New Hampshire’s aging voting scanners raise concerns as primaries approach
When New Hampshire voters cast their ballots in Tuesday’s first-in-the-nation primary, many will do so using scanners that are at least 15 years old — with some potentially dating back to Bill Clinton’s presidency. Election experts say the aging AccuVote ballot tabulators in use across roughly half the state’s towns and cities don’t pose additional security risks. The concern is their age. With a dwindling supply of replacement parts, breakdowns could create Election Day headaches for local election officials, who might be forced to count ballots by hand — a process that could delay reporting their results. Malfunctions and ballot-counting delays in other states in recent years have sometimes been used to promote conspiracy theories that undermine public confidence in the vote, despite no evidence of any widespread problems with voting machines. ALL EYES ON NEW HAMPSHIRE’S INDEPENDENT VOTERS FOLLOWING REPORTS OF DEMOCRATS VOTING FOR NIKKI HALEY IN IOWA Franklin, a small city about 20 miles north of the state capital, has no wiggle room if something goes awry with its scanners. “We have three machines and three polling places. That’s it, no backup,” said Olivia Zink, a member of the Franklin City Council who also is executive director of the voter advocacy group Coalition for Open Democracy. “If one goes down, we hand count.” TRUMP DOMINATES POLLING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE AND BEYOND AFTER IOWA CAUCUSES VICTORY Zink, who will be working at her local polling place Tuesday, said she is less worried about hand counting even if turnout is robust among the 4,500 registered voters because the ballot contains only the presidential primary. She urged everyone to be patient if results are delayed. One potential glitch: If it’s snowy or rainy, damp ballots can mess up a ballot scanner. “If it’s a sunny, beautiful day, we’re in great shape,” Zink said. Reducing the chances of a major disruption is the ballot itself, with just a single race and a state requirement that vote counting continue uninterrupted until finished. New Hampshire will hold primaries for state and local races later in the year. All New Hampshire voters mark their ballot by hand, but how those ballots are counted depends on the city or town. Just under half opt to hand count and have done so for years, but those are among the least populated in the state. The most populous towns and cities use machine tabulators, so most ballots cast in the state are counted electronically using the AccuVote scanners. The same type of ballot scanners are used by local voting jurisdictions in five other states, according to Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that tracks U.S. voting equipment. “You could say it’s primitive technology. You could say it’s simple and reliable technology. Both of those things can be true,” said Mark Lindeman, the group’s policy and strategy director. He said New Hampshire’s tabulators have been kept in good condition and that the biggest challenge for election officials is finding replacement parts. He sees the worst-case scenario as local election officials having to resort to hand counting because a tabulator has failed and they don’t have access to a backup. “As worst cases go, that’s a pretty good one,” Lindeman said. “The ballots are safe. This will not prevent New Hampshire voters from voting or prevent New Hampshire voters from having their votes counted.” Even so, any problems with voting machines or ballot counting devices provide an opening for those who want to cast doubt on the outcome. Former President Donald Trump, who won this week’s Iowa caucuses but faces a potentially tougher test in New Hampshire, regularly signals that an anticipated close election will be “rigged.” His false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, has produced a tsunami of conspiracy theories about voting machines. “If there are major failures and results come really late, and if there is not information ahead of time to the public that we might be hand-counting and what that involves — in a worst-case scenario the vacuum that leaves could allow folks to come forward with conspiracy theories and question what the results are,” said McKenzie St. Germain with the voter advocacy group America Votes NH. In Derry, south of Manchester, Town Clerk Tina Guilford tested her eight tabulators this week to ensure they were working properly and counting ballots correctly. It’s a process being repeated across the state as local election officials prepare for the primary. Derry’s tabulators are roughly turn-of-the-century technology — each about 20 to 22 years old, Guilford said. The town agreed to buy replacements that officials hope will be in place by March when new tabulators will be certified for use in the state. Derry, with its nearly 20,000 registered voters, doesn’t need all eight AccuVote scanners running at the same time, so they have options if one were to be taken out of service, Guilford said. It has happened before, when hand sanitizer gummed up a machine in 2020 during the pandemic. “I don’t foresee