Good afternoon.

Welcome to today's New York City Council hearing for the Committee on Economic Development joint with the Committee on Workforce Development.

Please science all cell phone electronic devices.

If you wish to testify, please fill out an appearance card with Sergeant at arms.

Moving forward, no one is to approach the days.

Chair, we are ready to begin.

All right.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the joint hearing of the committees on economic development and workforce development.

Today is Friday, June 26th.

I'm Virginia Maloney and I chair the Economic Development Committee.

Joining me is Councilmember Julie Juan, Chair of the Committee on Workforce Development.

Today we are here to ask about the state of the Green Economy Action Plan and if it remains the city's strategy to generate green jobs.

The plan was drafted together by EDC and NYC Talent and was released in February 2024 under the last administration.

It identified 133,000 jobs that exist in the city and set a target for creating nearly 400,000 green jobs by 2040.

Since no permanent EDC leader has been appointed since then, we're unclear about what the progress is, if any has been made regarding the plan.

Beginning with jobs, the city projected 400,000 green jobs by 2040, and that means we would have to create 267,000 green jobs over the next 14 years.

However, the Center for an Urban Future found that the city added roughly 2,000 jobs since 2023.

At that rate, we would not hit the target until well into the next century.

So today we want to understand how the administration reconciles these numbers and whether or not the goal still remains and how it's publicly tracking against progress.

Second, we want to dig into the offshare offshore wind project, which is the most visible component of this plan.

The city made significant investments in South Brooklyn Marine Terminal to serve as the assembly hub for Empire Wind, projecting the creation of 13,000 jobs across the city by 2035.

Empire Wind was intended to demonstrate the core premise of the Green Economy Action Plan, proving that climate investments can create good paying local jobs.

But the project faces uncertainty with the federal government issuing a stop order on Empire Wind in December, and construction has only continued because the court intervened.

So the committees are seeking a clear answer on what the city's oversight is at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal and how EDC is preparing for the possibility that construction there might be halted again.

Unfortunately, the federal government's actions undercut much of the intentions of the plan.

Last summer, Congress rolled back the clean energy tax credits that much of this plan relied on.

So when EDC says certain commitments are still on track, we're thrilled to hear that, but want to understand a bit more about where the funding is coming from.

And lastly, building decarbonization or lowering a building's carbon footprint accounts for more than half of the green jobs that are projected in this plan and depends on the successful implementation of local law 97.

By setting carbon emissions for large buildings, local law 97 creates the demand for retrofits and the workforce needed to complete them.

Meeting the employment targets outlined in the plant assumes that local law 97 is being enforced and implemented on schedule, and we want to discuss the progress of those building retrofits to date, how many jobs are currently in the pipeline, and uh how we are supporting decarbonization across the city.

Before we hear from the administration, I want to thank the committee staff for their hard work, starting with senior counsel Alex Polinov, senior policy analyst William Hong Nank, and financial analyst Spencer Kuhn.

And with that, I will turn to Chair Juan for her opening remarks.

Thank you so much, Chair Maloney.

I want to acknowledge that we've been joined by Councilmember Amanda Farias as well as Councilmember Chanel Thomas Henry.

My name is Julie One, and I have the privilege of chairing committee on workforce development.

Chair Maloney has laid out the economic development side of this plan.

I want to talk about the parts that matter the most to the work themselves, which is whether the city is actually building a path for New Yorkers into these jobs.

A plan that promises 400,000 green jobs by 2040 means very little if the people who need these jobs cannot get trained for them.

The plan made three major workforce promises.

First, a green collar training center in every single borough.

Second, for more than 12,000 New Yorkers trained in green jobs through apprenticeships and pre-apprentipograms by 2040.

And third, what the plan calls are 600 million dollar investment in green career pathways for young people.

I want to know how many of these promises have been kept and the numbers behind them broken down by fiscal year.

I also want to be precise about the 600 million dollars since it doesn't come from the Green Economy Action Plan.

It's our understanding that it comes from the city's 2023 pathways to an inclusive economy plan, and it is spread across public schools, CUNY, DYCD, to serve about 250,000 young people across the entire economy, not just green jobs.

So, how much of that $600 million actually funds the green trading?

And is there any green specific money in this plan at all, or are we just relabeling spending that was already happening for PR purposes?

Federal funding is another problem.

The workforce innovation and opportunity act has been reauthorized, and the federal budget for next year would fold workforce uh programs into a block grant and cut more than 1.2 billion from existing programs.

A lot of the city's trainings run on those federal dollars, so we want to know how much of the green training is in this plan and depend on federal dollars that now it's at risk, and what is the administration's will for prioritizing to keep this money if it disappears?

Separately, the Mamdani administration just launched its own 4.5 million dollar green workforce program as a pilot with the DOE with the DOE fund.

We don't object to the pilot, but we want to know how the pilot is going to be impacting the green economy action plan because it sends a signal when a new administration launches its own green jobs program instead of funding the one already on the books.

We want to know whether the plan is being quietly shelved, and if not, we want to know who's making sure that these programs aren't tripping over each other and how do they work in tandem with each other, and how are the responsibilities or portfolios divided up?

What we will be looking for today is evidence from EDC and New York City talent that the New Yorkers this plan was written for are actually getting trained and hired into good paying jobs, stable green jobs.

Before we turn over to the administration, I'd like to thank and acknowledge the workforce development committee staff, senior council Alex Polanoff, senior policy analyst William Hogneck, and financial analyst Spencer Kuhn.

With that, I'll turn over to the committee council to administer to the oath.

And I also want to acknowledge that we've been joined by Councilmember Caban and Councilmember Hani.

Thank you, Chair Wan.

Alex Polanoff, Committee Council.

Will all members of the administration testifying today?

Please raise your hands.

Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in your testimony today, and to respond honestly to Councilmember questions?

Yeah, I do.

Thank you.

You may begin when ready.

Good afternoon, Chair Maloney and Chair Wan and members of the economic development and workforce development committees.

My name is Sam Jung, and I serve as the Senior Vice President of the Green Economy team at the New York City Economic Development Corporation.

I'm here today with Michelle Lamberti, Vice President of Government and Community Relations.

I'm excited to share the progress we've made on the Green Economy Action Plan, or G for short, which was released in spring of 2024 in partnership with New York City Talent.

At EDC.

We think in terms of decades and generational change.

Under Mayor Mamdani and Deputy Mayor Sioux's leadership, UDC is approaching the green economy not only as a climate imperative, but as a pathway to economic justice, delivering good paying jobs and expanding opportunity for working people.

New York City is surrounded by 520 miles of water and shoreline, with the risk of rising seawater on our doorstep.

We have seen a hurricane leave our city dark and underwater.

Heavy rain and flooding has disrupted our transportation and infrastructure.

Urban wildfires have stained our skyline red and filled our air with ashes.

And extreme weather has driven up power bills and insurance costs for working people.

We cannot treat climate change as something we can put off until tomorrow.

It requires action today.

The Green Economy Action Plan provides a roadmap to tackle these challenges and invest in the sectors and jobs that will help the city combat climate change while providing a pathway to stronger communities and shared prosperity.

The opportunity ahead is significant.

The Jeep projected that the green economy could transition and create approximately 400,000 jobs by 2040.

Jobs across construction, engineering, clean energy, building retrofits, advanced manufacturing, design, operations, maintenance, and emerging industries.

All right, could you put the mic closer to your mouth?

Thank you.

I want to be clear.

Realizing the 2040 job projections will take decades.

70% of the 400,000 jobs projected are what we call transitioning jobs, which we won't be able to track until years down the road.

These jobs will not appear automatically or overnight.

They require planning.

The Jeep is a projection of the long-term transformation of our economy, the result of sustained public investment from every level of government, city, state, and federal, as well as private investment, industrial development, and workforce growth.

Yet, we're continuing to face real challenges from federal headwinds, like the rest of the nation, job growth is slowing, and aggressive federal rollbacks of key green economy policies are having an impact.

Despite this, we take a forward-looking approach to growth, development, and the green economy.

In the two years since its release, EDC has been focused on meeting key commitments from the Jeep, advancing major green infrastructure investments and activating workforce partners across the city to prepare New Yorkers for the economy of the future.

Today I'll use my time to share a handful of updates on this work.

New Yorkers have always used innovation and ingenuity to respond to whatever challenges come our way, and we have flourished because we have invested in our people.

A just and equitable transition to the green economy means creating accessible career pathways for working people.

At EDC, we are supercharging our efforts to educate, train, and position New Yorkers of all backgrounds to benefit from the green economy.

Earlier this year, we announced a $7 million investment into CUNY's green workforce training infrastructure.

This $7 million investment will ensure students graduate into a job market with the skills to change the world for the better, get a good paying job, and cement New York City as a leader in climate action.

In July 2025, we awarded $3 million from our Green Light Innovation Fund alongside a 1.1 million dollar grant from Councilmember Oswald Feliz to Fordham University to create the Bronx Green Job Center, a first of its kind workforce and entrepreneurship hub that will build an equitable green jobs pipeline in the heart of the Bronx.

And last September, EDC joined Solar One to cut the ribbon on new state-of-the-art environmental education center in Stuyvesant Cove Park.

A decade in the making, this education center will be a model for future urban coastal resiliency, while also creating an immersive hands-on environmental learning experience for New Yorkers of all ages.

We are also creating career paths for young people through our maritime career and aviation awareness fair.

We hosted the seventh annual fair this year and connected more than 500 high school students with industry experts on potential future careers.

And we are making significant investments to prepare local workers and New Yorkers from all backgrounds and businesses for the transition to the green economy.

Our waterfront pathways program is helping address disparities in public procurement by expanding opportunities for MWPEs in waterfront industries.

And through BSource NYC, we are supporting local small and medium-sized industrial businesses to capture contract opportunities in the offshore wind supply chain.

The first year of the program saw eight local companies secure over $13 million in offshore wind contracts.

The second year of this program is focused on supporting local general, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing contractors to expand within the growing building electrification sector.

And our economic mobility networks in Sunset Park and Hunts Point, as well as the East Brooklyn Workforce Development Fund and the Staten Island North Shore Workforce Fund, are helping more New Yorkers and waterfront communities get on a pathway to a good-paying career.

Over the past two years, we have also advanced coastal resiliency projects to protect waterfront communities, residents, workers, and businesses, including the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resilience Project, the Eastside Coastal Resiliency Project, among countless others throughout the city.

At EDC, we see the Green Economy Action Plan as both a climate strategy and an economic blueprint for equitable growth.

It is a framework for ensuring that the technologies, companies, and workers driving the clean energy transition can thrive in the decades to come.

We want to ensure that the next great climate technologies are not only simply being invented in New York City, but that they are built, tested, deployed, and scaled here.

And that work is being shaped at places like the Brooklyn Army Terminal, where we are building a world-class climate innovation hub.

Climate challenges are not solved by one sector alone.

They require collaboration between government, businesses, workers, and communities.

At Brooklyn Army Terminal, we are embarking on a new historic chapter, supporting the hundreds of businesses, industrial manufacturers, and thousands of employees who currently call it home, and anchoring it with a growing ecosystem for new climate technologists and entrepreneurs working on solutions to combat climate change.

Batworks will also be home to the largest green workforce training facility in New York City, connecting New Yorkers, including residents in the Sunset Park community to real economic opportunity while supporting green industrial growth.

This former military campus is now on the front lines of the next fight of our lives, leading the line on climate innovation.

Earlier this May, we launched the Batworks Temporary Space, creating an on-the-ground presence today.

We are bringing the Sunset Park community and industry together to connect, learn and help shape Batworks and shape Batworks activities ahead of the permanent hub's completion in 2028, and accelerating the city's 100 million dollar investment to ensure its benefits and jobs reach more New Yorkers and more communities.

Small businesses and startups are the future of the green economy, and at Batworks, we are supporting their growth through programs like Pilots at Bat and our offshore wind innovation hub programming.

We are also advancing Jeep Through the Harbor Climate Collaborative, or HCC, a joint initiative with the Trust for Governors Island and Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.

At Sunset Park at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Governor's Island, the HCC is supporting emerging businesses and companies, helping existing businesses scale, preparing New Yorkers for good-paying jobs, and training our students for the future jobs in the green economy.

The Green Economy Action Plan goes far beyond education and job training.

It also lays out how we can deliver more sustainable infrastructure for New Yorkers.

Today, transportation makes up about 25% of New York City's emissions.

At EDC, we are building public goods for the public good, working to deliver more sustainable alternatives in transportation that not only make our city more livable, but deliver good paying jobs for working people.

New York City has always been a maritime city, and we are charting a new course for our economic future, using our historic waterways to create sustainable infrastructure that moves goods off the streets and onto our waterways, reducing pollution and making our city cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable.

