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April 15, 2022 • Schneps Media
LOCAL NEWS OPED
BY GARY LABARBERA
New York has set some of
the nation’s most ambitious
climate and clean
energy goals – goals that meet
the urgency the climate crisis demands
of us and that will require
the commitment and collaboration
of all statewide industries,
stakeholders, and leaders to
achieve.
The Building
and Construction
Trades Council
has been exceptionally
proud to
serve a leading
role in helping our
great state meet
these goals, from
training the future
of our workforce
for the sustainable
economy to breaking
ground on the
state’s fi rst offshore
wind project.
As we see it, the
next step forward toward transforming
ambition into reality is
the approval of Clean Path New
York and the Champlain Hudson
Power Express.
These are two signifi cant,
large-scale transmission projects
that will shape the future of
energy in New York for years to
come, reducing fossil fuel use for
our electricity by more than 80
percent by 2030.
What makes these projects
particularly exciting to the Building
and Construction Trades
Council is that we see these consequential
projects as solving
two crises: the climate crisis, of
course, by reducing New York’s
dependence on fossil fuels, but
REUTERS/SHANNON STAPLETON
Kevon Jaskin, a health care administer, stands for a photograph by a mobile coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) testing center on the Lower East Side, April 4, 2022.
COVID-19 still high
Manhattan sees brunt of new cases: DOH
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also the crisis of inequity.
Combined, Clean Path New
York and the Champlain Hudson
Power Express will create
nearly 10,000 middle-class jobs
statewide, with thousands of
these jobs being direct construction
jobs for union tradesmen
and tradeswoman – generating
hundreds of thousands of
Not only that, but
the advancement of
these projects promise
upwards of $40
million in funding
for job training and
workforce development
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dollars in wages.
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New York Press Association
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Women Business Enterprise
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programs that
will help ensure
that those building
these nation-leading
projects are not only
best-in-class, but are
also minority and
underserved New
Yorkers.
It’s clear to us
that the cost of
inaction far outweighs
further delay in advancing
these projects of great significance
to New York. $8.2 billion
in investment, $460 million in
direct community benefi ts, nearly
10,000 family-sustaining jobs,
and the future of our environment
are all at stake.
The approval of these key
transmission lines are critical to
New York’s working class and to
positioning New York’s clean energy
economy for the future.
LaBarbera is the President of
both the New York State Building
and Construction Trades
Council and the Building and
Construction Trades Council of
Greater New York.
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
COVID-19 infections continue
creeping up across
the city as the BA.2 subvariant
— thought to be more
contagious than the Omicron
variant — spreads around the
Five Boroughs.
Manhattan continues to be
the city’s hot zone, with a transmission
rate of 245.41 cases per
100,000 residents – nearly double
the citywide average (133.54 cases
per 100,000 residents). No other
borough exceeds the citywide
transmission rate, though Brooklyn
came close at 132 cases per
100,000 residents.
The citywide 7-day positivity
rate, as of April 8, was up to 3.3%,
an increase of less than 1% from
the 2.67% rate recorded on April
1. The city’s 7-day average daily
case total on April 8 was 1,590,
an increase from 1,254 cases the
previous week.
Yet the city’s Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene, which
provided those statistics, continues
to consider the current alert level
as “low,” largely because hospitalizations
and confi rmed deaths
related to COVID-19 continue to
decrease citywide.
More New Yorkers are surviving
COVID-19 thanks to previous
vaccinations and booster
shots, and through new antiviral
treatments made available, which
have sharply reduced the number
of hospitalizations related
to the illness.
Still, just because one is vaccinated
does not mean they’ll
avoid COVID-19 entirely, as evidenced
by the increase in COVID
cases in some areas of Manhattan
where vaccination rates are as
high as 99%.
Twelve of the 15 New York City
areas with the highest 7-day positivity
rates between March 30 and
April 5 are in Manhattan. Four of
the neighborhoods have rates above
8%: Tribeca (ZIP 10007, 8.7%, 24
new cases); Kips Bay/Murray Hill/
NoMad (10016, 8.44%, 139 new
cases); Financial District (10006,
8.09%, 11 new cases); and Chelsea
(10011, 8.04%, 125 new cases).
The Hunters Point section
of Long Island City, Queens
(11009) had the highest 7-day
positivity rate at 12.44%, with 25
cases detected.
Manhattan also had the community
with the most new COVID-19
cases between March 30-April 5.
Manhattan Valley/Morningside
Heights/Upper West Side (10025)
logged 213 cases and a 5.73%
7-day positivity rate. No other
community had more than 200
cases during the period.
Powering the future
of New York’s clean
energy economy
It’s clear to us
that the cost
of inaction
far outweighs
further delay in
advancing these
projects of great
signi cance to
New York.
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