any issues,” she said. Secretary of State David Scanlan, New Hampshire’s top election official, said he has been encouraging local officials to make sure they have enough staff to handle any hand counting that may be necessary. It’s expected that every jurisdiction will have to count some ballots by hand given Biden’s decision to skip the state’s primary in favor of a revamped Democratic schedule that elevated South Carolina over Iowa and New Hampshire. That has prompted a write-in campaign for him, and any ballots with write-in candidates will have to be tallied by hand. NEW HAMPSHIRE GOP PRIMARY A 2-PERSON RACE BETWEEN TRUMP AND HALEY, NEW POLL INDICATES In recent years, hand counting has gained favor among those pushing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election as they seek to ban voting machines and electronic tabulators. While hand counting is used in some parts of the country, it usually occurs in small jurisdictions where the process is manageable. Last year, New Hampshire lawmakers rejected a
Republicans demand FBI, DHS update Congress on ongoing TikTok investigation
FIRST ON FOX: A pair of top House Republicans are calling for the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to brief Congress on ongoing federal probes into the popular Chinese social media platform TikTok. The Republican lawmakers — House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who chairs the panel’s Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Subcommittee — penned a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, demanding information about their roles in the federal government’s national security review of TikTok. “The FBI and other U.S. national security agencies have raised alarms about the potential that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) could use TikTok for nefarious purposes,” they wrote to Wray and Mayorkas. “The concerns associated with the proliferation of TikTok are real and growing. DHS, the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Department of Defense have banned the use of TikTok on official mobile devices due to security concerns.” “We are concerned about TikTok’s alignment with the interests of the PRC, as it broadcasts anti-American propaganda, suppresses critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who raise concerns regarding human rights abuses, and apparently allows for the glorification of foreign terrorists,” Green and Pfluger continued. VULNERABLE DEM SENATOR PROMOTES TIKTOK ACCOUNT AFTER SAYING HE HAD ‘SERIOUS CONCERNS’ ABOUT CCP TIES The two GOP leaders said it was important for the FBI and DHS to provide a briefing given the lack of details about the agencies’ role in current investigations and to better understand their overall efforts to address China’s “espionage activities against the United States within the homeland.” TikTok, which is owned by Beijing, China-based firm ByteDance, has been the subject of debate in recent years over its potential national security risks. The video-sharing platform, which has more than 150 million U.S. users, has significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and experts have warned it may collect and store sensitive data about users. HARRIS DODGES MULTIPLE QUESTIONS ON TIKTOK REGULATION, BRINGS UP RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE Wray acknowledged in late 2022 that the FBI itself had concerns about the widespread use of TikTok in America. “We do have national security concerns at least from the FBI’s end about TikTok,” Wray said during a Homeland Security Committee hearing at the time. “They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users,” he added. “Or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose. Or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices.” EXCLUSIVE: JEWISH EMPLOYEES AT TIKTOK SHARE DETAILS OF HOSTILE, ANTISEMITIC WORK ENVIRONMENT In their letter, Green and Pfluger noted that they are aware the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) is conducting a review of TikTok. CFIUS is an interagency taskforce dating back to the 1970s that is overseen by the Department of the Treasury, includes both the DHS and FBI, and is tasked with reviewing certain foreign investments that may pose a national security threat. And the Republicans noted examples of how TikTok may suppress content critical of the Chinese Communist Party, but allow content praising terrorism. For example, the app censors content about China’s genocide of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic groups, but for days last year allowed ant-American content praising and sympathizing with Osama Bin Laden. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “TikTok is a national and personal data security threat that glorifies terrorists and espouses an anti-American agenda,” Pfluger said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have a responsibility to address the Chinese Communist Party’s espionage activities against the United States, and I’m proud to lead this effort with Chairman Green.” The FBI declined to comment and DHS said it would respond to the letter via official channels.