We are advancing transformative projects at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, which will become a critical hub for New York's Blue Highways Waterborne Freight Network.

And last year, we released the vision plan for Hunts Point Marine Terminal, another critical link on our Blue Highways network.

In April this year, we took transportation and sustainability to New Heights, with the first ever point-to-point electric vertical takeoff and landing air taxi demonstration flights in New York City's history.

At the downtown Skyport in Manhattan, we are building a low-carbon, multimodal working waterfront where freight will move goods off our roads and onto our waterways, creating green jobs while leading the world on the adoption of safe electrified flight in an urban environment.

The build-out of this infrastructure is moving ahead on time, and we expect construction to begin this year.

And we are keeping our city moving by expanding our EV charging infrastructure.

Last year, we unveiled New York City's first community-driven freight-focused EV charging depot at Hunts Point Distribution Center, advancing the city's transition to cleaner and more efficient ground transportation of goods.

Construction has historically been one of the largest contributors to emissions and waste, with 70% of emissions in our city coming from our buildings.

But the buildings of tomorrow cannot be built with the assumptions of yesterday.

At EDC, we are shifting how we think about construction, moving from extractive systems towards regenerative ones.

A great example of this work is our Mass Chamber Studio Initiative, which is advancing the use of low-carbon construction.

This year, we are launching the third cohort of our Mass Chamber Studio as part of Mayor Mamdani's block-to-block housing plan to deliver more affordable housing to New Yorkers.

This work will support a pipeline of new housing projects that will be delivered more efficiently and sustainably.

The studio will train and support project development teams in the technical components of modular delivery and provide regulatory support in partnership with DOB and the fire department.

The promise of Mass Timber is connected to a promise of economic, environmental, and housing justice, creating homes that teachers, workers, young families, and longtime residents can actually afford, and expanding opportunities for architects, engineers, contractors, and skilled trades workers.

But we know that this innovation must be paired with standards.

That is why EDC has supported the development of circular design and construction guidelines, a framework that encourages reuse, material recovery, and designing buildings with their entire life cycle in mind.

We see this future taking shape in projects like Spark Kipps Bay, where we are transforming an entire New York City block into a state-of-the-art and first of its kind education, job, innovation hub, focused on life sciences and health tech.

Last year we began deconstruction on the site, and we are on track to divert an unprecedented 95% of project materials from landfills.

So far, we have salvaged and diverted 76 tons of waste, repurposing hundreds of light fixtures, masonry block, wood paneling, bluestone pavers, historic release sculptures and iron gates.

And in Queens at Willet's Point, we are pairing affordability and economic justice with sustainability, so housing and new businesses can take root.

Located within a floodplain, we have said goodbye to the Valley of Ashes, to the pollution, decay, and neglect that has defined this area for generations.

And in its place, built a brand new neighborhood with 2,500 new affordable houses and residential buildings, seeking to achieve high standards of environmental sustainability, including green roofs.

We have built new infrastructure like sewers and stormwater drains, and we have raised new streets and buildings out of the floodplain to protect residents from future storms.

The first residents moved into their new affordable homes this May, and soon the world sport will come to the world's borough with the fully electric, privately financed Etiad Stadium scheduled to be ready to welcome NYCFC for the 2027 MLS season and open to the world for the 2028 Olympics.

This is a model of green neighborhood.

And last December, we took another major step forward in reimagining what the future of our city can be.

We advance the redevelopment of the Hunt's Point Produce Market, an investment in the people who keep the city running every single day.

This transformation will create a first of its kind fully electric facility, one that delivers affordable, healthy food to working families while building a cleaner, more sustainable future for the Bronx.

For too long, communities in the Bronx have borne the burden of pollution and poor air quality while receiving too little of the investments they deserve.

This project is about changing that reality.

We know that we must build a green future where the benefits are shared, where clean energy means cleaner air in our neighborhoods, good paying jobs for our workers, and a stronger city for everyone.

And at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, we are building that future with the largest offshore wind hub in the nation.

In the heart of our Sunset Park District, a critical focal point in the city's efforts to grow just green economy.

More than 2,500 union workers have been revitalizing this port into the clean energy center of New York City.

This is where our waterfront history meets our climate and innovation future.

Construction is 98% complete, and we expect first power to reach the terminal by the end of the year.

Building the green economy takes ambition and boldness.

The Green Economy Action Plan is about choosing a future where cleaner air comes with better jobs, where climate resilience comes with economic security, where public investment creates public goods, and where the benefits of a greener city are shared by the many.

The green economy is not a distant promise.

It is being built now, on our waterfronts, in our neighborhoods, and by our working people.

We're proud to work in partnership with the city council to improve the lives of our neighbors, expand opportunity, combat climate change, and ensure New York City remains a global hub of business, culture, and innovation.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today, and we welcome any questions that you have.

Good afternoon.

My name is Dougle Perry, and I'm the executive director of the New York City Office of Talent and Workforce Development, or NYC Talent.

I'm joined today by Stephanie Kloki, the executive director of our industry partnership for the sustainable infrastructure sector.

Thank you to the members of the New York City Council Committees on Workforce Development and Economic Development, Workforce Development Chair Wan, and Economic Development Chair Maloney for inviting us to testify today.

And thank you to our colleagues at EDC, Sam Jung and Michelle Lumberti for your partnership.

NYC Talent's mission is to ensure that the city's workforce system connects New Yorkers to good jobs and helps employers access local talent.

The public workforce ecosystem in New York City is made up of over 120 programs administered by 28 different city agencies and their many contracted providers.

This includes the city's core workforce agencies like the Department of Small Business Services, the Human Resources Administration, the Department of Youth and Community Development, the City University of New York, and New York City Public Schools.

While each of these agencies focuses on its own core mission and service delivery, NYC Talent works across all partners so that the city's workforce development strategy align with job seeker needs, employer demand, and a changing economy.

Investments in sustainability and climate change resiliency have been building for decades, but in 2021 and 2022, former President Biden allocated the largest investment in climate action in U.S.

history by signing the bipartisan infrastructure law and the inflation reduction act.

Between the two bills, billions of dollars were allocated to infrastructure projects and numerous tax incentives were developed to encourage electrification, electric vehicle use, clean and renewable energy generation, and energy storage.

In the wake of these planned investments, EDC and NYC Talent developed the Green Economy Action Plan, which, as EDC described, outlined the current and projected size and scope of the green economy in New York City and offered actions city stakeholders could take to support the equitable growth of this sector.

Our role in the report's development focused on ensuring that all stakeholders, including our partners in government and in the private sector, are proactively thinking about workforce development as a tool to connect New Yorkers to opportunity.

NYC Talent knows that workforce development services and systems constitute essential opportunity infrastructure that is needed to equitably achieve our climate and economic goals.

And just like physical infrastructure, workforce path workforce pathways are not built overnight.

We work closely with EDC to develop this report by informing recommendations, facilitating conversations with industry stakeholders, and helping to identify the good jobs that are key to building toward a decarbonized future.

The federal policy landscape has shifted considerably since the Green Economy Action Plan's original release in February 2024.

Reckless, cruel, and short-sighted policy changes, including House Resolution One, executive orders, and tariffs, have rescinded tax incentive for electric vehicles, accelerated the phase out of tax credits for wind and solar projects, reprioritized fossil fuels, and created an atmosphere of economic uncertainty for workers, businesses, and other stakeholders active in the green economy and beyond.

Despite these headwinds, this administration and NYC Talent believe strongly in climate change and are committed to ensuring the growth of the green economy benefits all New Yorkers, particularly communities disproportionately impacted by environmental injustices.

With this unwavering vision, since the report's release, NYC Talent has launched a new industry partnership focused on resilient infrastructure, taken significant steps to increase equitable access to careers in the construction industry, supported green public sector pathways, and developed new opportunities for the city's young people to learn about and gain skills relevant to the green economy.

We also continue to support agencies across the public workforce system as well as private partners in aligning workforce strategies to meet the demand of the green economy.

In 2025, NYC Talent launched a new industry partnership to expand and lead our office's work in the green economy.

The Resiliency Manufacturing, Industrial and Infrastructure Council, or Remake for short.

Remake works to support equitable growth within the sustainable infrastructure field by bringing together stakeholders across sectors, including manufacturing, industrial construction, transportation, utilities, decarbonization, supply chain, waste and materials management, building operations, and water systems to coordinate workforce development strategies and solutions.

As outlined in the plan and mentioned in EDC's testimony, some industries in the green economy will see the creation of entirely new jobs, while many others will adapt by changing the skills required within existing occupations.

For example, electricians install building electrification systems and EV charging infrastructure.

HVAC mechanics support heat pump deployment and energy efficiency retrofits.

Plumbers and pipe fitters work on high efficiency building systems, and construction managers oversee projects that must meet evolving climate and energy performance requirements.

To monitor these adaptations and understand ongoing employer demand, remake engages businesses across New York City's green economy to better understand emerging hiring trends.

Remake has hosted seven industry roundtables with more than 35 businesses and continues to conduct site visits with small manufacturers to hear directly about recruitment and retention challenges.

We also actively engage climate tech startups and as they begin planning for future workforce growth.

These engagements help Remake to provide guidance to businesses interested in developing on-the-job training opportunities and has informed the launch of a labor market intelligence webinar series designed to connect the workforce field directly with businesses.

We recently hosted our first webinar, which focused on labor market trends relating to certified energy auditors and certified energy managers.

This session attracted representatives from training providers, CUNY, and city agencies, underscoring the importance of translating employer demand into actionable workforce development strategies.

NYC Talent is also helping more New Yorkers enter fields that are critical to the development of a climate resilient future, including the building trades, facility managers, and more.

The city's Pathways to Industrial and Construction Careers, or Pink program, which is managed by HRA in partnership with our office, provides expansive supportive services, including funding for transportation, costs associated with starting a job like uniforms and tools, and driver's licenses, so that low-income individuals can successfully start and retain a job.

Since 2024, nearly 1,500 pink participants have been placed into union or prevailing wage careers in sectors including construction, transportation, and building services.

Another example of expanding equitable pathways into quality careers is our community hiring initiative, which leverages the city's purchasing power to connect city vendors to talent and job seekers to career opportunities.

Through community hiring, city agencies set workforce goals in their contracts for vendors to provide employment and apprenticeship opportunities to low-income individuals and those who live in low-income communities, including NYCHA housing.

Community hiring covers green economy related investments, including construction and professional services.

This initiative, which was made possible by state legislation, was operationalized by NYC Talent in 2025, and to date, more than 275 procurements have been released with community hiring goals, which represents 14 billion dollars in projected contract value.

I also lead the city's negotiation for the project labor agreements, or PLAs, which are specific types of collective bargaining agreements that the city negotiates with the building trades for certain types of construction projects.

PLAs are a great tool to ensure cost-effective, efficient, and safe capital project delivery while ensuring labor harmony, fair wages, and benefits for workers and opportunities for other workforce development efforts.

The city signed new PLAs across 2024 and 2025 that cover cumulative project value of approximately $9 billion, including many resilient infrastructure investments, like the construction of new parks and buildings, installation and renovation of wastewater filtration plants, and more.

While the city has had PLA since 2009, the recent PLAs cover the most amount of capital construction work ever and also include community hiring goals directly in the PLAs.

This increases access to quality union careers for more New Yorkers, which will set them on a path to contribute to and benefit from the sector's green transition.

And to make these apprenticeship goals more equitable and impactful, NYC Talent worked with SBS to secure $1 million in baseline funding for construction pre-apprentiping starting in fiscal year 2025.

Our partners at SBS also continue to support green workforce programming via its training in construction site safety, cable installation, and NYC cool roofs.

NYC Talent has directly supported the expansion of NYC cool roofs, which provide New Yorkers with paid training and work experience, installing energy-saving reflective rooftops by steering investments from the New York State's Office of Just Energy Transition.

More than $550,000 in new state grant funding from this office has gone to the cool roofs program.

We also partnered with the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to upskill the public sector fleet workforce.

The first of its kind foundational training increases safety awareness for incumbent city employees working around electric vehicles and their high voltage systems, particularly for non-technicians and support personnel, and is on track to serve more than 300 city workers.

NYC Talent is also preparing the city's next generation of public sector workers for the growth of the green economy through our expanding youth apprenticeships.

Funded by a grant from the Robin Hood Foundation, NYC Talent is working with DCAS and city agencies to leverage the city's new youth apprentice civil service title to expand access to in-demand green occupations at city agencies.

NYC Talent's support for youth employment continues beyond public sector careers.

Leveraging our industry expertise, we contributed to New York City Public Schools expansion of Future Ready, which now includes an HVAC and building decarbonization pathway.

This pathway was launched in 2024 and expands career connected learning opportunities in green economy sectors.

This pathway is currently available at 11 high schools and serves nearly 400 students in grades 10 through 12.

