Transcript: Mayor Adams Announces Plan To Combat Lithium-ion Battery Fires, Promote Safe Electric Micromobility Usage

March 20, 2023

Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh: Good morning. How is everybody?

Mayor Eric Adams: Great, great.

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: I am very grateful that we have so many people standing behind me here. This really shows the effort that this administration has taken on in addressing something that we at the Fire Department brought up at the beginning of this year as a critical safety issue for the city, and that is e-bikes and e-scooters that use lithium-ion batteries to charge them. As you can see behind me, once we flagged this as a safety issue, every single person came together, and that is really what it takes to get something so important accomplished. We had to come at this from every area; whether it's city, state, and federal legislation, coordination between our agencies, but also coordination with the end users, the people that use the bikes to make a living.

We had to make sure that we were both combating a safety issue as well as allowing people to continue to thrive in New York City. So, as you can see behind me, that has certainly happened here today. And so I'm very proud to be standing here talking with so many important folks in the administration about this critical legislation that we were able to get passed, which will make a huge difference in tackling e-bikes and e-scooters and lithium-ion battery safety. So, I would like to introduce the man that made all of this happen for us, that is the mayor of the City of New York, Eric Adams.

Mayor Adams: Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you. And to everyone, you know, this is an important issue when you have the congresswoman here. And the commissioner is right, we came at this from every level of government, both on the City Council level, the state level, and the federal level as these fires have been impacting the entire city. And I recall when the commissioner first brought this to my attention and talked about how this was on our radar and we were seeing the fires. And if you were to do a mapping, you would notice that the fires were taking place in areas where many of our deliveristas were trying to make a living. It was taking place in shops that had charging locations. And we needed a whole government approach, not only in how do we do the right type of enforcement in education, but how do we do the prevention? And that's the creativity that the commissioner brought to this conversation.

And when she showed me the video — and I really encourage everyone to see the few videos that are out there that caught the fires when they actually occurred. They're not just regular fires, they are basically explosions, and they spread so rapidly. And it's more than just water to put them out, it's a very complicated fire. This is a new introduction into our firefighting apparatus, and it's going to come with the combination of education as well. And so today we are supercharging safety for our e-bikes and e-scooters, electric powered mobility devices. We know they're convenient, but they are a necessity, particularly for those who are part of this booming economy — delivering food and other items throughout the city. They play a major role in help reducing congestion and how we move around this city as we did with our environmental issues that we are facing.

And they're essential you for tens of thousands of New Yorkers who are earning a living. But faulty versions of these e-bikes and e-scooters and illegal electric mopeds are being leased, rented, and sold to New Yorkers. Many of these devices do not meet the basic safety standards and contain uncertified lithium-ion batteries. That's the heart of this problem. And they're causing fires and explosions. What we see throughout this city is real. We were just up in the Bronx about two weeks ago and we saw two stores that were taken out based on these batteries. People are storing the faulty batteries and battery-operated scooters in their homes. And the real challenging part of this that oftentimes you finish your day, you bring your scooter, what do you do? You leave it at the door for the most part or right outside your door.

When the battery or the fire or the explosion takes place, it blocks your exit and it does not allow you to leave this situation. And if it's placed in a night shared development in the hallway, it also blocks the exits of those who live on the floor or in the building. In some cases, businesses and building owners are charging hundreds of batteries in a risky and dangerous way. Shortly, I will sign five bills to educate and protect New Yorkers and delivery workers from the fire risk of lithium batteries and e-bikes and scooters. And just really want to thank the City Council, all the members who are here and how they came together, immediately worked with the administration and FDNY to identify what needs to be done to really educate, enforce, and eradicate the use of these illegal batteries. These bills ban the sale of uncertified vehicles as well as refurbished batteries.

I want to thank Council Member Brewer, my forever borough president; Councilman Holden, Avilés, and of course my good friend, Council Member Feliz. And I want to thank our brave FDNY members who are faced with noxious gasses. When responding to these fires is something that really is enhancing the dangers of our firefighters. But our efforts to protect New Yorkers go beyond this legislation. Today, I'm releasing our Charge Safe, Ride Safe Action Plan to help New Yorkers use e-bikes and scooters safely. This is a comprehensive plan that has been developed across the whole of government with input from every level of government, so we can get this right. New Yorkers deserve access to safe devices and batteries, and this plan commits to designing a safe environment access program that will help New Yorkers transition away from the illegal mopeds and uncertified bikes and batteries to safe legal devices and batteries.

