New York Lawmakers Look to Boost E-Bikes After Federal Snub

After more than a year of wrangling, the Biden administration’s environmental agenda is now law. The Inflation Reduction Act is the United States’ largest investment to date in combating climate change and proposes to overhaul major sectors of the economy, from power plants to heavy industry, with a bevy of tax credits and other subsidies over the next decade.

Yet in one of the biggest-polluting sectors — transportation — the law aims to cut pollution while doubling down on motor vehicles. Electric cars will get a $7,500 credit, but electric bicycles were left out in the deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin.

Climate-focused legislators in New York don’t want to stake the green transition on cars alone.

“When the federal government falls short,” said Julia Salazar, a state senator from Brooklyn, “it really does fall on the state to step up and take responsibility.” Salazar thinks progressive states like New York have a chance to course-correct, and steer away from car dependence.

In June, just before the end of the legislative session, the state Senate overwhelmingly passed Salazar’s bill providing consumers up to $1,100 when they buy an e-bike. It’s a more generous subsidy than the one Congress dropped: An earlier version of the federal legislation, passed by the House in November, included a credit of up to $900per e-bike — a big chunk of the downpayment on bikes that can easily cost $3,000.

Known as the Ride Clean rebate and modeled after the state’s existing Drive Cleanprogram for electric cars, the one-paragraph bill would require the state energy agency, NYSERDA, to cover half the cost of e-bike purchases, up to that $1,100 mark. It passed the Senate 60-3 but failed to advance in the Assembly, where it has been stuck in committee since January.

Robert Carroll, the bill’s sponsor in the Assembly, is “very optimistic” that Ride Clean can pass in the coming session, which begins in January. If it does, New York could be one of the first states to pass such a policy, and could encourage others to follow suit.

Noel Hidalgo, a constituent of Salazar’s in Greenpoint, switched to an electric cargo bicycle about a decade ago, and says he hasn’t looked back. He uses the bike to carry equipment to work events, do groceries, and haul all of his friends’ gear to the beach on weekends.

Before getting a bike, he tried a variety of vehicles, but each had their limitations.

“With my van, I was able to move a lot of stuff. With motorcycles, I was able to seemingly move very little,” Hidalgo said. The freedom of driving was eclipsed by New York’s constant congestion. Salazar’s bill, he said, is a “no-brainer.”

Transportation rivals buildings as New York’s largest source of emissions, according to the state’s Climate Action Council, and the green energy group RMI projects that without new policies, New York is likely to miss its 2030 target for cutting emissions from the sector.

E-bikes could be a valuable tool in closing that gap. A survey last year by the think tank TNMT found that e-bikes and e-scooters emit roughly 20 grams of CO2 per person per kilometer over their lifetimes, while an electric car emits about 100 and a gasoline car more than 200.

The boost from an electric motor also makes them more practical than traditional, mechanical bicycles for many trips. Federal data analyzed by the pro-biking website Bike Adviser shows that more than half of New Yorkers’ trips — like most Americans’ — are under five miles, and that replacing even a small share of those car trips with e-bikes could have an outsized impact. Academic research has likewise shown e-bikes’ potential to cut emissions, particularly in smaller cities and suburban or rural areas.