To date, New York City Public Schools has committed six million dollars in capital funding to support their green economy workforce initiatives.

Additionally, NYC Talent launched Inside Industrial, a career exploration initiative that brings New York City public school students to employer work sites so that students can experience a career in the green economy and employers can build connections with New York City's talented young people.

To date, NYC Talent has held 13 tours for more than 350 students across seven schools.

We recently partnered with DYCD to bring on cohorts of middle school students through their exploring futures program and are looking forward to identifying additional opportunities to grow and scale inside industrial.

There's no doubt that the impacts of the federal cuts are significant and growth of some occupations within the green economy may be slowed, but the need for more sustainable and climate resilient future is undeniable.

And this administration is committed to meeting this challenge through actions, policies, and strategies that center working people.

We are proud of the city's progress to date, and we will continue to develop more equitable pathways into the careers that power the green economy's growth.

By strengthening pathways into these industries now, we are ensuring that New Yorkers across the five boroughs can benefit from New York City's transition to a more climate resilient future.

Thank you, and we look forward to your questions.

Thank you so much for that testimony, and thank you for the updates.

It's great to hear that many steps are being taken to pursue the goals of the green energy action, economy action plan.

Just to start off, since this plan was first released, we've shifted presidents.

We've shifted presidents of EDC, and we also have a new mayor.

So can you just speak to the Mondami's administration's goals and plans to continue to pursue the plan, and if yes, which of the plan's commitments are going to be funded in the upcoming budget?

Thank you, Chair, for the question.

As you know, one of the core remits of the New York City Economic Development Corporation is to grow innovation-based sectors with a focus on equity.

And so to that end, we as EDC view our work more as generational investments and commitments.

And so, although the plan was released under the mayor's previous mayor's administration, the Green Economy Action Plan really should be thought about as a generational and ongoing commitment, particularly given that the urgency of addressing climate crisis is only deepening.

I think a good example of this is a South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

In the DePlasio administration, that was when we put forward that site for solicitation that Equinoir was then successful in enabling a port facility for that construction started in the Addons administration, and that site will be completed in the Mamdani administration.

I will note, like I said in my testimony before, that project in particular has afforded 2500 union workers to come to the site and work there.

It will yield 200 assembly jobs for the assembly of the large wintermite components and 60 permanent jobs for OM, which are enduring and really well paying.

We were able to also extract some community benefits from Equinor in particular, which includes a brand new learning center for offshore wind, which is called Windscape, located at Industry City.

We also extracted $5 million of investments for local workforce and business development organizations, including Uprose, and they funded the first three years of the Osher Wind Innovation Hub to support our innovation work in the offshore wind sector.

So that project really exemplifies ATC's commitment to working at the intersection of climate and economic justice, particularly given that that project will facilitate 810 megawatts of clean energy into New York City's grid, fairly alleviating our Floss of Fuel Grid-based system here.

And just speaking towards the upcoming budget and the funding commitments, do we expect any shifts or what components of the plan are going to be supported?

Yeah, currently, many of our initiatives are funded through existing allocations.

We'll work closely with OMB in the jam plan process for any resources that we need for net new initiatives, but generally we are covered for those initiatives in the Jeep as far as city funding is concerned.

The Mondami administration has framed the green economy around the integration of climate and labor policy.

My question is if that's shifted any of the focus of the green economy action plan or the framing in any of the strategies outlined in 2024.

Yeah, in terms of workforce development, EDC takes the approach, and all of the above approach.

We think supporting the creation of good quality jobs is the imperative, which includes union jobs and non-union jobs.

And so we welcome the Mamdani administration's emphasis on union jobs, and we'll do all that we can to continue our good work to enable union jobs, particularly at construction sites.

But uh yeah, we'll continue our all of the above strategy for workforce development.

Bob, do you have any comments?

And I will just note that the pathways to industrial and construction careers program that I mentioned has uh placed nearly 1,500 people into union and prevailing wage careers.

So that's a really exciting opportunity, not just to connect people to any old job, but to union pathways, which we know are uh the pathway to the middle class.

Great.

Digging into the numbers, the plan set the goal of 400,000 jobs uh up from 130 at the release.

So, what is the current estimate of green jobs in the city today?

And uh what is the growth rate that you've seen?

Yeah.

Thank you, Chair, for the question.

Um, I wanted to first start by uh kind of emphasizing some key takeaways from today's economic snapshot that the EDC just released.

Um three key takeaways there unemployment is down for the third straight month to 5.4%.

Um, New York City has added 44,500 private sector jobs over the past year, a 1.1 increase, which is faster than the national growth of 0.5% over the same period, and that the broader New York City metro area added about 17,300 jobs in May and leads all U.S.

metros with 48,600 jobs added over the past year.

So I think those stats really underscore the importance of EDC's work to diversify the economy and give some good light about the state of our local economy in particular now.

Um, like I mentioned before, the Just Transition creates a big opportunity for us to advance economic justice and create economic opportunities for everyday New Yorkers.

To seize the economic opportunities that it affords to be through the Green Economy Action Plan, did a couple of things.

Um the first one was to define what the green economy actually is.

Um it may be surprising, but there isn't a nationally national consensus on what constitutes the green economy.

So we define that consists of eight sectors and 21 subsectors.

And relatedly, uh, we use a Jeep to size and forecast what might be the potential for New York City to host uh 400,000 green jobs by 2040.

Uh which I will say is not a commitment but a projection and a forecast.

Um that was.

Could you repeat the number?

Sorry.

I'm sorry.

Could you repeat the number?

Uh 400,000 jobs.

Oh, yeah.

That's right.

And that 400,000 jobs is contingent on four key factors.

One is local, state, and federal climate policies, the second is public investments, particularly from the federal government, and then three private investments, and then four shifting consumer preferences.

And so, as you stated in your opening remarks, uh, when we released the plan, there was 133,000 green jobs, and 70% of those jobs are transitioning into the green economy.

Um, I mentioned that in particular because the data does not lend itself to um year by year um tracking.

Um it is difficult, for example, to understand when a financing uh consultant will do more green economy work.

And so the nature of the projections takes that into account.

We have a methodology in place, but given the timeframe that we've had, we can't replicate that.

But I will note that in the clean energy generation, transmission, distribution, and storage and energy efficiency occupations for which we have numbers, there were about 68,000 jobs in those occupations in 2021, and now they're about 75,000 as of 2024, which is the latest data set that we have access to currently.

Within the uh occupations that we discussed in the green economy action plan, there's 21 focus occupations, those are jobs largely within the building efficiency and electrification space, where we feel like there are lower barriers to entry for everyday New Yorkers that pay family sustaining wages of 31 dollars per hour and are largely accessible.

We've seen growth from 2021 to 2024 at a rate of 8.6%.

So we see promising job growth figures there.

Um, like I mentioned in my testimony, we see this as generational work, the jobs won't be created overnight.

We as EDC are confident that we will continue to see job growth and that green economy itself, given the nature of the crisis, will only continue uh to heighten the need to be addressed, thereby creating economic opportunities.

Um I will say that uh our work hasn't uh stopped, like I mentioned in my remarks.

We have various capital projects, like the Willet's Point uh development, which includes all electric soccer stadium, which in totality will generate more than 14,000 jobs.

Uh we've invested in different workforce facilities all across the city, which I can speak to a little bit more later, but which includes a 30,000 square foot workforce development facility at Batworks in the Brooklyn Army Terminal, uh, the Bronx Creek Job Center, um, and we made 10 million dollars uh investment into the community central um campuses, and so we're happy to share that news and continue the good work ahead.

I'm gonna pass to Chair Wan.

Yeah, I have some follow-up questions.

So for local law 97 compliance compared to the five bars, can you help me understand um how you guys are still going to right now?

There's no funding from the federal, state, or city government for local on any seven implications or implementation.

So, how does this affect the green jobs that we were promised?

And uh what is the plan there?

Thank you for the question, Chair Juan.

Um, you know, as we noted in our testimony um earlier, buildings are one of the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide and also creates the biggest opportunity for jobs in the green economy.

And so we have a shared understanding of the importance of enabling local law 97 implementation.

Um we've heard from our agency partners that they're making great strides.

Um, DOB in particular has shared that there's been over 90% compliance with their first milestone for private building owners.

Um I will uh say that DOB is the implementation and enforcement agency.

We as EDC supplement their efforts by supporting on workforce development and business.

So, how many jobs are being created by local on 87 implementation?

Um, like I mentioned before, you know, in the 21 focus occupations that we've seen, um, we've seen about 8.6% growth.

A lot of those are from the So, how many jobs is 8.6%?

Um, I don't have that exact figure, and I don't want to misspeak, so I'm happy to come back.

Okay, can your team look it up right now so that we can understand how many jobs that is?

And can you help me break down the 400,000 jobs?

So you're saying that you're saying that it's gonna be 400,000 jobs by 2040, and that's up from 133,000.

Even if you are saying that right now, you can't tell me and the other chair how many jobs that is going to be year to year.

Help me understand what your vision was when you set the number 400,000 for the next four years.

So what will for the next, I guess until 2040?

So, how are you guys looking to increase the jobs by 2040?

What is the breakdown that you made that forecast?

Thanks for the question, Chairwan.

Like I said, there before there are certain data limitations, given the availability of data sets.

Right, but I'm saying, why did you guys forecast 400,000?

How did you get to that number?

Is what I'm asking you.

So the 400,000 number was a projection based on the information at the time the report was developed, which included the enormous amount of investments from the federal government.

Unfortunately, that investment, all of that investment did not follow through.

Let's break down that investment.

So can you help me understand for which level of funding and how many jobs per funding you are estimating for so that we got to the 400,000?

Because then we should recalculate how many jobs we're really expecting by 2040 and break that down.

Because we're trying to become, we want to be realistic here.

So we want to understand where we're what we're actually dealing with here.

We can't just be projecting fake numbers to people with fake hopes.

I think the point is well taken, uh, Chair Juan.

Um I will underscore what I said before that the that 400 job number is a projection based on four different factors.

Uh, local state, uh federal policy, public investment.

So, which policies how much money are we talking about so that we can break down the 400,000 jobs?

We're unable to do that at that point at this point because the methodology doesn't lend itself to a clear answer.

Okay, so then help me understand how you got to the 400,000 to begin with.

So we took uh wide um wide uh spreading uh methodology that incorporates analysis of the various four factors that I just mentioned to you before, and did uh analysis that accounted for the different uh peaks and valleys, a different industry growth cycles, uh public policy milestones, et cetera.

Which industries and which cycles are cumulative figure that is 400,000 jobs by 2040.

So which industries and which cycles are you referring to?

We the public deserves to know how you forecast this for the 400,000 so that we can make up for the delta and come to a realistic number of what that actually will be for job creation with our realities today.

Definitely appreciate the question, Chair One.

Um, I'm gonna step back a little bit because I think we share both your goals and concerns and want to be transparent with the public about like where our numbers are, where we're heading.

I think what my colleagues are alluding to, and I'll try to be like a little clear about it, um, is that it clearly was a projection, right?

The 400,000 was a projection based on what we knew at the time.

That said, I think it's from our perspective, it still feels a little too early to know whether or not we are on track.

I understand the desire for concrete numbers every year.

The way that the projections were based was really over like longer cycles.

So while we are currently like when the plan when the plan rolled out, obviously we were under the Biden administration, who had like really fulsome investments in many of these sectors.

I think we have definitely seen a rollback with the Trump administration, and so we need to wait a little bit longer, I think, to see like what future administrative policies may look like.

That said, we are continuing to move our pillars of the plan forward, and I think it's important to note that many of the things that were in the plan, um, I know we've said this before, and I know when I first read the plan, I wanted to understand it a little bit better.

Um, that many of the jobs are transitioning, right?

So, like their jobs that currently exist, so that's your HVAC person who's doing something that's like not um my colleagues will help me on like the correct terminology, but like you know, they're doing the HVAC work, but they're doing it in ways that don't necessarily employ green technology or the latest green practices.

Those jobs are not complete, those are transition.

We consider those transitioning jobs, right?

So there's like a subset of jobs that will transition who are jobs that exist today.

It's not 400,000 net new, it's a projection of 400,000 green jobs.

So some of those will be net new, and some of those will be transitioning.

So, what percentage of the 400,000 are transition jobs?

That I we may have to get that 70% are transitioning jobs.

So 70% out of 400,000 are existing transition jobs.

Yes.

I think that's a really important clarification for the public to know.

I I think uh to be clear, I think that was clear in the Green Economy Action Plan, and it is true that 70% of those jobs are transitioning jobs, with the additional 30% being net new.

So when are you going to make the correction?

Because it's two years into the administration now that you haven't made the correction in the forecast for 400,000.

I think I think the the plan forecasts 400,000, and in the plan, it makes reference to the fact that those are both net new and transitioning jobs.