We're also going to lead the nation by piling options like battery swapping and safe charging systems for our delivery workers and step up enforcement against high-risk hotspots that put lives at risk. Many of these faulty and poor quality devices are slipping through the cracks of state and federal regulations, and we're going to partner with our federal lawmakers to close the gaps in the loopholes. This is not as strong enough, the legislation and regulations that are in place now; they're not strong enough, they're not targeting the issues that we are facing. And New Yorkers and delivery workers are being forced to use batteries and equipment that's faulty. They should not have to be battery and equipment experts to address this issue that we are facing. We need stronger regulations and legislation to ensure the products on our streets are safe.

This plan commits to working with our state partners and our federal partners to accomplish it. It recognizes a business and what we need to do to accomplish the movement that we are seeking, and we will ensure that this global new way of moving about is done in a safe manner. And the responsibility of businesses have to find a solution should not be just on businesses, should be a partnership between government and businesses. New York City is leading the way and raising this issue, and we hope that by taking action today, that the state and federal government will follow suit. Traffic safety is public safety.

Finally, we want to promote the growth of safe e-micromobility in New York City as a climate friendly alternative to cars. We're going to launch a pilot to allow electric micromobility devices on park drives and greenways to create more safe spaces for New Yorkers to ride. The plan builds on the work we are doing, including piloting outdoor and e-micromobility storage, and charging areas at NYCHA properties and our deliveristas’ hubs. E-bikes and these scooters are here. You might as well get used to them. They're now part of our movement. Now we must make sure that they’re incorporated in our everyday lives in a safe and efficient manner.

Again, I want to thank the men and women of the Fire Department and the commissioner for really placing this on our radar, and the response from our lawmakers on every level of government to ensure that we meet this challenge head on and come up with a safe way to utilize the e-mobility that we're looking for — micromobility that we're looking for. Again, thank you, commissioner.

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I can't emphasize what he said enough, which is this really takes all of us, including our members, to ensure that this is safe. We do not want this to fall only on the backs of the end users. This is a city issue and we're taking it on as a city. And I want to point it out. It actually only costs about 10 cents per device to get something UL certified. So as we advocate for that certification, that's certainly not cost-prohibitive. It's something that we should be able to do to keep everybody in our city safe, including our first responders. So speaking of an advocate for both his constituents, for delivery workers, and for first responders, Council Member Feliz.

City Council Member Oswald Feliz: Thank you. Thank you, commissioner. Good morning, everyone. I'm New York City Council Member Oswald Feliz. I want to thank you, mayor, for signing our package of legislation into law — package to help resolve the fire safety challenges that we continue to see almost on a daily basis now.

Two weeks ago, I was driving through the Grand Concourse section of my district and I was met with a powerful fire that completely destroyed our neighborhood supermarket. A powerful fire caused by a lithium-ion battery; a fire that quickly escalated and completely destroyed our local neighborhood supermarket. And that fire that we saw was only an example of the fire safety challenges created by these batteries. That was only one example. Last year, we had 220 examples, 220 fires putting all of us at risk. When these batteries can literally explode with very little to no notice, I think it is clear that many of these batteries are problematic.

As our mayor stated, we need to make sure that products sold in our city are safe for New Yorkers. It's why we were proud to work on legislation, a very thorough package of fire safety legislation, including legislation that will require that these batteries be certified in order to be sold, requiring that these batteries go through fire safety checks to make sure that they have tools that prevent overheating, overcharging, and other things that we've seen cause fires. At the same time, as we all know, our hardworking delivery workers rely on these batteries to make a living. They work very hard and they rely on these batteries to be able to work, support their families, and also to keep New Yorkers fed at all hours. And this is obviously a national problem. We're seeing this in the City of New York, but also in Chicago, California, and many other regions.

And here in the City of New York, we will get this right. We're going to make sure that only the safe batteries are sold to New Yorkers, but at the same time, we're going to make sure that these safe batteries are accessible to all New Yorkers, including to our hardworking deliveristas. We've already started working on a battery swap program. We're also going to be introducing additional legislation to make sure that these safe batteries are accessible to all New Yorkers, especially those that count on them to be able to support other families in our city. So thank you, mayor, for signing our legislation. And also, thank you, deliveristas, for doing everything you do to keep our city operating at all hours. Thank you so much.

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Thank you, Council member, and to all the Council members who helped get this legislation passed. The advocates for the delivery workers are incredibly important partners in this effort. So I'd like to introduce from Los Deliveristas, Ligia Guallpa and Gustavo Ajche to speak.

