Video, Audio, Photos, & Rush Transcript: On Earth Day, Governor Hochul Announces MTA to Expand Next Wave Deployment of Zero-Emission Buses to Six Depots

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will deploy 60 zero-emission electric buses at six bus depots serving all five boroughs. This deployment deepens the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's commitment to equity and environmental justice by prioritizing communities with high asthma and air pollution rates. In New York City, approximately 75 percent of Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus depots are located in low/moderate-income communities, and transit bus routes run disproportionately through these neighborhoods.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning, everyone, and happy Earth Day! We finally got here. I feel like we'vebeen making Earth Day announcements for weeks and weeks and weeks. And we certainly have had tremendous progress in our efforts to protect mother earth. And so, today we celebrate, we celebrate on a rooftop. I've been on a lot of rooftops lately.

We opened up the new Google facility at Pier 57 on a rooftop a couple of days ago. I was rather high in the sky with former President Clinton and Eric Adams, our mayor, yesterday as we talked about more earth-friendly initiatives from the highest levels of the Empire State Building.

So here we are, once again, on a rooftop at the Michael J. Quill Bus Depot. And why are we here today? Well we have a very exciting announcement to talk about as we look at our transportation clean energy future here. And I wanted to say this is in line with the goals that have been set forth for the state of New York.

They're ambitious. We have the most ambitious renewable energy and emissions reduction goals in the country. We will have 70% electricity from renewables by the year 2030, 85% reductions by the year 2050. We're not afraid, we're leaning hard into those bold ambitious goals.

And it starts with other initiatives such as the fact that our budget, and I thank our legislators, my partners in state government, for approving a $4.2 billion Clean Water, Clean Air, Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act, which is critically important to our energy future. But within that includes over $500 million to electrify school buses.

So we need to get the word out to everyone across the state. We'll need their support in November for this literally game changer as we talk about having the resources to take care of mother earth the way it should have always been taken care of.

We also have nation leading investments in offshore wind - $500 million to ensure that Long Island for sure is the epicenter of the offshore wind movement. And also we have the largest ever investment in the Environmental Protection Fund in our budget. And just last week, our regulators gave approval to two transformative projects that we're going to do simultaneously, two mega energy projects to bring wind, solar, and hydro power directly to New York City and cut the fossil power plants used in half by 2020, the end of 2020. So that's ambitious as well.

On top of that, we're making sure that all passenger vehicles sold in New York be zero emissions by 2035. And to help our electrification and our support for the electric vehicle industry, we're investing $1 billion in electric vehicle infrastructure. So, we're pulling out all the stops. Not just at bus stops, but everywhere we can, to ensure that we're not leaving any stone unturned in terms of finding ways that we can improve the environment for the future.

So today we're very proud to announce that our buses are a part of that energy future, and we are going to be - the MTA will be deploying 60 zero emission electric vehicles across the city. We'll have that in place by the end of the year. And this is all part of MTA's massive equipment to deploy a zero emission bus fleet by 2040 and on top of our historic $1.1 billion in funding to buy another 500 electric buses.

This is extraordinary. No other city is making this level of commitment. We're doing it right here in the state. And new buses will begin arriving over the next year at Grand Avenue, Queens, Charleston, Staten Island, East New York in Brooklyn, Kingsbridge in the Bronx, the Michael J. Quill Manhattan location, and Jamaica Queens.

So, we're excited about this. We want to make sure that we reduce our carbon footprint at the same time we're creating new jobs with the energy infrastructure. These buses are built, assembled here in the State of New York, in Jamestown. I've been there, I've visited and I want to thank all of our leaders in the legislature, including transportation Chair in the Senate, Senator Tim Kennedy, who hails from Western New York and ensures that we are focusing on this as well.

So I would like to ask Janno Lieber to talk about what we're continuing to do. Our investments and why it's so important here, on Earth Day, to be on top of this rooftop to talk about the energy revolution that is unfolding right here and on our streets.And our passengers will be part of knowing that they're doing everything they can in their power to ensure that we're making sure that the future is better for our children and grandchildren.

So again, happy Earth Day everybody. Janno Lieber, our incredible leader of the MTA.