So that is clear in the plan.

When are you going to make a correction for your forecast, knowing that there's federal and state cuts to all of the green new jobs?

I think we have uh other there's a benchmark in there, I think where we we recommend looking to 2030.

I think at we're two years in.

I think in terms of understanding what the real effects of are within the cycle, will take a little bit of time.

And so I'd say like as we get closer to the 2030 period, it might be a more realistic time to look back to see like where are we in terms of the economic cycle?

Where are we within terms of do we still have an administration like the one we have currently, or have we shifted back to an admin that's closer aligned with the Biden admin that is really prioritizing the work we're doing around green economy?

So when is a next time?

So are you saying that we're not going to get an update for the public until 2030 for the job forecast?

I think what I can say is that because the 400,000 was a projection, and the methodology, as my colleagues alluded to, is difficult, that we would the most appropriate time to perhaps revisit, and I would have to consult with my colleagues would be closer to that 2030 date, but not just two years into the plan.

Can you give us a clear breakdown because through the both testimonies from uh talent and from EDC, we saw we heard snippets of small amounts of money under 10 million dollars spent here, stunt there.

Can you give us a clear breakdown of the 600 million that has been allocated for the green economy action plan and where that money is going?

So, to clarify the 600 million dollars, as you mentioned earlier, is a reflection of the investment from the city, state, federal, and private funding for the implementation of the youth uh young adult action plan.

And that was released in December of 2023 and was reflective of the FY24 funding.

Now, that funding was to support all sorts of youth workforce development programming, which include but is not exclusively limited to investments in the green economy.

Um so that 600 million dollars was tied to youth workforce, but that includes, say, like summer youth employment program and so what is the breakdown of the 600 million that is specifically for green workforce development?

So we don't have the specific numbers because some of the programming, uh like SYEP, for example, right, for that fiscal year is over 200 million dollars, and uh SYP, we just uh worked with DYCD and the painter's DC9 to have a SYEP program, and so DC9 will be hosting uh um 30 different uh young people this summer.

And so that's one example where we're having young people get exposure to and learn from uh a job that is contributing to the green economy, but because it's part of SYEP, we don't have that specific.

Okay, so with all of those different overlaps that you have, how much of the 600 million is for green new jobs.

We would have to get back to you on some of the specifics if we can break it down to that.

So someone on your team please do that right now.

I'm gonna pass it back to Chair Maloney.

Thank you, Chair Juan.

Um, echoing the sentiment, the original report had four growth drivers that have considerably shifted uh since the original report was published, public policy and targets, citing state and federal laws, um, government spending and incentives, primarily citing federal funding that was directed towards the green economy, and then consumer preferences, which have also probably shifted in an increasingly um in an affordability crisis.

So echo echo uh Chair Wan's sentiment of needing to revise the numbers to be more more realistic when the Center for the Urban Urban Future was citing that there's been 2,000 net new green jobs in 2023 and that delta of thanks for um asking that line of questioning.

I wanted to uh jump over to the South Brickland Marine Terminal and ask what the status is of the current construction at the terminal, how many jobs have been created there?

Happy to do so.

Um I think the top lines uh that I'll say about SBMT and Empire Wind One and the future pipelines include one, the city's interest interests are protected at the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

Empire Wind One has faced federal obstruction, but is unlikely to face them in the future, and then three, uh the future pipeline of new offshore wind projects is challenged.

For context there, I'll just briefly go over the different roles that each level of government play with an offshore wind first.

At the federal level, they are responsible for giving site control to offshore wind developers in what they call wind lease areas in federal waters, and also to permit the offshore construction.

So Empire Wind One as offshore wind project is subject to federal jurisdiction in that regard.

New York State in particular creates the market for offshore wind.

They solicit and procure for offshore wind renewable energy credits, which enable offshore wind developers to get the financing that they need to finance the overall onshore and offshore projects.

The local government provides site and infrastructure to different onshore components of the offshore wind farm, which includes without South Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

So you just wanted to get that clear from the start.

At the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, like I mentioned before, it's 98% complete.

Just to speak to the ways in which we protected the city city's interests through the lease there, we had a construction guarantee first and foremost.

We wanted to ensure that if there was going to be federal obstruction, that Ecuador and Scanska don't walk away from the project and that we as a city are made whole with a complete uh world-class offshore wind port, which we are on track to be completed very soon.

We also have a lease guarantee through the term of Ecuador's sublease, which is from 2026 to 2054.

So they ultimately are on the hook for rent payments to the city, and there is a 20 million dollar penalty if they uh reneg on their on their lease.

Um and then we have invested into South Brooklyn Marine Terminal with our city capital.

Um that, as you probably know, is reimbursement based, and so we will not pay out those resources until the work is completed, given that they as Equinore have to pay out of pocket first, and then we will repay once that is completed.

In terms of the discrete job question that you asked, um, like I mentioned before, there's been over 2500 unique union workers on site working.

There will be 200 uh workers that will assemble the large wind turbine components, and then there will be 60 permanent jobs for operations and maintenance for the offshore portion of Empire Wind One's maintenance.

Um I think uh I'll just speak a little bit to the future pipeline.

Uh, we know that uh given federal obstruction, um, there's been aggressive tactics that have been implemented that have one, uh halted all new permitting and um procurements for federal wind lease areas.

Um, so we do see the future being challenged there, but we are working hand-in-glove with uh New York State and NISERTA, which still has a nine gigawatt goal of offshore wind uh to ensure that we're doing all that we can to sustain the offshore wind development industry if and as a new federal administration that's friendlier to offshore wind comes into place.

For example, we've been supporting uh NISERTA on what they call a predevelopment RFP.

So the state is looking to uh the broad industry and local government partners for ideas on how to support predevelopment activities that offshore wind developers will need so that they can jump start uh when there is a friendlier administration in place.

I'll close by saying that moving forward, we see offshore wind as a critical component of our clean energy future, but that we're also taking in all of the above approach to ensuring a just transition to renewables, which includes supporting projects like ChIPE, the Champlain Hudson Power Express, which we supported with some incentives there, that is bringing 1,250 megawatts of clean hydropower from Canada to New York City.

And just to clarify, what is the contingency plan if the injunctions lifted or if federal court the appeal the appeals process if they prevail?

And if we're at 98% complete, what's the timeline?

Yeah, I'll clarify.

Just given, like I mentioned before, the jurisdiction of the federal government only really pertains to federal offshore construction when there were two stop work orders that did not stop construction at SBMT both times.

We have never had to comply with the stop work order given its onshore nature and given that it's uh city land.

To that line of questioning, the 2022 agreement uh was justified as the staging and assembly hub because there were three offshore projects that were in the pipeline Empire Wind One, Empire Wind Two, and Beacon Wind One, which together would have generated more than 3,000 megawatts.

Uh Empire Wind 2 was canceled, Beacon Wind has no active construction, and the terminal now has an 810 megawatt project.

So, how does the economic case for the city's investment in the terminal hold when the scope of work has reduced down to one project and have you reassess the return on investment expected?

Yeah, I think that's where our lease provision that ensures a guarantee of rent is really important here.

Um we as uh EDC are of course supportive of Equinor finding multiple uses to ensure that they are able to meet the rent, but that onus is on them to ensure that they get subtenants or activate the site with uses that will generate that income to provide the city with rent.

Um I will note that we have actively partnered with Equinor to amplify um the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal for other maritime dependent uses, which could include uh the storage and transportation of construction materials, et cetera.

And so we're actively at the table trying to shape and ensure that they are successful, but ultimately I will underscore that it is uh their responsibility to give the city rent payments.

And what is the excess capacity at the site being used for?

Uh currently there is no excess capacity in terms of staging and assembly, given that Empire Wind One is going to be using the totality of that site.

Um, like I mentioned before, I think there's a I'll have to get back to you on the ex discrete acreage, but we are actively supporting Equinore to find other uses for that site.

And one other question.

In June 2024, the state locked in the price for Empire Wind One's power at 155 per megawatt hour up from 118 that was proposed in the original award.

Who bears the cost of that?

Uh how much of the city's investment was premised on the other two sites proceeding.

Um the power purchase agreement between NYSERTA and Equinor is for their one project, Empire Wind One.

That will cause um that that cost burden is shared across um all New Yorkers, and it will increase their monthly um electricity rates about a dollar to two dollars.

And so that was uh a prime consideration for NICERTA in their OREC solicitation.

Um their evaluation criteria was 70% price, 20% local what we call local content, meaning the economic impact for talent and workers and uh businesses across the state, and then 10% on feasibility.

So uh we've worked hand-in-glove to ensure that the state knows that affordability, particularly energy burden, is addressed through any OREC solicitations, and so we're happy that they have minimized the costs through the competitive procurement.

And I think Chairman, because you just to circle back a little bit to the economic importance of the site and the uh like return on cities return on investment with respect to the site.

Um, irrespective of where we are right now, this was the largest infrastructure investment in the city in really like 50 years.

And so while there are current federal headwinds with respect to offshore wind, our current president, for his own reasons, doesn't seem to like a source of power that we think is a great way to fuel like transition, this infrastructure is going to be in place for the next like 50 plus years.

And so we look forward to a future in which like wind will be a significant part of the city's infrastructure.

Um, and it may not happen today, but it will happen in the future.

Um, that said, I think as my colleague had alluded to, the site is 100% being used right now, and that is anticipated for the next couple of years.

Like so we are fully functional using that site for offshore wind, more than like supporting the investment the city's made.

And one of my colleagues back at the office wanted me to like also report that this we have the largest crane in the United States at this site, so it is a huge infrastructure investment.

It is something that we are looking forward to in the city.

I'm now gonna pass to my colleague, Councilmember Chanel Thomas Henry.

Thank you, Chair.

I'll begin with NYC Talent.

Your community hiring initiative program.

I see that you mentioned that workforce goals have been added into contracts.

How are you tracking those hiring goals currently?

Yeah, so as I mentioned in the testimony, we have over 275 procurements out on the street that's valued at over 14 billion dollars.

And so not all of those procurements have yet resulted in contracts.

I have to go through the procurement process.

But we do have a uh handful of contracts that have come online.

And so, in terms of tracking, um, it depends actually on the type of uh contract it is.

So for construction contracts, we're implementing a digital labor compliance tool that will collect workforce data, being able to understand who's working on those projects, uh how much they're being paid, uh, the trade classifications, where they're from, as well as the progress towards the community hiring goals for other types of contracts on like the professional services side, human services side, we are working with the city's uh workforce one system and our partners at HRA Business Link and others to uh be able to collect and track that data directly from the contractors who have those goals, and so they will be submitting that information to the city.

So this digital labor tool will be something in-house to your agency, and the contractor would be responsible for sending you these.

It will be a citywide use tool for all capital construction agencies, so all the construction agencies that are doing construction right now.

There's a paper-based process.

We're helping digitize that process, and so city vendors who are working with, say, DDC or parks or DP, transportation, those contractors will use this tool, and so the information on it will allow us our office to track community hiring and workforce commitments, as well as allow city agencies to conduct more robust prevailing wage oversight and payment processing.

And how are you identifying which low-income communities or residents for these contractors to target?

Are you doing it by zip code project area?

How is that working?

Yeah, so community hiring is rooted in state legislation, and so the state legislation has pretty prescriptive requirements.

So for a construction contract, it's zip codes in which 15% or more of the population is below the federal poverty guidelines, and so we publish a list of all of those zip codes.

It also includes NYCHA housing as well.

So the goals on construction projects are based on those uh those low-income regions, both on the zip code level as well as NYCHA housing.

With the youth pathways to a green economy, you stated there are 11 schools in the program.

Where are those schools located and how many per borough?

And sorry, the last part of that question.

How many per borough?

Per borough.

I would have I know that the uh New York City Public School's future ready, the HVAC and building decarbonization pathway is offered at 11 schools, serving over 400 students.

We would have to get back to you on the specific list of schools that uh that it's at, but there's 11 schools in total using that pathway.

Uh, green um colour workforce training facilities.

The plan said that there will be five, one in each borough.

How many of those are currently open?

I'm happy to give an overview of those facilities, council member.

Uh, for the first one, Brooke is in Brooklyn, the largest workforce development uh training facility across the five boroughs will be at Batworks.

Um that's gonna be 30,000 square feet.

Uh, we're gonna be opening that in late 2028.

Um, in the Bronx, uh, we're happy to invest um $3 million into Fordham's Bronx Green Job Center.

That's gonna be 12,000 square feet and opened um by the end of the year in Manhattan.

Uh, the Solar One Environmental Education Center in Midtown East that's 6,500 um square feet that is already open.

Um, and then, like I mentioned before, uh, we collectively have made a 10 million dollar investment into various community campuses for green workforce development facilities, which includes one in Queens at Queensborough Community College for an Energy Education Center House, and one in Santon Island at the College of Staten Island for Sustainable Business Finance and Entrepreneurship Center.