Maharashtra declares public holiday on January 22 for Ram Mandir inauguration
On January 22, the Maharashtra government declared a public holiday in observance of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya’s Pran Pratishtha.
Meet Indian prince who sacrificed royalty to become an IAS officer, he was also called India’s cheetah man because….
Also known as India’s cheetah man, he was the architect of the 1972 Wildlife (Protection) Act and had spent more than 50 years nurturing India’s wilderness, developing ground-breaking legislation, taking action for endangered species, and enabling a revolution for Indian wildlife.
In Indiana, competition for GOP gubernatorial primary ramps up
In a state as solidly Republican as Indiana, the May primary is the real competition. Four months out, five candidates are still jockeying for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in an unusually crowded field. Annual campaign finance reports filed Wednesday reflect a multimillion-dollar race that has become a competition of who can out-conservative the others for primary votes in a state with historically low turnout. Two-term Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican, cannot run again because of term limits. Indiana’s primary is May 7. INDIANA HOUSE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES BILL DEFINING ANTI-SEMITISM IN EDUCATION CODE “In Indiana, we are not used to seeing competitive primaries,” said Gregory Shufeldt, a professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis. Shufeldt said the crowded field could be a result of interest in state government roles, rather than a career in a Congress bogged with gridlock in the recent years. First-term U.S. Sen. Mike Braun’s decision to join the gubernatorial race opened up his seat, and many expect U.S. Rep Jim Banks, a Republican, to easily fill it. Braun’s close allegiance to former President Donald Trump helped propel his Senate win in 2018 and has given him statewide name recognition. Braun ended 2023 with a healthy $4 million in the bank, according to finance reports, and has Trump’s endorsement again this year. Touting similar name recognition is Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, whose ambitious plan to eliminate the state income tax is one of the most divisive subjects in the race so far. “Axe the Tax” has been decried by the other candidates to some degree as unrealistic and untimely. Holcomb has not endorsed a successor, including Crouch. And Crouch has rarely evoked Holcomb, whose popularity took a hit over some COVID-19 restrictions such as a statewide mask mandate. Crouch has, rather, relied on her record of statewide and county service and pitched a focus on mental health and addiction services. Her campaign reported ending 2023 with $3.7 million in the bank. Shufeldt called Crouch’s politics “pragmatic” conservatism, similar to Indiana’s past two governors. “It’s a contest between conservative, very conservative and extremely conservative,” he said of the race. SUPREME COURT DECLINES INDIANA SCHOOL’S APPEAL ON TRANSGENDER BATHROOM ORDER Curtis Hill, the embattled former attorney general, has appealed to the Trump conservative base with his campaign rhetoric. Hill lost the Republican nomination for reelection in 2020 following allegations that he drunkenly groped four women during a party. He denied the accusations, but the Indiana Supreme Court temporarily suspended his license after finding “by clear and convincing evidence that (Hill) committed the criminal act of battery” against three female legislative staffers and a state lawmaker. He and Braun have been the most vocal on topics pertaining to issues contested in national elections, such as immigration and border security. Shufeldt said Holcomb and former Gov. Mitchell Daniels, who served two terms before former Vice President Mike Pence, generally avoided stepping into “cultural issues” and focused more on school vouchers and economic development. “I think a Braun or Hill governorship probably puts cultural issues more front and center,” he said. However, Hill ended the year millions of dollars behind the competition, reporting about $123,000 in cash on hand. The other Republican candidates, Brad Chambers and Eric Doden, have similar resumes. Both have led the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, a quasi-governmental agency, and have focused their campaigning on Indiana’s economic future. Doden’s “Main Street Initiative” — focused on reviving and retaining the economy of Indiana’s small towns — is the backbone of his campaign. Chambers has repeatedly