By JUAN ZAMORANO, Associated Press

PANAMA CITY (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday focused again on China’s presence in the western hemisphere, one day after calling the world power a threat to the Panama Canal.

Speaking at a regional security conference, Hegseth said that China-based companies were controlling land and critical infrastructure in strategic sectors.

“China’s military has too large of a presence in the western hemisphere,” Hegseth said. “Make no mistake, Beijing is investing and operating in this region for military advantage and unfair economic gain.”

He called on the region’s governments to work together to deter China and address threats posed by transnational drug cartels and mass immigration.

Hegseth was speaking a day after meeting Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino and touring the Panama Canal. The two countries agreed to step up security coordination and appeared to say they would work toward a way to pay back fees that U.S. warships pay to pass through the Panama Canal.

The visit comes amid tensions over U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that the U.S. is being overcharged to use the Panama Canal and that China has influence over its operations — allegations that Panama has denied.

Shortly after Hegseth and Mulino met, the Chinese Embassy in Panama criticized the U.S. government in a statement on X, saying Washington had used “blackmail” to further its own interests and that who Panama carries out business with is a “sovereign decision of Panama … and something the U.S. doesn’t have the right to interfere in.”

China’s concern was provoked by Hong Kong-based consortium CK Hutchison holding a 25-year lease on ports at either end of the canal. The Panamanian government announced that lease was being audited and late Monday concluded that there were irregularities, which CK Hutchison denied in a statement Wednesday.

CK Hutchison had already announced that it would be selling its controlling stake in the ports to a consortium including BlackRock Inc., effectively putting the ports under American control once the sale is complete.

After rising for the last decade, the number of green job opportunities in New York City declined between 2022 and 2023, from 19,476 to 15,501. The recent dip suggests that continued growth ‘is far from assured,’ a new report says.  

An electrical Industry training center in Long Island City, Queens in 2017. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

New York City’s green economy is “not yet anywhere close to fully charged,” a new report by the research hub Center for an Urban Future (CUF) says. The organization analyzed data by the labor market firm Lightcast on job opportunities posted by employers online between 2013 and 2023.

Green jobs totaled about 2.2 percent of all unique New York City job postings in 2023. That’s up from 1.4 percent of job postings in 2013, according to CUF. 

After rising for the last decade, the number of green job opportunities declined between 2022 and 2023, from 19,476 to 15,501. The recent dip suggests that continued growth “is far from assured,” the report says.  

New York City faces a series of hurdles in its quest to shift to cleaner sources of energy. For one, buildings are transitioning away from planet-warming fossil fuels and switching to clean electric energy at a sluggish pace, and both solar and wind are failing to reach their full potential.

Last year, the city announced big plans to host nearly 400,000 green jobs by 2040. 

That would be up from 133,000 in 2021, according to the most recent estimates provided by the New York City Development Corporation (NYCEDC), which worked in partnership with the Mayor’s Office to create the plan. 

The ambitious “Green Economy Action Plan” involves activating public sites for electric vehicle charging, creating 12,000 green apprenticeships by 2040 and green training facilities in every borough. It will also invest $100 million in a Climate Innovation Hub at Brooklyn Army Terminal to generate 5,000 new jobs.

But a progress report on the plan is yet to be released. While city officials noted the green action plan projections are for the long-run and that economic conditions can vary a lot by year, CUF says job prospects in the green sector are off to a sluggish start.

“No part of New York City’s economy has greater potential for long term growth than the green economy,” said Eli Dvorkin, policy director at CUF and co-author of the study.

“But our report finds that job growth has been far slower than most city leaders anticipated.”

Slow growth

Compared to the larger labor market, green job growth has lagged, especially within the city’s “core green” economy, the CUF report finds.

Core green jobs are those that play a direct role in reducing planet-warming emissions, like installing solar panels or energy efficient systems in buildings. 

Of the 719,367 New York City job postings made in 2023, there were just 2,184 unique opportunities available in the core green economy, accounting for only 1 percent of all jobs posted that year, according to Dvorkin. 

Meanwhile, the same period saw 70,002 postings in health care, 56,314 in finance and insurance, 46,912 in tech, and 18,318 in the management, scientific, and technical consulting services sector, the report says.