We're actively working with uh CUNY's capital team in particular to understand the timelines for when they will be open and happy to get you that information once it's clear.

Okay, in the interest of time, I'm gonna skip to the MWBE business initiatives.

Do you have the number of MWB businesses that are currently qualified in participating in these green opportunities?

Um thank you for that question, Council Member.

Could you I think I'm gonna think we'll need to get back with to you with that number, but can you just repeat the question again just in case I'm able to answer it?

How many currently how many MWB businesses are there in the city that are currently qualified to participate in these green job initiatives?

Uh that is not information that I know right now, but happy to bring that back into work with like the administration and and focus at DDC.

Max, one more question.

Um just to piggyback on that.

Is there anything in the plan to help these MWBEs, like any mentor approach protege programs to help them build capacity?

So if they're not currently capable of performing this, that they will be.

Yeah, thanks for council member for the question.

We have a shared uh value there supporting MWPE's access opportunities within the green economy.

Uh we have long-standing programs called Construct NYC and a newer program called Waterfront Pathways, both which we run in-house at EDC.

Construct NYC is our premier best in class MWPE construction uh business technical assistance and capacity building program.

Uh we're proud to say that we've graduated multiple cohorts.

We have designed on-ramps onto EDC projects in particular for those companies to ensure that once they get those skills, uh, they're able to work on their able to get first offers on any EDC procurements that we put out to to bid for particularly for construction work.

Um Waterfront Pathways was also invested by Equinoir.

It was a program that Equinor invested in as well.

Uh that program was specifically created to address the disparities in waterfront construction and services work, to enable MWPEs to enter offshore wind, but also to grow their capacities in contracting opportunities in waterfront construction, just given the nature of how many assets are on our 520 miles of coastline.

So we're happy to follow up with more information on those two programs.

Uh they've been running very well, and kudos to our EDC and WPE team for running those.

Thank you.

Thank you to both chairs.

Councilmember Honey for your questions.

Hi, thanks for being here this afternoon.

I'll start with some questions about um the inclusion of people with disabilities in the Green Economy Action Plan.

The plan emphasizes creating an equitable workforce.

How has the city ensured that people with disabilities are included in that vision?

And are there any specific goals or benchmarks for their participation in green economy jobs?

Thanks, Councilmember, for the question.

Um I'm happy to answer first and pass it to my colleague.

Um, as I mentioned before, uh, we're pretty bullish about enabling workers to enter into good uh paying jobs in the green economy.

That starts with career awareness.

And so uh the education center that we built in partnership with Equinora that is at Industry City was developed in partnership um with disability advocates uh to ensure that all of the materials are accessible um to a broad variety of individuals, both across language but also across ability.

But that doesn't cover the job part.

And so we don't have any codified goals for that, but it is part and parcel of our approach to inclusive and equitable uh workforce development, but I'll pass it to my.

But if there aren't benchmarks, how are you all how do you know that this is equitable?

So uh like my colleagues said, we don't have specific benchmarks tied to goals for uh jobs for people with disabilities, but at NYC talent, we're home to the Center for Workplace Accessibility and Inclusion, and the way that we think about um workforce accessibility and inclusion is making sure that all types of jobs um are available as an accessible to people with disabilities, and so we work across all types of sectors and particularly with the green economy, right?

There's a broad type of as uh was noted earlier in the testimony and in the report itself, a broad spectrum of of jobs that contribute to the green economy, and so part of the work of our team at uh Quai is to work with our partners across the city.

Well, whether that's the uh city agencies and partners external to make sure that there's opportunities open for people with disabilities.

So but at this moment, you are not uh evaluating whether people with disabilities have been connected to a job.

We're we're tracking, we actually do track towards uh connecting people with disabilities towards jobs.

We have yet to slice that specifically in the green economy, but we're happy to take that back and happy to also work with you, council member, on on ways that we can better track that.

But we do work towards um tracking across the various city programming and connecting people with difficulties to jobs.

I mean, with all the federal cuts, economics insecurity is it continues to be on the rise for people with disabilities and uh our our city has opportunities that should be reaching as is said uh in in the vision of the plan that uh to people with disabilities.

Um, and then has MOPED, Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, played a role in advising around uh job circulation or engagement with people with disabilities.

So our office works very closely with the mayor's office of people with disabilities.

But specifically on green economy.

I would have to get back to you on their specific involvement with the development of the green economy action.

I mean, it's okay if it if you don't.

Like I'm just I'm just trying to know.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm not sure specifically about their involvement with the development of the plan, but we work very closely with them across all of our work tied to people with disabilities.

We also work very closely with the team at EDC and and the city collaborates uh quite a bit on that.

And so, yeah, I would recommend that uh Moped be brought in.

I think this is certainly an area that we should have far more clarity around.

Um, the plan uh shares that there is a priority focus occupations and construction and installation, um, engineering and architecture management and business.

With a target of 12,000 New Yorkers to green economy occupations, how many have been connected to date?

So we at Talent work across the entire system.

As I mentioned in the testimony, we had uh about approximately 1,500 people through the Pink Program connected to union and prevailing wage jobs.

Um we also work very closely with our colleagues at SBS who have uh funding for pre-apprentip uh programming, and I think to date um over 350 people since the release of the plan or since FY24 have been connected to pre-presentership.

Are these numbers available publicly?

I we've reported on the we just celebrated an exciting milestone of 1300 for pink, and so we've reported on that publicly through that uh press release that we just issued is now closer to 1500.

Some of the other numbers, um, through community hiring, for example, those numbers will be reported publicly.

Um, and we're happy to work with you for a some follow-ups, chairs.

Yes, thank you.

So 1500, 1,300, um, these numbers are nowhere near $12,000.

So what is how are you all thinking about how you reach 12,000 New Yorkers?

Yeah.

So the timeline in the plan itself was to 2040.

Obviously, there's also been the impacts, as we've been noting of the federal government.

However, we're laying the groundwork for a lot of that work as well for really increasing equitable opportunities, and I'd say through the negotiation of our project labor agreements, which cover tens of billions of dollars of construction work over the next many many years across the city, making sure that there are pathways there for uh New Yorkers to get connected to jobs in the construction sector.

So through community hiring and setting goals on those PLAs, that's a really strong opportunity to uh maximize uh connecting New Yorkers.

I would be very interested to see a better breakdown of uh how um that 2040 goal of 12,000 placements will be reached.

Um I think 1300 number is very low, uh, and I don't know if that happened if that's a if that's a 2026 number or if that's a since 2023 number, would be great to know how you're assessing and evaluating uh the placements.

I mean, I think having a number deems us uh to ask, you know, how you got there and how are you gonna get there?

Um, I'll move on.

Uh it also mentions NITA Clean Energy Academy as a tool for creating economic mobility for low-income New Yorkers as of 2023, December 2023, 39 residents had completed the 16 week program.

Does NYC talent or EDC have an updated figure on the number of participants in this program?

Sorry, could you just clarify which program specifically?

The NITRA Clean Energy Academy.

I don't think I have those numbers.

I don't maybe you just see this, but we could happy to work with uh our colleagues back and get back to you on that.

We'll deeply appreciate that.

Thank you, Chairs.

Thank you so much.

I want to go back to what we were talking about earlier.

Does your team have updates on the numbers that we asked for follow-up?

So we we did look into it.

Unfortunately, we will have to work closer with our colleagues across the various agencies.

As I mentioned, um, that $600 million is a reflection of the FY24 budget, which goes into a variety of programs that serve a broad scope of uh young people for a broad scope of jobs.

So take, for example, like DYCD's advance and earn and learn and earn, um, those serve out-of-school, out-of-work youth.

There are specific parts of those programs and pathways for uh jobs in the green economy, but it's not exclusively for that.

So we'll have to go back and work with our uh partners uh at those city agencies to get you a more clarified number.

But it's supposed to be 600 million dollars in green career pathways, correct?

So it has to be for green career pathways because that's what your plan said.

The 600 million dollars was specifically just tied to the youth action plan, was not exclusively tied to green pathways, and so uh some of those jobs will we are happy to work with our partners to try to figure out what that of that portion of 600 million is specific to green economy, but not all of the 600 million was tied specific to the green economy.

Okay, so when do you think you'll have that uh follow-up for us by?

We will work as soon as we can.

Um, well, we've worked with our colleagues on getting some of the data.

We didn't get that particular piece, so we're happy to go back and work with them and try to get that as soon as possible.

So, when is as soon as possible?

Is that like end of this month?

Is it next month?

I happy to work.

I don't want to speak on behalf of some of the complexity in terms of it's a big number, and there's a lot of different programs that go into it, so I'm happy to work and get you an answer as soon as $600 million dollars is a very significant amount of taxpayer dollars, so I think the public deserves to know.

So I hope by end of next month you will get us those numbers of exactly where the 600 million dollars are being spent for.

Can you also help us understand uh the difference between the 4.5 million dollars in green workforce program pilot?

How does that overlap with the 600 million for the existing green career pathways for young people versus the 4.5 million green workforce program pilot by the Mandani administration?

So the just to clarify, you're referring to the GROW program from DEP, correct?

Yes.

Yeah, so um I'd say that's a reflection of this administration's commitment to following through on what we've outlined already in the Green Economy Action Plan.

And so that investment from DEP is a reflection of the belief of that climate change is real.

We need to continue to invest in the Green Economy Action Plan.

So there that investment is not at the time of the Green Economy Action Plan, it was not explicitly outlined, but as we know, the plan was based on projections based on information at the time, but this administration continues to adapt and uh as seen here, invest in good opportunities to connect uh uh people working with the doe fund to.

So am I understanding you correctly?

You're saying that the 4.5 million dollars is not net new, it's for the existing program.

No, this four this was a new 4.5 million dollar uh pilot administered by DEP.

So that was a new investment by DEP.

Okay, and uh what is different?

You're saying that it's a completely different setup funding and it's being used for different purposes?

It's being used to help help uh train 20 participants in managing over a thousand different rain gardens in East New York and South Ozone Park.

Okay, so it's not overlapping with the 600 million.

This is a completely separate program from what the Adams administration already had.

So again, just to clarify the 600 million is this is not part of the 600 million because it's not part of the funding that was outlined in the uh youth action plan.

And so this is a separate four and a half million dollar investment that was made by DEP just recently.

Okay, so this isn't a new relabeling under the six hundred million dollar youth action plan.

This is not part of this the youth action plan money.

This is additional funding in addition to that six hundred million part of the youth action plan.

But the six hundred million is going to continue to get funded under this administration in the upcoming budget.

So the six hundred million dollars was a point in time reflection of what was then fiscal year 2024.

Um, again, we'd have to work closer with our partners at OMB and uh, so you're not sure if this is going to continue to get funded.

I know many of these programs are continuing to get funded.

For example, SYEP was counted as part of that, and so SYEP is a is a robust program.

There's many other programs that go into it.

I don't have all of that data in front of me.

So I'm I'm programs are part of the 600 million.

I would have to get back to you.

How many HP?

Probably it includes New York City public schools, CUNY, uh DYCD, and and maybe some others as well.

And so I have some samples of it, but I don't have a full accounting of every single program.

It was a full roundup of uh one year's uh youth funding.

Are you not concerned that it may or may not be fully funded by next fiscal year, which starts end of this month?

I just want to clarify it's I it's not a question of the um whether it or for me it's not a question of whether it will or will not be.

I just don't know specifically each line item program and what program may continue and has continued.

I do know though that SYP uh is.

So you can guarantee the public that all 600 million dollars will continue to be funded by next fiscal year starting July 1st.

I can't make that commitment.

I would need to talk to my colleagues at uh across all of these agencies to figure out again this was a few three fiscal years ago, and so where this where these programs are, maybe some of them have wrapped up, maybe some of them are more enhanced.

I don't have the specific number that would sort of be an analog to that 600 million dollar point in time effort.

So the agencies have been keeping up with this program for the last few fiscal years?

The agencies, our partner agencies on the youth side are we're incredibly proud of the work um that they do and the work that we do to partner with them and they do a lot of work, but because we I don't have this data specifically on all of the youth action plan, because again, the youth action plan uh is an important plan.

However, it was not tied exclusively to the Green Economy Action Plan.

So I don't have all of the data tied to all of the youth work that the city has done, but the city does quite a bit.

So is the overall green economy action plan going to be funded in the next fiscal year?

So I the I know the budget is still not yet finalized, and so um I don't have all the details, and we're happy to work with our partners on what the green economy investments may look like and how we at talent can help support them.

Um we're expecting on the talent side stable funding related to our green economy portions, but um we'll have to work with our colleagues.

So, what's the portion for the talent side for the green economy action plan?