Ligia Guallpa, Workers Justice Project: Thank you, mayor, for making us part of this first step to not only addressing fires, but really creating a long-term solution as we build a future of safe micromobility. So my name is Ligia Guallpa. I'm the executive director of the Workers Justice Project, and I'm here with Gustavo Ajche and also Antonio Solis, who are leaders of Los Deliveristas Unidos, a movement of app delivery workers who rely on e-bikes, motor scooters, and all the micromobility devices, as it was said, to earn a living and to transport, let's not forget, food, groceries, medication, and many other essential goods to every New Yorker. And yes, more than 65,000 app-based delivery workers rely on these electrical micromobility devices to meet the brutal delivery schedules that they receive from the app delivery industry, to be able to travel the long distances, and also to be able to do as many deliveries per day so they can earn enough to provide to their families.

And we're here not only to celebrate a first step to address the e-fires in our city, but we're super excited to see the commitment and really applaud the mayor's commitment to not only deliveristas, but to take us to a new future. And we're excited to see a plan to deliver electrical micromobility and safe battery charging stations, and for really leading the way for our city into a safe, equitable, and sustainable future of micromobility.

Gustavo Ajche, Los Deliveristas Unidos: Good morning. I'm going to say in Spanish. [Speaks in Spanish.]

Guallpa: I'm going to translate. So we are proud to stand with you, Mr. Mayor Adams. Los Deliveristas Unidos are committed to work with you in helping our city transition into a safe, accessible, and reliable future of micromobility. We're here to stay, to keep contributing with our labor in making this city better and more sustainable. Thank you for your commitment for building the first street deliverista hubs and for now delivering electrical mobility and safe battery charging action plan to keep New Yorkers like me, who depend on these batteries, safe. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and we know that together we can keep building our city.

Mayor Adams: Thank you.

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Thank you. From our very first moments when we identified these fires, Los Deliveristas has been helping us connect our fire safety educators with their workers to get them critical safety messages. We're incredibly grateful for their work. And another advocate, Congress Member Velázquez, has been a phenomenal advocate for us on the federal issue. From the moment we talked to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, they said that they were going to work with us, but that they would need advocates in Congress in order to really get this across the finish line. So introducing one of those advocates who's been working with us day in day out, Congress Member Velázquez.

U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez: Good morning. Thank you. I would like to first thank the members of the City Council and the City Council for advancing these bills, and Mayor Adams for signing them into law today and for releasing this plan of action that is going to not only save lives, but also protect 65,000 deliveristas, who show us the important role that they play in our daily lives, particularly during COVID. It was cold and during the winter, they are out there making sure that we get the medicines from the pharmacies, that we get food and they're always there.

So this is the time to make sure that we do everything within our power to address this complicated issue because it requires a collective effort among different levels of government from the federal government, it's not only the Safety Commission, Protection Commission, Product Commission, but also Customs. They have to make sure that any batteries that come into the United States that are inspected, and therefore we need to provide the resources for them to have the type of inspections that is required.

But also the City Council, these bills that are being signed today reflect many aspects of this bill, of this issue, is education, is providing safety in terms of charging station and storage. And that is what my bill will do. And I will invite the mayor to also talk to the transportation secretary, Mr. Buttigieg, and say, these micromobility modes will not go away, they're here and they're going to stay. And so we have to provide the resources too from the federal government so that the cities and the locality have the resources.

My bill calls for $100 million throughout five years, meaning $500 million. And also part of that money will be used for education that is so important. And we could do this and do it right without creating an environment that could punish deliveristas, and we have to make sure we strike a balance when it comes to regulation. So Mr. Mayor and members of the City Council, deliveristas for your advocacy, [speaks in Spanish]. Thank you so much for everyone who has played a role on this.

Question: Maybe the congresswoman, but I was wondering if other cities have been grappling with these kinds of fires where there might be appetite for a federal response?

Representative Velázquez: So since we have been in the district for the last two weeks, I introduced my bill and released the bill last week. I will go and do some research and invite other members of Congress. I don't know how many co-sponsors as of today, but we will be reaching out to the many delegations that this type of micromobility is used in their cities and districts, so that we could get more support and that we all have one voice in terms of the role that the federal government should play.

Question: This is for the fire commissioner. Can you give us an update on the status of the Interagency Task Force that you had set up? Is that still ongoing? And then also, have you heard back from the federal government on your request to standardize or talk to manufacturers about standardizing these batteries?

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: So on the Interagency Task Force, I mean the blueprint and the legislation you're seeing today is a result of that task force, we will continue to meet and discuss because there are so many critical issues that we still are working through and obviously we want to see what the results are, some of this legislation. So that working group has been incredibly powerful and we will continue to meet. And your second question was?

Question: Request to the federal government.

