A measure prohibiting retailers — including Amazon and other online sellers — from selling untested, unsafe lithium-ion batteries that power e-bikes and similar devices passed the U.S. Senate Tuesday, paving the way for the law to go into effect by year’s end.
The bill, approved by the House in May, had been held up by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who had moved to restrict the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s ability to clamp down on the uncertified batteries as a protest against the agency’s strict regulation of gas-powered stoves.
Late Tuesday, New York City Fire Commissioner Robert Tucker heralded the expected enactment of the law, stating, “This is incredible news, and we applaud our partners in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate for their strong leadership in passing this critical legislation.”
Since 2019, fires caused by highly explosive e-bike batteries have resulted in 929 fires, causing 507 injuries and 33 deaths as of early September.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) championed the Senate approval of the bill, stating Tuesday that during “late minute negotiations” on the end-of-the-year budget he put the e-bike battery bill into the bill “to finally put out the fire from dangerous, China-made lithium-ion batteries.”
“The fires and the injuries caused by these batteries have caused tremendous loss across New York and federal action is needed to protect consumers and also our brave firefighters who are on the front lines of this new paradigm in fire prevention spurred by these unpredictable, and often times, very dangerous batteries,” Schumer stated.
THE CITY has documented the FDNY’s struggles to combat the trend of faulty e-bike batteries triggering fires that have injured and killed New York City residents, including Fazil Khan, a reporter who worked for the Hechinger Report and THE CITY and died in a Harlem blaze in February.
Responding to this wave of injuries and fatalities, U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-The Bronx), last year sponsored a bill requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission to regulate the sale of micro-mobility batteries, mandating that any batteries for sale be certified as safe by recognized safety labs such as UL Solutions. New York Sens. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand co-sponsored the Senate version.
Torres’ House bill passed in May by a significant bipartisan majority, but got hung up in the Senate due to Cruz’ objections over what he asserted was over-regulation. On Tuesday the Senate passed a budget bill that included the battery safety legislation.
The budget bill is expected to be ratified by Friday.
“This bill will ensure lithium-ion batteries and e-mobility products will be safer for American consumers and will no longer allow dangerous foreign batteries into the United States,” Torres stated.