So, since 2024, we've driven more than $13 million to work uh in the green economy, but most, and that's like um both staff, OTPS costs and private funding, some federal funding, uh some capital fundings and stuff.

So, how much of the 13 million dollars is city funding?

I don't have the exact number on that 13 million, but again, most of the work that talent does is actually supporting other agencies and their investments, and so once the FY27 budget is uh finalized and announced, we work closely with all of our partners across the city to see how we can support those investments, and when there are green economy investments, of course, we will is this a priority of the mayor, the green economy action plan?

Like I said in our testimony, this administration is deeply committed uh to uh environmental justice.

We're excited about the leadership of Deputy Mayor Julie Seous and uh being the first ever deputy mayor for economic justice, and I think economic justice is if it's a priority, what is the total amount of funding that's going to be promised this year that's gonna be voted on next week on Tuesday, the latest for the Green Economy Action Plan?

So, the city's investment across all sorts of things, and is that the green economy is quite large, so we would have to uh work with OMB and our numerous agencies to get a detailed accounting of all of the investments that are tied to the green economy uh for FY27.

Is this a priority of the mayor?

Like I said, there we are absolutely committed to the green economy and to making sure that we are growing it equitably and and making sure that we are uh supporting New Yorkers and connecting to the jobs, despite the loss of the federal funding that has come through, as um both EDC and I testified today.

There's still robust work happening to make sure that we have a good foundation to support all of the jobs that uh are still around and and I'm just surprised because we've had this in plan for weeks and uh the council has been very upfront about this hearing, but every single question that I've asked, you don't have any of the numbers for, yet you tell me that this is a priority of the mayor, but we don't know any of the data that we need to make sure that the public understands this truly is a priority of the mayor.

So the plan commits to developing a green collar workforce training facility in every single borough.

How many of these facilities are open today, and what is the timeline for the rest that are unopened?

I'll pass it to my colleagues at EDC.

I can go over this again.

Uh in Brooklyn at Batworks, um, at the Brooklyn Army Terminal, uh, there's gonna be the largest workforce development training amounting to 30,000 square feet.

That's gonna be opening late 2028.

Um in the Bronx, we've invested $3 million into Fordham's Bronx Green Drive Center, which is gonna be 12,000 square feet that is on track to open by the end of the calendar year.

Um in Manhattan, the Solar One Environmental Education Center and Syvaton Cove, Midtown East, 6,500 square feet is already open.

Which one is open?

The Solar One Environmental Education Center.

What borough?

Manhattan.

Okay.

Um we've made 10 million dollar investments into various CUNY campuses.

Uh the one in Queens will be at Queensborough Community College.

They're developing an energy education center in Saten Island at the College of the United States.

So what year will be the Queens one be open?

So both for the Queens and College of Saturn Island Center, which will be focused on sustainable business, finance, and entrepreneurship, we're actively liaising with the community central capital team to get a firmer answer on when they will be able to develop those centers at those campuses.

And happy to get back to you on those timelines.

Okay, so currently there's only one open uh.

Correct.

And this has all been done within the past two years, and so given the nature of construction development lifecycles, uh, we're proud to say that that's been open.

And how much capital funding has been allocated to all five boroughs and for each site?

Uh we haven't had a strategic um budget allocation.

We've uh opportunistically have invested um in these different workforce facilities as the opportunities come up with our eye on developing a center in each borough.

Um I will say that the BatWorks overall project is gonna receive 100 million dollars of investment.

Like I mentioned before, the Bronx for them's Bronx Green Job Center has received three million dollars from us.

Uh we supported Solar One Environmental Education Center with their development.

I don't have the exact figure on hand.

I'm happy to share that figure at a later time.

And like I mentioned before, the 10 million dollars of investment went into CUNY-wide, and we're happy to get you those discrete figures for which are associated with those campuses in the future.

How many people have been trained at Solar One?

Um, I don't have that discrete number, but I'm happy to get back to you at a later point in time.

For the community campuses, once all of those are opened, uh they're expected to train 6,000 students annually.

Okay, because the plan was setting a target of more than 12,000 New Yorkers for green occupations through the apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, but it seems that only one is currently open, and the number of people trained as unknown.

And the Center for Urban Future, as you heard from the chair, only added roughly 2,184 net new green jobs in 2023.

Do you accept this figure?

And if not, what is your current count, which is what we asked you earlier, but you did not have an answer for us for uh we haven't seen that figure, it doesn't seem to align with the methodology that we've um deployed.

So we're happy to come back to you once we consult with their data team that has not been able to produce a number at this point in time.

After two years, you don't have any figure of how many people you've trained for net new green jobs.

Uh it depends on different programs specifically.

Um, for the ones that we have been leading, we've trained about 300 overall across various programs that we've invested in.

Um, but I'll let my colleague Doug if you have any other uh data on your programs.

And so, like I mentioned in the the testimony, um, we estimate about to since the Green Economy Action When it was released, about 2300 adult workers and 750 young adults have been served through the green economy.

So that's almost 1500 through that pink program that I mentioned, is being connected to union and prevailing wage careers, SBS through their cool roofs program, which I mentioned has the NYC talent help secure funding for.

They've connected uh over 150 people, as well as their investment um in their pre-apprentipog program over 375 people.

We've also trained, as I mentioned in the testimony, or rather, DCAS has trained through funding.

We help secure for them 300 uh city employees to learn uh safety around electric vehicles, and then the on the young people side uh we have our inside industrial program, which Chairwan, we were grateful for you to come visit as we had a tour at uh IBEW Local 3 a few months back.

That's a career exposure program for New York City public school students, and that's a program that we've trained over or about 350 young people.

We also have uh our uh youth apprentice civil service title, which uh NYC talent work closely with our partners, uh DCAS to secure a brand new civil service title, which is a really exciting opportunity for young people, and so we have 17 apprentices at city agencies that are working in the green economy, like DEP, DOT, etc.

And so we estimate, like I said, um today, roughly 2300 adults, 750 uh young people that have already been uh connected.

Are we on pace towards a 12,000 apprenticeship target?

And what is our current count against the 200 um MW or 500 million baseline reported in the plan, and what is the current induced storage capacity?

Oh, 200 megawatts.

So of that pink number that I mentioned about 1500, approximately 900 of them are apprentices that were connected through pink, and like I said, we had uh 17 young people uh working at agencies in the green economy at sanitation, DOT parks, DEP, DDC, and we have another 12 young people starting apprenticeships this upcoming school year, and we're looking to continue that.

And as I mentioned as well, we have our community hiring initiative, which is just coming online with contracts just beginning, and there will be apprenticeship goals on those contracts.

So as we look towards that 2040 horizon, we're really excited about the opportunity of community hiring and our project labor agreements to uh increase the opportunities for low-income New Yorkers, including our neighbors in NYCHA to be connected to apprenticeships in uh the construction trades.

Uh my last question is the Green Economy Action Plan named seven marquee initiatives, one per strategic goal.

So for community hiring and place-based workforce strategies, tax incentives for battery storage, public sites for EV charging, harbor climate collaborative, climate innovation hub at Brooklyn Army Terminal, green training facilities in every borough, and implicitly getting local law 97 done.

So I think I already know the answer to this, but for the record, can you walk through each of these seven marquee initiatives identified in the plan and provide a an original target and metric in which you put out these forecasts and these goals?

B current status against that target, C, timeline to completion, and D, any metric that has been revised since publication, and why?

So I want to make sure I'm responding to all of the uh initiatives as best we can.

Um I would say with community hiring.

Like I said, back in 2024 when this plan was uh released, um, we were still in the rulemaking process of community hiring, and so these rules went into effect in January 2025.

Um, and at that point, uh, we worked across all of our city agency partners to start setting goals on those uh uh community hiring contracts.

And so we're proud that over 280 procurements have been released, valued at approximately 14 billion dollars, and these are applicable to all sorts of contracts, but including green economy related investments such as you know construction of bioswales, resiliency infrastructure, building services, uh consulting services like engineering and design, so really opening up opportunities in sectors that traditionally have not been uh common sectors served by the um the workforce system, and so we're excited about community hiring being able to do that.

Um I don't there were not specific goals tied to community hiring um numbers in the green economy action plan, but um like was mentioned the plan was a projection based on information at the time.

Um we are excited still today of making sure that we are continuing to connect New Yorkers to jobs in the green economy and want to make sure that all New Yorkers have access and opportunities.

So a lot of the work that we've done, whether it's through our remake team who is conducting webinars and learning from uh both employers, big and small, um, our work of putting community hiring out there, and then the a lot of the programming that we've already touched on today, making sure that we're setting uh New Yorkers up.

There seems to be a lot of lack of clarity in today's hearing.

Can EDC and New York City talent commit to outlining total funding committed towards the goals of the Green Economy Action Plan and updated projections of the green economy jobs by 2040 every single year?

And if every year is not achievable, what do you think is a reasonable timeline for the public to have accountability and transparency?

So we're happy to try to share as much data as we can.

Like I mentioned, the at the time the report was published, it was based on it was projections, right?

So it was not a goal necessarily, it was based on information, a lot of which unfortunately is not there because of the federal uh investment that was lost.

And so we're excited to make sure that we are maximizing the investments that we do have and that are continuing to connect New Yorkers to jobs.

We're also excited about the leadership of the uh Louis Young, the climate chief climate officer, and there will be a climate plan coming out as legislatively mandated next year, and so um this administration is definitely committed to continuing to really make sure that there is economic justice, environmental justice, and that uh from talent, we are really making sure that we are making all of these investments uh available to uh New Yorkers where there are job opportunities there.

So is that a no you aren't going to commit to a timeline to get us new projections?

Because if it's a projection and there there have been changes on the policy level on every single level of government, there should be a new projection, especially if it's a priority of the Mamdani administration.

So I know that there was a specific, as my colleague mentioned, the specific methodology that was used in terms of I'm not sure of the level of effort associated with updating that on a regular basis.

I think the most important part for us is making sure that we are maximizing all investments to connect New Yorkers to good jobs that we have.

And so we're happy to work with you, Chair, on getting you more data to help getting you in the public more data to help uh make clear any questions that you have.

And you know, this administration is absolutely committed to following through on connecting New Yorkers to jobs in the green economy.

So you will you commit to giving us an annual update?

Because that's what the question was.

We'd have to work back with our colleagues as at talent and at EDC.

A lot of this data that we are using and all of the commitments are spread broadly across the city.

So we're happy to work with our colleagues and our partner agencies with OMB and City Hall to try to get you as much data as we possibly can.

Since 2023, I want to reiterate that the only number we have is 2,184 net new green jobs.

So that's pretty abysmal for $600 million being spent.

I had follow-up questions on the talent pipeline and economic justice and inclusion initiatives.

The specifically the NYCHA Clean Energy Academy was mentioned as a key tool for creating economic mobility and green economy jobs for low-income New Yorkers.

And our data is from December 2023 saying 39 residents had gone through the program.

I'm wondering if you have an updated figure on the number of participants from the program.

As I mentioned earlier, we don't have the updated figure, but we're happy to go back and work with our partners to try to get you that.

And the placements in terms of number of people that were placed in internships or full-time roles within city agencies.

Do you have any of that data as well?

Specifically with internships and at city agencies, we have I don't have all of that data in front of me, but as I mentioned, our youth apprentice title, which is connecting uh New York City public school students to apprenticeships paid on the job training at uh various city agencies.

I think to we have, I think right now, over a hundred active apprentices at city agencies.

We've had even more that have come through the program.

And right now we have 17 who are at agencies that do work in the green economy, so like DEP, DOT.

We have another 12 joining for this upcoming fall cohort.

We'd have to get back to you on sort of all of the, there's a whole suite of uh programs of internships and apprenticeships and fellowships that happen to connect uh or that work uh to connect uh young New Yorkers to job opportunities with the city, and so we don't have that full number, but happy to work and try to get that to you.

Uh and with the training programs, not just completion rates of the program, but then job placements that came afterwards.

Is that something you can follow up with as well?

We'll follow up with you as well on that.

And uh, do you have a sense of how many green economy jobs are available in our own city agencies and what the vacancy rate is with those positions?

I don't have that data in front of me, but um, we are definitely interested in maximizing opportunities for city agencies.

I've said this before and always make a plug.

I love working for the city, and so trying to get more young people into the city is really important to us.

Um and so we're happy to work with uh our partners at DCAS and at those agencies that do work in the green economy, which spends many, many agencies as we know to get you that data.

One other question is around the rise of AI and tech industries that may or may not pose a threat to green economy jobs.

Uh the demands on our energy needs are expected to double by 2030, and I'm wondering if you could give us an update on any concerns around the action plan or shifts in the action plan related to the increase in AI.

Uh yeah, we share your uh concern, Chair Maloney on the environmental impacts of data centers.