touted Indiana’s economic growth during his recent time as secretary of commerce. Both have directed messaging toward supporting law enforcement. Chambers, who entered the race last of the bunch in August, raised over $8.5 million in 2023 and contributed $5 million himself. He ended the year with $2.91 million in the bank, according to records. Doden threw his name in the ring as early as 2021 and reported over $1 million in cash on hand at the end of 2023. His campaign said he has raised $5 million to date. While the race is expected to be the most expensive in Indiana history for the office, its unlikely to boost turnout, said Laura Wilson, professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis. Indiana historically has low voter turnout; 24% of those registered voted in the 2020 primary. Fundraising might matter the most to Doden and Chambers, who lack the name recognition of the other candidates. On the Democratic side of the ballot, former Indiana schools Superintendent Jennifer McCormick is running a longshot bid to flip the state’s top office. McCormick split from the GOP over education policy and later changed her party affiliation after her term ended in early 2021. Libertarian Donald Rainwater and Republican Jamie Reitenour are also campaigning for the office. Wilson expected the race to soon turn to more political topics including abortion and support for Trump. “For some voters, I think, this race unfortunately is going to be somewhat of an afterthought because the focus nationally is going to be so heavy on the presidential,” Wilson said.
For Texas’ program of blind merchants, the pandemic shrank opportunities, exposed income gaps
The Business Enterprises of Texas program offers visually impaired vendors food service contracts in government buildings.
Ram Mandir News Live Updates: Ram Lalla idol’s photo revealed ahead of Pran Pratishtha ceremony
In preparation for the Ram Temple consecration ceremony on January 22, the governments of Rajasthan and Odisha have announced a half-day holiday in their states.
Environmentalists call on Biden admin to tank natural gas project amid nationwide arctic blast
A large coalition of environmental activist organizations are calling on the Biden administration to use a little-known regulatory maneuver to block a major natural gas expansion project in the Pacific Northwest. In a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, more than 140 groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Columbia Riverkeeper and Friends of the Earth, called on the agency to intervene in the approval process of the Gas Transmission Northwest XPress Project (GTNXP). They argued the action was necessary because the project would hurt decarbonization goals and lead to pollution. “As fossil fuel combustion is the primary contributor to the greenhouse gasses causing climate change, phasing out fossil fuel combustion as rapidly as possible is a policy imperative agreed upon by an overwhelming consensus of climate scientists,” the organizations wrote to Regan in their letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “We are in the midst of a crucial handful of years in which — by concerted action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — we can still avoid locking in the worst impacts of climate change,” they continued. “The President himself has called climate change an ‘existential threat.’” BIDEN ADMIN ABRUPTLY REVERSES PROPOSAL OPENING PUBLIC LANDS TO FOREIGN OWNERSHIP AFTER GOP OPPOSITION According to energy developer TC Energy, the $75 million project would leverage the firm’s existing infrastructure to increase the operational GTN pipeline’s incremental mainline capacity by 150,000 dekatherms per day, enough to power roughly 500,000 additional homes in the region. The GTN pipeline travels through Idaho, Washington and Oregon and serves California customers. The expansion project — which would upgrade three particular existing compressor stations on the existing system that has transported natural gas for decades — received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in October after months of delays amid concerns over its climate impact. BIDEN ADMIN APPEARS TO FABRICATE PAPER TRAIL IN PURSUIT OF MAJOR CHEMICAL PLANT SHUTDOWN: COURT DOCS In their letter to Regan, though, the eco groups said the EPA could invoke its authority under the Clean Air Act to determine FERC’s environmental review of the project was “unsatisfactory from the standpoint of public health, welfare or environmental quality,” and refer it to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The groups