NYCEDC has a more optimistic outlook on the growth of the green sector over the coming years. The organization says expected gross domestic product (GDP) output could nearly triple to $89 billion annually by 2040 as city officials carry out the “Action Plan” to create 400,000 new green jobs.

“With hundreds of thousands of jobs expected in the coming decades, it remains vitally important we continue to grow this sector in an equitable way that all New Yorkers can benefit from,” a spokesperson for NYCEDC said in an email. 

The Action Plan projects job growth in 21 types of occupations, which will provide “pathways to stable and well-paying careers for all New Yorkers,” the Mayor’s Office of Talent and Workforce Development said.

Since the Action Plan’s release, the administration has made “great strides in amplifying the vision” it lays out. The Mayor’s Office added that they “are committed to ensuring the city’s necessary decarbonization translates to a more inclusive economy and shared prosperity for all New Yorkers.”

But inroads for green jobs have been particularly scarce in the building electrification sector, the CUF report notes. A series of laws to boost this area are slowly kicking into gear over the next few years, so the effects are yet to fully translate into the job market.

While a local prohibition on the use of gas equipment in new construction started last year in New York City for new buildings of seven stories or less, the mandate won’t go into effect for larger buildings until 2027. 

Starting this year, the city’s Local Law 97 (LL97) will fine buildings larger than 25,000 square feet that fail to reduce their carbon emissions through energy efficiency upgrades. 

But putting together the funds to make the necessary LL97 building retrofits has “gotten more challenging for many property owners due to rising interest rates,” the report notes.

As of now, city property owners have filed just 2,021 permits to install new, more energy efficient heating and cooling systems since 2017. Heat pumps, an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional heating and cooling systems, are yet to reach their full potential either, as less than 1 percent of all housing units statewide have one. 

There is also a shortage of job opportunities for electricians and heating and cooling technicians, which could further delay the shift to electric in buildings and limit the number of solar panels installed on New York roofs, the report points out.

“Of the more than 40,000 job listings in New York City’s construction industry posted since 2020, 6,500 were for HVAC technicians while nearly 6,000 were for electrical contractors and installers,” the report notes.

Headwinds 

Approximately 70 percent of job growth in New York City’s green economy is expected to come from transitioning existing positions like construction managers and financial consultants into the green sector, according to NYCEDC. And 30 percent would be entirely new jobs that do not exist today.

But when industries that generate clean energy like solar and wind aren’t growing fast enough, green job growth also takes a hit.

The Big Apple’s solar industry, for instance, has accounted for only about 750 new jobs over the past decade, the CUF report reveals.

Two thirds of the city’s entire solar capacity comes from single-family homes. Meanwhile, large commercial and industrial buildings together account for just 7 percent of the city’s total expected annual production of solar energy, according to the report.

Clean energy generated from offshore wind is also facing headwinds thanks to the federal government. President Donald Trump, who has declared he “hates wind,” paused new leases and halted new permits for offshore wind contracts. 

Mayor Eric Adams and NYCEDC announcing the release of the Green Economy Action Plan on Feb. 28, 2024. (Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)

And the Republican ordered all federal agencies to stop distributing federal dollars for clean energy projects made possible under the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

The myriad delays New York City faces in carrying out its green transition is taking a toll on its workers, union leaders say.

“It’s having a terrible impact on the workforce in New York City,” said John Murphy, a member of the Clean Energy Jobs Coalition and international representative of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters.

“The unions can’t bring people into their apprenticeship programs without knowing there’s going to be work there, and so everything’s kind of at a standstill right now,” Murphy added.

Plus, the city has a growing ecosystem of green economy workforce training organizations, which New Yorkers can check out here, that rely on the green economy to stay alive and thriving.

The only way to ensure workers aren’t left out of a job, the CUF report says, is for New York City officials to do a “full court press” to implement the green policies that are already underway. And environmental groups across the city agree. 

“There’s definitely more work that could be done, both on the city and the state level when it comes to advancing green projects,” said Jenille Scott, climate director at a non-profit that champions for green jobs, the Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN).