MOCEJ is in active coordination with various state entities, including the Public Service Commission, to submit comments around large loads, which incorporates uh loads from data centers among other infrastructure projects, and so we take our direction from a policy perspective from that team.

In terms of data centers within the city, there isn't given real estate constraints.

Uh data centers at the scale which hyperscalers are trying to develop.

There are some that support different financial institutions and edge computing at various at various sites across our city, but they're not at the scale that would create significant environmental and energy burdens or job displacement impact for local New Yorkers.

We are keeping an active pulse on what AI means for jobs more broadly, including those potentially within the green economy.

But given that 70% of the green economy jobs that we forecast will be realized, are transitioning jobs, those are accountants, those in the trades, the nature of green economy work often involves physical work, remaking our infrastructure, etc.

So we're quite confident that you that can't be replaced or displaced wholesale by AI, but we're happy to keep you apprised of any analysis and different insights that we get sharper on in the future as that becomes more of a clarifying focus for us.

How do you think of the strength of the city's infrastructure in the electric grid in the in the face of these increased demands?

Yeah, I mean the NISO put out a reliability report a little bit ago.

It outlined that the reliability margins are narrowing, and so we do see a potential challenge with uh securing reliable and low-cost energy for New Yorkers.

So I do share your concern about uh that potential becoming a larger challenge.

I think for us, we are doing all that we can to support different clean energy technologies that will alleviate burden, make the grid more resilient, and make energy more affordable.

So we're happy to share that IDA in particular has supported more than 400 megawatts of clean energy clean uh technology deployment across the city.

Those have actively mitigated peak demands, particularly during the summer months.

As we all know, there's uh 500 New Yorkers that die every summer from extreme heat.

And so we see batteries as a viable technology to address not only the reliability uh needs that we see coming down the pike, but also to solve immediate concerns, particularly around extreme heat in the here and now to not only uh save New Yorkers' lives but also create economic opportunities for our green economy industries today.

And the initiatives around modernization of that electric grid as there continues to be more pressure on it.

Can you speak to how you're coordinating with city agencies on that work, especially as this problem gets increasingly urgent?

Yeah, uh, thanks for that question, Chair.

We're an active participant in MOCEJ led interagency working groups that are tackling this challenge.

And so we come to the table with a keen eye towards how our larger infrastructure development projects, including the large loads that they will require, are an active conversation with other policy objectives that MOCEJ is trying to solve.

But we are equally concerned about the issues that you shared and are uh coming to the table as problem solvers.

Chair, do you have any other questions?

Okay.

My last set of questions is for EDC.

We are now nearing July.

Uh, do you do you have a permanent president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation?

Um we currently don't have a permanent president, as you know, but I will say, and as you're uh intimately familiar with, um the talent at EDC are some of the brightest minds really driven uh to make public impact.

Our interim president Jeamie Pack has harnessed uh that commitment to ensure that we are as an organization laser focused on delivery, including delivering on initiatives within the Green Economy Action Plan.

For example, uh we just opened the Batworks Temporary space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in May, which has hosted more than 20 events so far.

Uh we've also awarded about 2.6 megawatts of rooftop and carport solar to developers at sites that we manage in the Bronx and in Brooklyn.

We also issued a microgrid RFI to solicit from industry what a viable microgrid might look like at the Brooklyn Army Terminal to advance climate innovation technology piloting and testing.

And uh I will note that interim president Jeannie Puck has been closely collaborating with um deputy mayor Julie Sue on broader administrative priorities, which includes uh issuing the modular bathrooms, making sure that we as EDC are leading the charge on public groceries, and uh we're moving full steam ahead and the work has not slowed, uh slowed.

Do you have a sense of the timeline of when a new president will put in place?

I unfortunately do not.

Do you have a sense of how many people have been interviewed or uh where they are in that process?

Uh I am fortunately am not privy to that information.

Um, how is the lack of a permanent president impacting day-to-day morale of employees at NYC EDC?

Uh that's a good question.

Thanks, Chair.

I think uh generally obviously people are curious about what will happen.

Um, but like I mentioned before, EDCers are at uh EDC to drive impact to create economic opportunities for everyday New Yorkers.

I think we as staff feel lucky that that is our nine to five that we can do every single day.

And so we're motivated by the higher purpose of supporting and serving New Yorkers and realizing economic opportunities for everybody.

And so I think that's our laser focus now and implementing on key commitments that we have, including in the Jeep, but otherwise.

Sorry, the only thing that I would add, Chair Maloney is um at EDC we we love interim President PAC.

We think that she is doing an amazing job, and so we have not really felt a lack of of any direction.

Um, as my colleague said, we're in constant contact with DM Sue, her team in the administration, and President PAC has really like driven us forward.

She is an EDC or she knows our work, so in some ways, right, it's been a great transition for us, and that we have someone who's like fully on board and ready to move forward.

And we're just excited, I think, about the new um the new things that the admin's giving us to do.

We have never been busier, um, which is a good thing.

Um, but no additional information, but we are we're really happy with President Pack.

I agree, uh, the interim president has done a fantastic job of leading the organization.

Um, do you do you believe there's been any sh uh uh any hindrance on the ability to have a long-term vision or long-term plan when the title is interim president?

I don't think so.

I mean, we have really been like moving ahead full steam, we're moving full steam ahead, at least from the work that I've seen.

Like we haven't stopped, it hasn't prohibited us from working closely with the administration as we roll out big new projects, right?

Things like public groceries, things like the insurance captive, like did really require a lot of long-term vision, and we've been able to execute on that with President PAC, interim president PAC.

Um, and so from an operational perspective, no, we still continue to like ideate like broadly into the future and work closely with the admin to do that.

Thank you for your testimony and for for anyone listening.

I think it's more very important and crucial at this juncture to install a permanent president with the full authority to uh set the direction for our economic development plan.

Uh thank you.

I now conclude that part of the testimony and want to open up to public testimony.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chairs.

I want to remind members of the public that this is a formal government proceeding and that decorum should be observed at all times.

So please remain silent during testimony.

The witness table is reserved for people who wish to testify.

No video recording or photography is allowed from the witness table, and members of the public may not present audio or video recordings.

If you wish to speak today, please fill out an appearance card with the sergeant at arms and wait to be recognized.

And we will have two minutes per speaker on the green Economy Action Plan topic.

If you have a written statement, please provide a copy of that to the Sergeant and Arms as well.

And you may email written testimony to testimony at council.myc.gov within 72 hours of this hearing.

Audio or video recordings will not be accepted.

First up, Gregory Morris, Angela Sun, Carrie Fallhaber, and Christopher Maloney.

Same last name, yes.

Can start whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon, chairs.

My name is Greg Morris.

I'm the CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition.

I do have some prepared remarks and recommendations as well.

I'll put those to the side and offer those to the chairs separately.

What I wanted to say at this point is my responsibility of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition is to lead the coalition of providers and entities in New York City that are focused on workforce development.

And the green space is critically important to these providers.

220 folks within 220 organizations within our network serving as many as a couple hundred thousand New Yorkers.

And many of those providers have a hand in how it is that the city should be and could be and is thinking about the green economy.

I am very proud today to have invited a bunch of them to come to this space and they're gonna speak during the public session and tell their story as to what innovation looks like and what impact looks like and how it is that our city can transform in all the right ways to be able to find success in facilitating access to green jobs.

And I look forward to them sharing their stories, and those are critical.

I just want to say a few things in relation to what we just heard.

I suspect if you did a hearing on healthcare initiatives related to jobs in New York City or the tech space career pathways, a lot of what you just put forward in terms of your questions about how much is something costing, and are we on track to meet the expectations that we set?

And how is it that communities are benefiting?

I suspect you'd have a difficult time getting answers to those too.

We in the workforce development space understand that our work is challenging and meets the needs of New Yorkers with the variety of challenges and vulnerabilities and pathways to success.

The complexity of not being able to say what our city budget is to solve that problem is tremendously impactful and puts us at a disadvantage to be able to ensure that we are making sure that folks work towards careers and opportunities that lead to good jobs.

Last but not least, I'll just reinforce the message that I've offered and will continue to offer.

And Chairman Maloney, thank you for putting this forward.

Um we need to have a president of EDC in place to ensure that economic development and economic mobility is moving forward in New York City.

And again, Councilmember Juan, thank you very much for championing workforce development committee.

It's the first of its kind.

I know that has lots of opportunities and challenges associated with it.

This is the group that's ready to work with you to make that possible.

Good afternoon, chairs and members of committees on workforce development and economic development.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the implementation of the Green Economy Action Plan.

My name's Carrie Fall Haber.

I'm the senior vice president of Jobs First NYC.

Jobs First MYC creates and advances solutions that strengthen education and workforce systems and expand economic opportunity.

We work alongside hundreds of partners across all five boroughs.

Through our Green Economy Network, more than 200 nonprofit workforce organizations, employers, city agencies, and educational institutions and intermediaries have collaborated since 2019 to prepare New Yorkers for careers in the green economy.

Since 2023 alone, the network has trained more than 7,000 New Yorkers for green jobs.

The Green Economy Action Plan presents an incredible opportunity with a projected 400,000 green jobs by 2040, but those jobs will not exist simply because they are projected.

They will exist only if the city treats workforce development as core infrastructure by aligning public investment, education, workforce strategy, and industry.

To realize this vision, we offer three recommendations on top of recommendations that we put out earlier this year.

First, establish a workforce authority within City Hall with the authority to align agencies, coordinate workforce strategy, and embed workforce outcomes into climate procurement and capital investments.

Second, strengthen coordination between schools, workforce providers, and industry.

So education, training, and work-based learning are aligned with the skills needed to meet current and emerging labor market demand.

Third, make industry a full partner in implementing the green economy action plan.

Employers create demand, define emerging skill needs, and determine whether the city's workforce investments translate into jobs.

Industry partners can validate emerging occupations, anticipate hiring needs, and keep workforce investments aligned with real market demand.

The Green Economy Action Plan is an economic strategy as much as it is a climate strategy.

Success will be measured not by plans written or programs launched, but by whether New Yorkers are hired into quality careers.

With stronger coordination, clear accountability, and sustained industry partnership, New York City can build the workforce needed to power greener economy while expanding access to family sustaining careers.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Angela Sun.

I'm founder and CEO of the Green Launchpad, and we co-lead NYC energy efficiency, employer-led workforce coalition, long name, with NYC ETC, bringing together employers who represent over 2,400 clean energy professionals, and together we design practical employer-driven workforce solutions.

So as the city advances, the Green Economy Action Plan, I encourage you to treat workforce not just as a pipeline issue, but actually as a business competitiveness issue.

The challenge isn't that employers don't want to hire, it's really that we too frequently ask them to engage in workforce development as a social obligation, maybe a box to check, rather than offering it as a solution to a problem that they already have.

We have to remember that companies engage when it matters and when it makes their businesses stronger.

And it does.

Most of our green economy actually runs on small and mid-sized contractors with no HR departments and no recruiters.

For them, a coordinated workforce provider isn't a charity.

It's an extension of the business that finds qualified candidates, prepares them for actual work, and supports retention after hire.

That actually saves them time, reduces turnover, and lets them focus on growing.

So as the plan should treat workforce providers as part of the city's business support infrastructure alongside financing and procurement.

Specifically, we ask the city to invest in sustained employer provider partnerships, not just one-off programs, fund intermediaries that translate employer need into training, incentivize employers to co-design curricula and work-based learning, and actually measure success by retention and advancement, not just enrollment.

So I think we can strengthen that coordination and workforce development stops being an ask.

It becomes a competitive advantage for businesses in New York City.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair Wan, Chair Maloney, and the members of the committee.

My name is Dr.

Christopher Malone, and I serve as the Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Education Innovation at the Consortium for Worker Education.

From CWE's work on the ground, one thing is clear.

We are submitting for the record a 10-point green workforce acceleration strategy.

For the sake of time, I just want to focus on six of those items.

First, scale the pipeline.

The city must invest not just in apprenticeships, but in tens of thousands of pre-apprenticeship opportunities to meet demand.

Second, align the system to meet real demand.

Workforce investments must be explicitly tied to local law 97 implementation, including tracking and placements into priority occupations like electricians, HVAC technicians, and building operators.

Third, create accountability through data.

CWE recommends a public-facing green workforce dashboard to track outcomes, placements, apprenticeship, entry, and retention so progress can be measured in real time.

We do this with our jobs to build on program and would be happy to connect to discuss the requisite information the council should mandate the city provide through a reporting bill.

Number four, strengthen the front door.

Workforce one centers should implement clear apprenticeship readiness standards and referral pathways aligned with union entry requirements.

Fifth, invest in workers' ability to complete training, scaling child care, ESOL, and other supports is essential to ensuring New Yorkers can actually access these careers, and lastly, advance a near-term workforce surge strategy to rapidly expand training capacity over the next two to three years.

