New York Port Authority Unveils Sweeping Carbon-Cutting Plan

The agency that runs some of New York City’s highest-profile infrastructure will lay out a plan on Tuesday to cut emissions at some of the nation’s busiest airports, adopt zero-emissions cranes at the biggest seaport on the East Coast, and take a wide range of other steps across the region.

The 12-point plan—which includes reducing carbon from buildings, buses, and generating stations—is the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s first stab at describing its broad, but previously vague, goal of cutting emissions 35% by 2025, 50% by 2030, and 100% by 2050.

The plan is exceedingly ambitious, both because the Port Authority oversees such a diverse swath of properties and because so much of the work requires the cooperation of private companies that use the agency’s infrastructure.

Port Authority leadership is confident it can get those companies to buy into its vision.

In an interview, Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton said the agency has already been in deep conversations with airlines, shipping companies, terminal operators, and concessionaires to lower their emissions, and that those talks have been “uniformly constructive.”

Many of those companies already have their own net-zero goals, so “this is not the Port Authority on our own coming up with the goal,” Cotton said.

Included under the $8.6 billion Port Authority’s umbrella are the John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark airports; the Port of New York and New Jersey; the Holland and Lincoln tunnels; the World Trade Center complex; the George Washington Bridge; and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson transit line connecting Manhattan and New Jersey.

Airlines and Ports

Because aircraft produce the most carbon emissions across the Port Authority’s portfolio, one key plank of the agency’s platform is to prod airlines to switch to sustainable fuels. More than 50 airlines are already doing so, and Virgin Atlantic has plans to fly from Heathrow Airport to JFK using 100% sustainable fuel.

The Biden administration has said it wants to achieve net-zero emissions across the domestic aviation industry by 2050.

Already, more than 1,000 ground service vehicles at Port Authority airports—almost all of which are owned by the airlines or their contractors—have been electrified, Cotton said.

Other steps in the Port Authority’s plan include working with airlines to cut emissions from taxiing, encouraging the use of battery-powered aircraft that hover and fly like helicopters, and increasing the use of carbon-free power to heat and cool plane cabins when they’re connected to jet bridges.

At its ports—which include six container terminals, three auto terminals, two cruise terminals, a ferry terminal, and many public berths—the agency wants to speed up the adoption of zero-emission cranes, forklifts, and tractors, most of which are now powered by fossil fuels.

Those technologies don’t currently exist for all types of port equipment, so in some cases, the Port Authority is taking a go-slow approach that prioritizes the phase-out of older diesel equipment and zero-emissions rules only for certain types of equipment, starting in 2026. But 97% of the ship-to-shore cranes are already electric, according to Cotton.

The Port Authority also wants to transition its fleet of 2,000 cars, trucks, shuttle buses, and specialized vehicles to zero-emissions models, with different target deadlines for different types of vehicles. The agency is designing its new Midtown Bus Terminal in Manhattan to accommodate a 100% electric fleet.

Building Emissions

The plan further calls for the Port Authority to make energy efficiency retrofits and move away from fossil fuels at all its buildings. One high-profile example is the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which is undergoing a $10 billion redevelopment. The agency has said it will use AI to move buses more efficiently within the terminal, and is considering embedding geothermal wells inside the foundation and using waste heat from the surrounding infrastructure.

The Port Authority will also re-evaluate its leases with tenants across its wide portfolio of properties—including offices, retail stores, airports, and marine terminals—to line up tenant activities with the Port Authority’s sustainability goals. The agency further wants to offer energy monitoring and technical support services that help tenants reduce their consumption.

At redevelopment projects, the Port Authority said it will work with tenants to provide low-carbon heating and cooling. The agency also plans to set a good example through demonstration projects at some of the buildings it owns.

“We can’t ask people to do something unless we know what it takes,” Cotton said. “The biggest contribution we can make to that dialogue is have the Port Authority do it.”

In 2020, the Port Authority announced that One World Trade Center—the tallest building in the US—would install the world’s first indoor, all-electric fuel cells, which turn natural gas into electricity without combustion through an electrochemical process.

More than two thirds of New York City’s 56.5 million tons of annual carbon emissions come from its buildings sector, mostly linked to lighting, heating, cooling, and appliance usage.

Cotton said the cost of the plan will be shared between the agency and its partners, and that the Port Authority has accounted for the added costs in its operating budget, including managing capital expenses over time.