“We need more green projects to come to life in order to create those opportunities for working class New Yorkers.”

To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Mariana@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

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The post Green Job Opportunities in NYC Face a Downturn, Report Finds appeared first on City Limits.

By MARCIA DUNN, Associated Press Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The nominee for NASA’s top job, billionaire spacewalker Jared Isaacman, outlined his vision for space exploration on Wednesday that prioritizes sending astronauts to Mars.

President Donald Trump nominated Isaacman to become NASA’s 15th administrator late last year. If confirmed, the tech entrepreneur would become the youngest person to lead the space agency that is eyeing returning astronauts to the moon and among only a handful of administrators to have actually rocketed into orbit.

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee gathered in Washington for the nomination hearing.

“As the president stated we will prioritize sending American astronauts to Mars. Along the way, we will inevitably have the capabilities to return to the Moon, Isaacman said in his written testimony.

Isaacman, 42, has already flown in space twice, buying his own trips with SpaceX, and performed the world’s first private spacewalk last September. He made his fortune with a payment processing company he started as a high school dropout in his parents’ basement, now called Shift4.

He acknowledged in his testimony that he is not “a typical nominee for this position.”

“I have been relatively apolitical; I am not a scientist and I never worked at NASA” he said in his written remarks. “I do not think these are weaknesses.”

The space agency and others were anxious to hear Isaacman’s stand on the moon and Mars for human exploration, given his close association with SpaceX’s Elon Musk.

In the audience were the three U.S. astronauts and one Canadian assigned to NASA’s flight to the moon planned for next year.

NASA has been pitching the moon as the next logical step for astronauts for years. The Artemis program aims to send a crew around the moon next year and land astronauts near the moon’s south pole as early as 2027. Lunar bases are planned this time around, not just quick visits like the ones during NASA’s Apollo missions in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Artemis has been slow going and expensive, especially for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. It’s only blasted off once so far — in 2022 without a crew.

Musk favors Mars as a destination, as he ramps up more test flights out of Texas for Starship, the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket. By making Starship reusable, he intends to dramatically lower costs of getting people and equipment to the red planet.

NASA has chosen Starship for its first two astronaut landings on the moon under Artemis, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

On Monday St. Paul Public Works will begin the annual residential street sweeping operations with crews hitting approximately 530 miles of roadway in the city. After that, Public Works will sweep more than 2,200 alleys.

The effort is expected to take roughly six weeks, if the weather permits, according to city officials.

Sweeping helps remove dirt and refuse from streets. It also clears away material such as leaves and grass clipping to keep them from entering the city’s storm sewer system and, ultimately, from streams, lakes and rivers.

“Sweeping is a critical part of our year-round operations that keeps our streets and storm sewer systems clear of debris, and also protects our waterways,” said Sean Kershaw, director of St. Paul Public Works, in a statement. “Residents are essential partners in helping us clean the streets. Please move your vehicles off the streets so the sweeping crews can get all the materials out of the gutters. Also do not put any additional debris in the street.”

There are No Parking Overnight Sanitation Ban areas for specific days on arterial streets throughout the city including downtown St. Paul. These signed areas are swept year-round overnight, according to city officials. The intent is to do the work with less traffic. Residents are asked to be aware of overnight no parking signs and move vehicles as necessary.

Businesses and residents can assist with sweeping efforts by:

• Moving vehicles and following all posted temporary “No Parking” signs. Temporary “No Parking” signs will be posted 24 hours in advance. Vehicles parked in areas with “No Parking” signs may be ticketed and towed.

• Following all posted overnight “No Parking” signs. Many of the city’s arterial streets, including downtown, have posted signs indicating an overnight timeframe and/or days that residents are not allowed to park on the street. This allows sweeping crews to safely work with less traffic.

• Not pushing materials, such as leaves, grass, or debris into the street. Properly bag and dispose of these materials.

• Not placing garbage or recycling carts in streets. Make sure carts are only placed on boulevards, not streets.

• Adopting a storm drain in their neighborhood. By adopting a storm drain residents promise to help keep it free of debris in the coming months. Learn more at stpaul.gov/adoptadrain.

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