referenced one previous example of the EPA invoking the authority when, in 1996, it intervened FERC rulemaking. They further noted that EPA’s authority is not time-barred or limited by the post-decisional stage of the process. “We urge EPA to refer this decision to CEQ on several counts: the project’s enormous social costs to society; its resultant emissions making existing state-level climate commitments impossible to meet; FERC’s stark failure to meet its statutory obligations under [National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)], which includes its refusal to consider several of EPA’s recommendations as a cooperating agency; and for its inconsistency with CEQ NEPA guidance,” they continued. And they pointed to EPA’s own comments from 2022 on GTNXP, identifying its “environmental concern.” However, the groups’ effort was blasted by TC Energy, which noted that extreme cold conditions are sweeping across the country and that Americans largely rely on natural gas for heat. According to Fox Weather, a recent arctic blast led to freezing temperatures, at least 10 deaths and transportation delays nationwide, and a second blast is expected to impact 75% of Americans this weekend. INTERNAL EMAILS SHOW SEC COORDINATED CLIMATE DISCLOSURE RULES WITH AI FIRM SET TO FINANCIALLY BENEFIT “With cold temperatures gripping the nation, it is imperative that consumers across the United States have access to affordable and reliable supplies of natural gas,” TC Energy spokesperson Michael Tadeo told Fox News Digital. “Since 2014, demand on the existing GTN system has surged more than 50 percent. The GTNXP project, consisting of limited software and other upgrades to existing infrastructure, would help meet this increasing demand and help lower natural gas prices for consumers.” “FERC’s bipartisan approval of this project reaffirmed that it is in the public interest and is critical to keeping energy affordable and reliable in California and the Pacific Northwest,” Tadeo said. “With strong support from labor unions, consumers and elected officials, TC Energy remains committed to putting this important project into service as soon as possible.” Nearly half of U.S. homes rely on natural gas, piped directly to a furnace, for space heating. Another 40% rely on electricity — the majority of which is generated by natural gas nationwide — to power electric space heaters, according to a Washington Post analysis of the 2017-2021 American Community Survey. Still, environmentalists have repeatedly pushed initiatives to both decrease natural gas hookups in new construction and replace natural gas-fired power plants with green energy sources. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS “I’m at a loss as to how we’re supposed to deliver the energy that consumers need when they need it most if we don’t have the capacity to deliver that energy, if we’re not allowed to upgrade facilities and accommodate the energy that growth is already demanding,” Northwest Gas Association Executive Director Dan Kirschner told Fox News Digital. “It’s not a matter of the future. This is demand that’s online.” “These activists and others are focusing all their firepower on even the smallest projects,” Kirschner said. “This is not an expansion in the true sense of the word — there’s no piping laid in the ground. It’s an upgrade. It’s upgrading facilities and software to push a little more gas across through the system, to serve needs that we know are there, especially for these coldest days of the year.” In addition to the Northwest Gas Association, GTNXP has received support from local labor unions and Republican lawmakers.
Freedom Caucus revolts in South Carolina over claims GOP plans to ‘muzzle’ legislative powers, boost Dems
Members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus are revolting against legislation proposed by their Republican counterparts that they say is intended to “muzzle” and “silence” their lawmaking abilities in exchange for giving Democrats more legislative powers. Although mainstream Republicans in the state vehemently deny this suggested motivation for the legislation, Freedom Caucus State Director Evan Newman told Fox News Digital the pair of bills, H.4695 and H.4735, would limit the ability of caucus members to propose amendments within the legislative process. He also argued one of the bills would give Democrats “equal footing” with the “liberal” Republican supermajority by providing the minority leader the ability to select the same maximum number of amendments to move forward with a given piece of legislation. The new maximum amendment