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: Consumer Product Safety Commission? Yeah, they've been incredibly responsive. We sent them two letters, and in both cases they took action following that letter. In one case, it was the recall of some devices that were online and another case it was actually looking at the ports and whether or not they could seize certain devices at the ports. So they've been very responsive. As I had mentioned before the Congress members spoke, they said to us they can be most powerful in conjunction with Congress. So with Congress introducing this legislation, we expect that the Consumer Product Safety Commission will be able to work with them and with us to take additional actions.

Question: Yes. This is for whoever wants to answer. Can you talk about some of the enforcement actions? Obviously you can't sell these refurbished or illegal batteries. What does that look like, as what the fines look like, what could be the potential consequences?

Fire Commissioner Kavanagh: I think if you saw the briefing we gave last Friday, we showed some pictures and some video. I encourage you to look at those. You're seeing people setting up dozens, if not hundreds, of batteries or devices charging in areas not equipped to safely do that. So those are the sorts of conditions we're looking to stop from happening in the city, including in some cases you saw that they were either next to or very nearby sleeping quarters. So you might have somebody asleep in the middle of that very dangerous safety situation.

So we're looking to make sure that those aren't happening, but I think as you've heard us say over and over, this is not meant to be punitive. We want businesses to be able to operate safely. So in most cases, we're trying to encourage the owner to remove the safety hazard before we write a violation. We're writing a violation if we feel it's necessary because there's a critical safety issue at hand. But our overarching goal is to make sure that these situations are not occurring. Where they do occur, we can stop them. And going forward, whether the more there's more regulations so that we don't see this happening in the city and people can operate their businesses safely.

Question: Mr. Mayor, when do you expect a Trump indictment to come down and what is the city doing to prepare for that?

Mayor Adams: Well, it's up to DA Bragg and we've heard a lot of reports, but the DA is going to make that determination and we are doing what we always do. We're monitoring comments on social media and the NYPD is doing their normal role of making sure that there's no inappropriate actions in the city and we're confident we're going to be able to do that.

Question: Have you discussed this with Alvin Bragg yet? Have you been meeting with him at all?

Mayor Adams: No, not at all.

Question: There were several Congress members last week that formed an anti-congestion pricing coalition, partly because they cited concerns about Manhattan's tourism industry and getting people back into the city center. I was curious if you share any of those concerns as the federal government decides whether to approve the plan?

Mayor Adams: My number one concern is making sure we get it right for the Bronx. I think Congressman Torres has made it clear that we cannot deal with the congestion issue in parts of the city and ignore the historical climate issues that the Bronx has had to deal with. That's my concern and I think we could get it right. I think that moving congestion off our streets is not only smart for our environment, but it's also smart for our economy. Being stuck in traffic, unable to deliver items, it's just bad for commerce and I believe there's a real opportunity to get this right.

Question: Hi, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor Adams: How are you?

Question: Good. I wanted to talk to you, or ask you about, recently you've been talking more about religion and kids and students. I'm wondering in your mind, is there any plan to start some type of religion program when it comes to education, students?

Mayor Adams: Starting what type of program?

Question: Some type of program or initiative when it comes to spirituality and students and kids. Have you been talking to the commissioner about that? You've said many times that it's important that they start embracing education.

Mayor Adams: Yes. Spirituality is just crucial, faith is crucial. I think that we have to equip children with all the tools they need to be prepared for an ever-changing world that they are going to experience. My son is not going to do 22 years in the Police Department like I am. Since graduating from college, I believe he has had three jobs since graduating from college. And so what we want to do is make sure our children are academically smart, emotionally intelligent, and give them the tools to deal with many of the crises that they're going to face. We're looking at the numbers. Suicide rates are extremely high, depression, all those things that our young people are experiencing. When you look at just the trauma around losing a loved one to violence in the city, these are traumatizing events and so our goal is not to compel anyone to sit in a mosque, a synagogue, a church, a temple. No, that's not it. Our goal is to give them the tools that they need and one tool that they need, I learned far too late in my life, is that they need the tool of self-reflection.

That could be through a religious connection. It could be through meditation, it could be through yoga, it could be through breathing exercises. These are all the tools that we've ignored for so many years. These tools have been around for thousands of years and we are just embarrassed to take these powerful, scientifically proven methods of dealing with trauma and stress. And I'm just a person that's — these are the tools that helped me and now I want to share it with people and give them the options. What they decide to do with it is up to them. And I'm sure just by being around you I bet you you do some form of self inward... Yes, yes. I don't know if you do meditation, breathing, yoga. Remember when I did the debates and I said that I like hot bubble bath with rose pellets? Everybody thought I was crazy. They need to try it. [Laughter.]