for this energy feasibility study is to better understand what the possibilities are under different scenarios that would imagine what if nothing else was on rikers except for clean energy infrastructure to better understand what the maximum possible option opportunities are and then a second scenario that imagines okay well what if DEP builds a wastewater resource recovery facility this is the wastewater treatment on the island that takes up about a third of the island then what would be the opportunities to build clean energy infrastructure on the remaining and then a third scenario which looks at okay what if the wastewater treatment center is built and we reserve some of the island for other uses then then what would the clean energy opportunities look like so basically this study won't necessarily be saying the city is absolutely going to pursue one pathway over the other but it's going to give us a better understanding of what's possible and that can inform future community input processes that can determine um what the future of rikers should look like we're also conducting this energy study in close coordination with the department of environmental protection because they're simultaneously conducting a feasibility study relating to the wastewater plant so we're in close coordination with them about what the possibilities would look like on the island but this absolutely is not the last time that there will be opportunities for the public to provide their input on what the future of rikers should look like so between you know now and over the next bunch of years there will be more opportunities for the public to to participate in those decision-making processes Andrew it I guess is adding on to this question they're asking if everything can just be bulldozed and blanketed with solar or if the site can be a testing zone for new and innovative technologies to prove new green energy creation or storage yeah I think those are really great questions and some of that is what this study is hoping to help provide some context on um I I think it may be unlikely that there's no other use for the island besides solar but we will envision what that would look like just to give us a sense of what what possibility that means for how much energy could be generated there and what would the impacts be for the rest of the city's energy transition so this study is really meant to give us insight into what those different alternative futures might look like and to help inform future decision-making processes and I do like the idea of having some sort of testing center or incubator for future clean energy technology so that's something that we can take back there was a comment by paul that was made on worker safety and that being a factor when doing construction at toxic sites yeah that's a really important point and as sonoma mentioned there's definitely been past uses of rikers where there was garbage landfill or coal ash landfills and so any future construction on the island would have to go undergo an environmental assessment and some sort of remediation most likely so it's like our study will have sort of the preliminary look at what that could look like and then depending on what the ultimate use is decided to be whatever before anything is constructed there would have to be a a deep investigation into what that remediation would look like and how to factor in worker safety so agree that that's a definitely a priority there was a follow-up to that asking about the disposal of demolition waste from rikers and yeah yeah that's also a really good point i think at this stage we're still sort of in the theoreticals of what could be built and what that would mean in terms of energy output and impact on the energy system so we may not get into detailed sort of step by step of what the demolition process would look like but absolutely for future construction projects that would have to be considered for sure um bailey you have a question no it's just a comment um as we talk about the transition from uh rikers we do know what is happening they're taking uh those populations and putting them in low-income communities and i'll give you just a quick example our former mayor they're not putting a smaller jail in park slope they're putting it in low-income communities and i think that's also something that should be brought to the table while they're closing or transitioning they're putting these uh look smaller jails in um low-income communities we hear you thanks for the comment and crystal has a comment that's asking if rikers is still toxic why are their prisoners going to be housed until 2027 yeah thanks crystal um definitely a tough question i'm i'm not in charge of overseeing the transition away from rikers but uh absolutely agree that the conditions there are not ideal and we need to to transition away from it so the city is working on doing that unfortunately i'm not in the loop on the details about the timeline but appreciate your comment Paul has asked i made another great comment um asking to consider soil remediation um at the site yep absolutely so our sister office is the office of environmental remediation and they would be involved in helping to coordinate the environmental assessment as well as the remediation that might be necessary um are there any more um questions or comments wonderful i think we can um hand it back to the team um so thank thanks everyone for all your questions and please continue to put them in the chat like we've been saying because this this is all going to be saved and informing the the study and just a note on rikers i think probably this this group isn't working on the the process of moving inmates out of rikers but working on the renewable rikers piece which is what you do at the land so um it's a little bit of a tricky territory but that's that's the part that's the focus of this project so i'll hand it back to the team next steps we encourage everyone to submit their questions and comments online there's a survey available in english spanish traditional or simplified mandarin vangali and the poly you can access these surveys using the respective links to the right these links will also be put in the zoom chat by copy and pasting the zoom link it will take you to a type form survey that thanks you for attending a power NYC community town hall and ask you to share your feedback with us you would really appreciate your comments and feedback on the research topics and on the session the survey should take no more than five minutes last but not least you can visit our website using the link below or by using the qr code on our website you can subscribe to our newsletter and find out when there are any updates or when the next community town halls will be held next steps thanks for sharing that angel i'll move ahead i'll go ahead and move us into our closing and so i want to first start off by thanking everyone for your time today i think we gathered some really great community-based feedback that will go into developing this energy study getting all of your questions answered but before we hop off i really wanted to get us into wanting to get all of the resources and so something we talked about today were energy bills utility debt energy burdens in general and it comes to increase like right now we're in the summertime it's getting hotter we're all turning on a ec's what does it mean for low-income households who may not have the best energy security so more than one million yorkers are struggling to pay the utility bills as we discussed this hits low-income communities and communities of color the hardest but we have some good news the public service commission kathy huckle and the state legislator set aside 250 million to be distributed to help pay down household utility debt current utility customers participating in energy affordability program eap will receive a one-time bill credit that eliminates debt that you might have accrued through may 1st 2022 if you're in a low-income household that is not already enrolled in utilities eap program you can still enroll to receive this credit through december of this year so that's one resource the other resource i wanted to share with everyone today is the low-income energy assistance program called liheap which provides federally funded assistance and managing your costs associated with home energy bills energy crises weatherization which refers to installing energy efficient measures to improve your your buildings heating and cooling systems and other energy home related repairs liheap can help you stay warm in the winter cool in the summer through programs that reduce the risk of health and safety or restroom unsafe heating and cooling practices so if you are in a low household interested in rolling or just learning more about energy initiatives in your communities we is we're going to be ryan and you're um you're cutting out organization in general you could always follow our um ryan is cutting out but um what she's saying is that we do have a form if anyone wants help to enroll in the programs to get help with their utility bill debt that you might have we'll put a form of great it just would put in the chat so just put your name in and we can we can give you a call browning your backs if you want to finish your thought all right yeah no that's that was it thanks so thank you everyone for joining us today um we really want to help you all if you have any utility debt um please reach out to us we're here to help um and thank you so much for joining us this was great thank you and if one recording of this session it can be found on powerups website but if anyone wants to chat um you could find it there as well thank you so much