Ted Cruz Is Holding Up Bipartisan Action To Make E-Bike Batteries Safe | EUROtoday

By Greg B. Smith, THE CITY

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A federal invoice the FDNY contends would assist douse the damaging development of e-bike battery fires that has killed 31 New Yorkers in 4 years has been stalled within the Senate since July. The roadblock: Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and his rage towards what he sees because the Biden Administration’s marketing campaign to ban fuel stoves.

The invoice would require the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to draft necessary security requirements for all lithium-ion batteries and associated chargers that energy micro mobility units resembling e-bikes and e-scooters.

The House model, sponsored by Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-The Bronx), handed in May with strong bipartisan assist. The Senate model additionally has bipartisan backers, together with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, each New York Democrats, in addition to Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Indiana). New York City fireplace officers anticipated swift passage within the higher chamber.

But in July, Cruz, the rating minority member of the Commerce Committee the place the invoice was pending, despatched the Senate model into limbo, including an modification that the invoice’s sponsors stated would intestine the buyer company’s skill to manage the security of the possibly risky batteries.

Cruz’s focus was not on harmful batteries however as a substitute focused the CPSC — the identical company that final 12 months proposed laws that would cut back fuel consumption in stoves to assist trim carbon emissions. Some Republicans, together with Cruz, labeled the proposal an “anti gas stove” initiative initiated by an out-of-control company that was exceeding its jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, three New Yorkers have died in fires brought on by exploding lithium-ion batteries simply because the House handed its model of the security invoice on May 15, beginning with the May 23 dying of journalist Fazil Khan in a Harlem fireplace triggered by batteries charging in an condo under his. A second battery-triggered fatality occurred beneath comparable circumstances on Avenue M in Brooklyn and a 3rd on Throop Avenue in The Bronx.

“It’s unfortunate that this bill is being held up due to an unrelated issue,” Gillibrand advised THE CITY. “In states across the country, fires caused by faulty lithium-ion batteries have injured or killed hundreds of people and torn apart families. There’s a reason firefighter unions are behind it — it’s a commonsense and bipartisan policy that will save lives.”

The FDNY started noticing this new hazard in 2019 because the reliance on e-bikes by meals supply employees started to extend and noticed the numbers bounce dramatically in the course of the pandemic. Since then, there have been 910 fires brought on by batteries leading to 509 accidents and 31 deaths by Sept. 2, in line with the division’s statistics.

The security invoice is supposed to handle the flood of poorly made batteries that aren’t security licensed by labs resembling UL Solutions however are in frequent use in New York City. These untested batteries are vulnerable to explosion in the event that they’re not charged correctly and, as THE CITY has reported, the fires they set off have occurred as a rule in areas the place individuals stay.

The House and Senate battery security payments have each obtained assist from all kinds of stakeholders, together with the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the National Volunteer Fire Council, the United States Conference of Mayors, Consumer Reports and Grubhub and DoorDash.

The House invoice requires that inside a 12 months, the CPSC should develop security requirements which battery makers can be required to undertake. Currently the requirements are solely voluntary.

The drawback for Cruz, who’s up for re-election this 12 months, emerged within the language of the House invoice, which might give the CPSC authority to change these requirements “at any time” going ahead. Its supporters say that is essential given the truth that the know-how behind these batteries is continually altering and being upgraded.

“The modification clause affords the CPSC the authority and flexibility it needs to respond rapidly to the changing facts on the ground about the role of poorly made lithium-ion batteries in causing fires,” Torres advised THE CITY. “There should be nothing controversial about fire prevention, which should be bipartisan and bicameral.”

Cruz opposed the modification language in a bout of fury on the CPSC following its proposed laws requiring range producers to cut back the fuel consumption of their merchandise. The proposal triggered a wave of exaggerated Republican outrage that claimed the administration of President Joe Biden was coming to remove customers’ fuel stoves.

For the final two years Cruz has gone after the CPSC, castigating “drunk-on-power bureaucrats” who have been exceeding the authority the company was granted by Congress. In response to the GOP backlash, the company in January altered the proposed power consumption requirements for brand new stoves, providing a rule that may prohibit about 3% of stoves at present available on the market, far under the unique rule that may have affected 50% of stoves.

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