rule would prevent Freedom Caucus members from pushing conservative ones through, he said. GOP CANDIDATE COMPARED DEPORTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS TO NAZIS, ‘NOT OPPOSED’ TO FAST-TRACKING DACA CITIZENSHIP According to Newman, Freedom Caucus Republicans have been pushing their policy priorities by proposing amendments to legislation because of their departure from the House Republican caucus last year following a refusal to sign a “Soviet-style pledge” that included a ban on engaging in campaign activities against any other Republican in the caucus. “It’s kind of ludicrous,” he told Fox News Digital. “This was not to streamline the legislative process. It was to ensure that the Freedom Caucus would not be able to put up amendments on conservative legislation in an election year and force Republicans to take hard votes. That’s what it was all about.” Neither of the bills has yet to be brought to the House floor for a vote, something Newman attributes to the backlash caucus members were able to drum up through their grassroots network. ALL EYES ON NEW HAMPSHIRE’S INDEPENDENT VOTERS FOLLOWING REPORTS OF DEMOCRATS VOTING FOR NIKKI HALEY IN IOWA “We got thousands of phone calls placed in the span of probably eight hours,” Newman said, adding that the bill was then notably absent from the vote calendar. “It still hasn’t come back up, and all that we’re hearing is that they’re trying to get back to the drawing board to come up with some other sort of rule change. Maybe they won’t bring it up at all, or maybe they’ll just ram it through when we’re not paying attention. That’s kind of where we are now,” he said. In statements to Fox News Digital, the caucus’ executive leadership ripped what they referred to as “RINOs,” or Republicans in name only, and likened the bills to something national Democrats would do while in the majority. VIRGINIA VETERAN AIMS TO BE 1ST FEMALE MARINE ELECTED TO CONGRESS, JOINS RACE TO FLIP COVETED DEM-HELD SEAT “This unprecedented attempt to neuter the House of Representatives is a play straight out of [Nancy] Pelosi’s playbook. We need more debate, more transparency, and less top-down control in the People’s House,” said Freedom Caucus Chair and state Rep. Adam Morgan. Caucus secretary and state Rep. Josiah Magnuson called the bills “a blatant muzzle aimed to silence non-uniparty legislators” and called for making it easier for individual legislators to better represent their districts. “It’s time for the South Carolina General Assembly to pay attention to the conservative values of the people,” he said. “RINO ‘Republicans’ are attempting to bring Nancy Pelosi-style rules to the South Carolina House with the sole purpose of silencing conservatives,” said caucus Vice Chair RJ May. “Instead of working with conservatives to secure a more prosperous and free future for South Carolinians, they are consolidating power in the hands of two people, elevating radical Democrats to positions of power, and stripping the people’s elected representatives of their ability to legislate. These moderate hacks pushing this rule change must be defeated,” he added. Non-Freedom Caucus Republicans tell a different story about the legislation. “H.4735 is a win for substantive debate, public input, and effective legislating. Contrary to sensational claims, the cloture rule aims to eliminate filibusters that waste time and hinder the passage of solid, conservative legislation,” state Rep. Jay West told Fox News Digital. “The rule is almost exactly what the South Carolina Senate passed three years ago, as part of a conservative revolution in that chamber. No one who wants to contribute productively to the legislative process will be stifled,” he added. Another member familiar with the legislation also refuted the Freedom Caucus’ claims, telling Fox News Digital that one of the bills limiting the number of amendments a single member can propose had never even been discussed in a committee and that the legislation allowing a maximum number of amendments to be selected by the party leaders was intended to prevent Democrats “filibustering” bills with amendment debate. According to the member, the times in which cloture, or the limiting of debate on a bill, is invoked only occurs “a few times a year,” meaning the instances in which the party leaders would select a maximum number of amendments to move forward would be few and far between. The member added that the legislation was essentially a copy of the same rules implemented by the state Senate three years earlier and argued it would actually work in Freedom Caucus members’ favor.