As I said, we are submitting in writing a 10-point plan.

I don't have time to go through all of those, but I and CWE would be happy to work with the council and your committees to put these ideas into actionable policy.

Thanks so much.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next up, we have Jonathan Spooner, Sindri, Mana Zanares, Jake Douglas Boren, and Sofia Oliveira.

Please begin.

Are you ready?

You may begin, yeah.

Good afternoon.

So members, thank you for the opportunity to testify.

There we are.

Now we go.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

I'm Jonathan Sroener, co-founder of Stax and Jewels.

We work at the intersection of building technology and community impact in New York City in partnership with Henry Street Settlement, NYC ETC, and the Green Economy Network.

Nonprofits across this city quietly operate a major portfolio of real estate.

Shelters, health clinics, community centers, affordable housing.

They're mission-driven, but they're also building operators, and that role carries real cost.

Energy is often a nonprofit's second largest expense after staffing.

For an organization running a domestic violence shelter or a mental health clinic, every dollar lost to an inefficient boiler is a dollar not reaching the people walking through the door.

Add local law 97 penalties, and the financial pressure competes directly with their mission.

But building automation, smart controls, sensors, energy management can cut energy use by 30%, but the upfront cost and complexity put it out of reach for most nonprofits without public support.

Here's the opportunity for the community.

A coordinated funding program for building automation does two things at once.

First, it creates a durable workforce pipeline installing and maintaining these systems as a skilled, well-paying job that can't be offshored, and we can train New Yorkers from the very communities these nonprofits serve.

Second, the energy savings can be redirected back into those social services, meaningfully replacing operating budget and restoring to mission.

This needs three things: a capital funding mechanism, a workforce training partner, and a champion in this chamber.

We are asking this committee to be that champion.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Train our graduates.

Hello, my name is Sindri Manzanares.

I'm the chief Operating Officer of Green City Force.

Green City Force runs an AmeriCorps program for young adults, 16 to 24 who live in public housing and highly affordable housing.

And we thank you.

All right.

And we train them for careers in the green economy.

Green City Forest has proposed a New York City climate core as a practical vehicle for linking ambitious climate goals with workforce.

Union construction careers are critical, but so are entry points and maintenance operations, stormwater management, urban agriculture, zero waste composting, clean energy, building systems, energy efficiency, solar operations, and resilience.

Many of these pathways can serve as bridges into more advanced training, apprenticeships, civil service, union pathways, and good jobs.

We'd like to offer the following recommendations.

Fund holistic green workforce pathways, not only technical training.

City investments should include outreach, recruitment, paid service, mental health support, case management, professional development, sector exposure, technical training, placement, and retention support.

Prioritize NYCHA residents and frontline communities.

Community hiring and place-based strategies should intentionally connect public climate investments to residents of communities facing the greatest burdens from heat, flooding, pollution, and disinvestment.

Create funded bridge programs into apprenticeships, civil service, and advanced training.

Young adults need supported on-ramps that help them move from readiness and exposure into rigorous credentials, union pathways, and full-time employment.

Use public sites as workforce training sites, schools, NYCHA campuses, city-owned buildings, public green infrastructure, and resilience projects should include funded roles for community-based workforce partners, and track equity outcomes.

The city should measure NYCHA resident participation, credential attainment, work hours, placement retention.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jacob Douglas Bourne, Chief Program Officer at the Hope Program.

A 40-year-old workforce development organization in Hunts Point and downtown Brooklyn.

We train New Yorkers overcoming the steepest barriers: homelessness, incarceration, domestic violence, long-term, long-term unemployment, especially from neighborhoods and communities facing compounding environmental harm.

We prepare them for careers in green construction, building operations and maintenance, horticulture and cool roofs.

We are a founding member of the Green Economy Network.

New York City has a jobs problem and a climate problem.

The solution to one can help solve the other, but only if you are intentional about whose jobs we mean.

Green jobs have something essential going for them.

They are here, they're accessible, and they pay.

They can be outsourced overseas, they don't require years of credentialing debt, and they are rooted in the same communities our participants come from.

It's a self-reinforcing cycle that doesn't depend on the next grant cycle.

The city should be actively investing in and incentivizing this model.

What we also ask, every developer, property owner, and contractor that benefits from city subsidy, tax incentives, capital funding, free services like cool roofs should be required to partner with and hire from community-based training programs, not as a suggestion, as a condition.

The coalitions are organized, the people we serve are ready, the city has begun to s uh to lay the groundwork.

Now it is time to go deeper.

Thank you.

Sure.

Good afternoon, chairs and members of the committee.

My name is Sophia Oliveira Ritchie, and I'm the Director of development and communications for the Andromeda Community Initiative, also known as ACI.

We're a nonprofit workforce development organization that provides free construction and green construction training to New Yorkers facing barriers to employment.

Since our founding, ACI has trained more than 1,200 individuals for careers in the construction industry.

This includes folks from returning home from incarceration, experiencing homelessness, navigating long-term unemployment and underemployment, and living in chronic poverty.

Through industry recognized certs, hands-on training, and comprehensive workforce development services, we help participants access family sustaining careers and long-term economic mobility.

I'm here today to highlight the critical role workforce development organizations play as New York City advances its energy efficiency, sustainability, and climate goals.

The demand for skilled workers who can support building retrofits, energy efficient construction, electrification projects, and climate-focused infrastructure continues to grow.

Through ACI's green training, development developed with industry partners and aligned with emerging workforce needs.

We are preparing New Yorkers for certs, technical knowledge, and workplace readiness needed to enter these growing sectors sustainably.

However, training alone is not enough.

Workforce providers need stronger connections to employers, developers, labor partners, and public sector projects to ensure that graduates can transition successfully.

ACI currently has job ready graduates who are eager to contribute to New York City's energy future, yet intentional hiring pathways are needed to connect trained workers to available opportunities.

We encourage the city not only to continue investing in workforce development, but also to expand dedicated funding for green construction and workforce training programs.

We are already building the talent pipeline needed to support the objectives, but greater investment is needed to meet the scale of demand.

We encourage the city to continue collecting, publishing, and sharing current labor information relevant to the green economy, including projections, anticipated hiring needs, wage data, and emergency industry trends.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you very much.

Next up, um Travis Prolox, Michaela Crater, and Steven Levin from District 4.

If anyone else is planning on testifying, please let the Sergeant at Arms know.

Again, thank you.

Thank you, Chair Maloney.

Chair One, good to see you.

I'm Travis Prue, I'm vice president for external affairs at Fordham University.

I have the privilege of uh creating and ultimately launching what's going to be the Bronx Green Job Center, which you heard a little bit about today.

Really important conversation right now, especially in light of the federal and the state setbacks that you mentioned, Chair One.

Um, environmental justice is a moral imperative quarter, our Jesuit values at Fordham University, and for us the mission is deeply local.

Um, our Rose Hill campus is anchored in a community historically fate that's historically faced some of the highest poverty rates in the nation, as well as born the brunt of disproportionate and severe environmental injustice.

Uh and while New York City's green economy is rapidly expanding, growth is bypassing the Bronx, and many of the communities and outer boroughs.

The disconnect is striking in the Bronx because we are the greenest borough.

We are the youngest borough, and we have a legacy of community leaders who have driven citywide environmental action for decades.

Yet the borough lags significantly in solar and electric vehicle infrastructure.

Our community gardens remain constrained by lack of scale and support.

And the real crisis, however, is the lack of investment in people.

Fordham bears a responsibility to convene stakeholders around a shared vision and a strategy for environmental justice.

And with the partnership and guidance of EDC UDC over the last year and a half, we've developed a collaborative public private blueprint known as the Bronx Green Job Center, which is a partner-based model across three key areas.

One is educational partners, so bringing in CUNY and SUNY to join with us in the delivery of curriculum.

Two communities and public agencies so that we ensure there's actually hiring pathways for trainees once they leave our work.

And three, the community-based organizations that we know are trusted in the community that can provide that enrollment funnel and the wraparound services that folks need to succeed.

So within my testimony, there are three specific areas that we have learned as part of this process that we urge action on.

One is implementing a citywide investment strategy that requires collaboration, including CBOs, as well as establishing a centralized workforce authority within the mayor's office.

I'd be happy to answer any additional questions that you have.

Good afternoon.

Thank you, chairs and the members of the committees for the opportunity to share our thoughts.

SBIDC has served industrial companies and workers of Sunset Park, Red Hook, and Guanis for over 40 years.

Each year we provide direct technical assistance and advocacy to approximately 250 businesses.

And since 2017, we have helped place over 2,000 New Yorkers into quality family sustaining jobs.

Today we urge the committees to use their authority to ensure that the next chapter of the Green Economy Action Plan is implemented through the city's existing industrial infrastructure, the businesses that make, mend, move, and maintain New York.

To ensure climate solutions are homegrown, the city must build on existing industrial assets.

SBIDC and our partners across the five boroughs have a block by block knowledge of industrial business areas built over decades.

We help businesses navigate city agencies and utilities, address quality of life concerns, connect companies to workforce and training resources, and serve as the trusted intermediary when agencies need our help.

Across our green economy programs, SBIDC has actually engaged more than 500 businesses and referred 140 businesses to offshore wind contractors.

70% of those participating businesses are MWBEs.

And we have demonstrated that targeted industrial support can advance with climate-inclusive economic development goals.

We urgently encourage the committees to continue and expand green economy investments, modernize industrial financing and business support tools, coordinate city policy around industrial implementation.

New York City's industrial companies have operated through recessions, superstorms, pandemics, and waves of displacement.

The city should use this existing infrastructure to meet the climate challenge, create quality jobs, and ensure that the green economy is built by and for New Yorkers.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chairs Maloney and Juan.

My name is Stephen Levin.

I'm CEO of Solar One, a nonprofit organization which focuses on addressing the climate crisis through K-12 environmental education, green workforce development, renewable energy technical assistance for affordable housing, and the stewardship of Stavasink Cove Park in Consumer Maloney's district, which we just opened, in which we just opened our new environmental education center.

Our office is in Consumer One's district in Long Island City.

I've been honored to serve on the Green Economy Advisory Council for the last two years, which has helped to guide the beginning phase of the implementation of the Green Economy Action Plan.

The members of the advisory council came to the process with a goal of increasing our understanding of the challenges and opportunities that the Clean Energy Transition provides.

And as you can imagine, having first met in late 2024, the landscape for clean energy has been ever shifting nationally since then and not in a good way.

The Trump administration's singular focus on thwarting renewable energy has been tragically self-defeating for our country, and it continues to set us back in our fight to save our futures every day.

That said, I commend EDC for continuing to focus on what we can do here in New York City with projects like Batworks, Blue Highway Action Plan, and advancing the plan for the Brooklyn Marine Terminal.

In addition, the advisory council focused on an issue that is a core part of Solar One's mission, readying the green workforce of tomorrow with the skills that they need today.

Along with our partner organizations who are have been represented here today, like NYC ETC, Solar One has made great strides in the field of green workforce development.

At our Long Island City Green Workforce Training Center, we have four classrooms where we are teaching adults who are facing barriers to employment in green building operations and maintenance, green construction, plumbing, electrical, solar installation, building decarbonization, HVAC installation, and maintenance.

Each year we graduate around 800 individuals from our program, and each of those individuals carries with them approximately three professional certifications.

There are many initiatives underway that you've heard about, but I would like to, if I was to choose one to see the CD city focus on, I would it would be engaging with the universe of building management firms to engage in a robust and sustained way with the Green Fork Green Workforce Development Providers to both ensure that the skills that we are teaching in an ever-evolving environment are meeting the needs of employers, including with building automation technologies, and that there's an ongoing partnership with green workforce providers and unions like 32 BJ and Local3 to ensure that there's a pipeline of candidates for the tens of thousands of jobs in New York City in the green economy over the next decades.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony.

And lastly, we have one testimony over Zoom, Vinny Dong.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, uh Committee on Economic Development and Workforce Development.

My name is Finny Da, and I'm a current student at Green Sigh School for the Sciences.

I am here to testify about the Green Economy Action Plan.

As a student, it is essential that the EDC and the City Council focuses on youth internships and jobs.

Specifically, it is essential that New York City Public Schools are considered sustainability initiatives and implementing sustainability projects within the department.

It is also essential that New York City public schools sustain future ready programs and help throw this program to all schools across public schools.

As a student, we are the future of New York City, and it is essential that student voice and student engagement is heard throughout this process.

It is essential that the youth of today are considered in the changes we make and the decisions we make today to ensure that the changes we make today is sustainable.

That would be all.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And there are two folks who registered via Zoom to testify.

Andy ison.

Okay, and uh Ramona Foreya.

Alright, that concludes our hearing.

Thank you very much.