SCHUMER ANNOUNCES LOWVILLE’S KRAFT HEINZ PLANT TO RECEIVE ESTIMATED $22 MILLION VIA THE BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE LAW & INFLATION REDUCTION ACT TO UPGRADE, ELECTRIFY, & TRANSITION NORTH COUNTRY DAIRY PLANT TO CLEAN ENERGY TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
DOE Is Awarding Kraft Heinz Up To $170M Total To Upgrade 10 Facilities Across America, Including Lewis County’s, With Heat Pumps And Other Clean Energy Modernizations, Creating Good Paying Jobs And Reducing Annual Emissions by 300,000+ Tons of CO2
Schumer Created Program In The IRA & Infrastructure Laws He Led To Passage To Boost Projects Like The North Country’s Kraft Heinz Modernization — Building On His Long History To Strengthen Lowville’s Kraft Heinz Plant, Which He Helped Save In 2015
Schumer: A Cleaner and More Prosperous Future For Lowville’s Kraft Heinz Plant Is Coming Thanks To The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law & Inflation Reduction Act!
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced Kraft Heinz in Lewis County is expected to receive an estimated $22 million as a part of an overall $170.9 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP) to upgrade, electrify, and decarbonize its heating process to significantly reduce carbon emissions at ten Kraft Heinz sites across America.
Schumer said this funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act will help accelerate the North Country plant’s adoption of clean energy to lower greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy costs all while creating good-paying construction jobs to strengthen the plant boosting the local economy and environment.
“This is a major win for Lewis County and our Upstate NY’s dairy industry. Lowville’s Kraft Heinz plant has long been the cream of the crop and now the Bipartisan Infrastructure & Jobs Law and Inflation Reduction Act will help power their transition to clean energy, making sure the North Country facility will have the modern upgrades it needs to remain the ‘big cheese,’ all while creating good paying jobs and fighting climate change,” said Senator Schumer. “Kraft Heinz is helping make their Lowville plant a national model for how the food industry can transition to clean energy, lower costs, and strengthen operations, all while creating good paying jobs and a greener future. I helped save this plant nearly a decade ago, and promised to keep fighting to help it grow ever since, and now with the federal funding I am delivering today, Lewis County can keep churning out its globally recognized products stamped ‘Made Sustainably in Upstate NY’.”
“At Kraft Heinz, we’re on a journey to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” said Pedro Navio, President of North America at Kraft Heinz. “This investment from the U.S. Department of Energy will give us critical resources to make cutting-edge technology improvements in our plants, including our facility in Lowville, NY. Not only will these funds help us lower emissions, they will create local jobs, improve training for our current and future workforce, and better the communities we serve. We'd like to thank Senator Schumer for his leadership and support over the years."
Kraft Heinz’s “Delicious Decarbonization Through Integrated Electrification and Energy Storage Project” specifically aims to upgrade, electrify, and decarbonize its process heat at 10 facilities by applying a range of technologies including heat pumps, electric heaters, and electric boilers in combination with sustainable fuel boilers, solar thermal, solar panels, and thermal energy storage.
Implementing these technologies at each facility is expected to reduce annual emissions by more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, translating to a 99% reduction from 2022 levels for Kraft Heinz, all while helping create hundreds of good paying construction jobs. At the Lowville Kraft Heinz plant, the funding will replace aging gas and other high carbon emitting technologies with more energy efficient and environmentally friendly alternatives such as heat pumps, electric heaters, and electric boilers. In addition to the Lowville plant in New York, Kraft Heinz will also boost their decarbonization efforts in Champaign, Illinois; Columbia, Missouri; Fremont, Ohio; Holland, Michigan; Kendallville, Indiana; New Ulm, Minnesota; Muscatine, Iowa; Mason City, Iowa; and Winchester, Virginia.
Funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act, which Schumer led to passage as Majority Leader, the Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstrations Program (IDP) funds projects that focus on the highest emitting and hardest to abate industries where decarbonization technologies can have the greatest impact: iron and steel, cement and concrete, chemicals and refining, food and beverage, paper and forest products, aluminum, other energy-intensive manufacturing industries and cross-cutting technologies. The program aims to accelerate decarbonization projects in energy-intensive industries and provide American manufacturers a competitive advantage in the race to lead the world in low- and net-zero carbon manufacturing.
Schumer has a long history of supporting Kraft Heinz in Lowville, personally saving the plant from closing in November 2015. Schumer’s advocacy resulted in an agreement had been reached to save at-risk Kraft-Heinz facilities. After securing the deal, Schumer also personally visited the Lowville plant to speak to workers, management and local leaders about the future and new employment opportunities at the company and plant.
###