E-bikes caused record deaths, fires last year in New York City
Electric bicycles caused a record number of fires, injuries and deaths in New York City last year as Democrats continued to push for greater adoption of the device as a solution to global warming. Overall, e-bikes sparked 267 fires which caused 18 deaths and 150 injuries in the city, according to New York Fire Department (FDNY) data shared with Fox News Digital. The figures represent the highest levels of each statistic, with e-bike related deaths increasing 200%, fires increasing 21% and injuries increasing 2% in the city year over year. “As we rely more and more on micromobility vehicles to earn a living in our daily lives, we increase the risk of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries. And as mentioned, we had over 100 deaths in this city alone on these batteries,” Democrat New York Mayor Eric Adams said during an event on e-bike safety last year. “And one of the problems that we’ve noticed, when you look at those taped-up batteries, you see that they are refurbished,” he continued. “These shops are going inside attempting to refurbish the batteries and do it their own way. This is a safety issue.” DEMOCRATS’ FAVORITE GREEN MODE OF TRANSPORTATION IS CAUSING EXPLOSIONS, DEATH Amid the uptick in e-bike fires and deaths, New York City leaders led by Adams and FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh — who said last year that e-bikes are “incredibly dangerous devices” and called for additional regulation — have spearheaded a public education campaign about the dangers of the device and pushed policies to ensure safety. In March 2023, Adams unveiled the city’s Charge Safe, Ride Safe plan to prevent further harmful e-bike incidents. Then, months later, he announced the city had been awarded $25 million in federal funding to install 173 outdoor e-bike charging stations. In December, Adams said his administration would soon launch a battery-charging pilot program for delivery workers. 17 RETIRED MILITARY OFFICIALS RAISE ALARM ON BIDEN’S ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH “We know these fires can cause serious injury, and even death. We are grateful to our partners in city government for their out-of-the-box thinking on how we can embrace this new technology while also protecting lives,” Kavanagh said last month. The city government has also passed several laws over the last year to regulate lithium-ion batteries sold in New York City and implemented a policy to expedite investigations into potentially hazardous conditions involving lithium-ion batteries. And the issue led to New York Attorney General Letitia James issuing a consumer alert in June to warn New Yorkers about the “significant risks” associated with e-bikes. Still, despite the increased attention on curbing e-bike fires, the FDNY continues to report such incidents. In the most recent example, an e-bike battery exploded in a Queens bike store, causing a massive blast and two-alarm fire this month. And just days prior, an e-bike battery fire caused an explosion in a public housing complex in the Bronx, killing one person and injuring six others. FDNY Chief of Department John Hodgens previously said that the violent nature of lithium-ion battery-triggered fires makes them harder to quell. HOUSE JOINS SENATE, STRIKES DOWN BIDEN EV CHARGER RULE PROTECTING CHINESE COMPANIES According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), e-bikes are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which are prone to fires or explosions. And as e-bikes continue to become more popular — the global e-bike industry is expected to grow nearly 200% to an estimated value of $118.7 billion by 2030, according to Allied Market Research — cities like New York are facing rapidly increasing numbers of battery fires. “As the use of lithium-ion-powered products is growing, the challenges with their associated hazards are on full display every day and in communities all across the globe. Lithium-ion batteries are one of the newer and emerging fire threats in our communities,” Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of outreach and advocacy, said during a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) panel discussion in July. NEW YORK CITY FATAL FIRE WAS CAUSED BY E-BIKE BATTERY, OFFICIALS SAY In October, the CPSC released a staff report showing that micromobility-related injuries have trended upward since 2017, increasing approximately 23% on average every year. One day later, CPSC Commissioner Mary Boyle announced the agency would begin considering regulations targeting e-bikes, which would likely be released in 2025. Meanwhile, Democrat lawmakers continue to push e-bikes as a key part of their climate agenda and effort to decarbonize the U.S. economy. Last year, Reps. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and Adam Schiff, D-Calif., introduced the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment Act, which would provide Americans with an up to $1,500 credit on e-bike purchases. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, introduced companion legislation in the Senate. “By incentivizing Americans to own and use e-bikes, we are allowing them the chance to help improve the quality of life in our communities and tackle the climate crisis in our country,” Panetta said. “Electric bikes are a phenomenal way to traverse our communities, combining the beauty of the outdoors with the ease and benefits of sustainable transportation,” added Schiff.