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Sept. 3 - Sept. 9, 2021
Queens lawmakers speak out against peaker
plants during hearing on environmental justice
BY BILL PARRY
The progressive war
against peaker power plants
in western Queens — long
known as “Asthma Alley” —
got some additional firepower
when Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney held a community
roundtable discussion during
a House Oversight and
Reform Committee session in
Astoria on Thursday, Aug. 26.
The special session began
with a press briefing in front
of the Ravenswood Generating
Station in Long Island
City with Brooklyn Congresswoman
Yvette Clarke, highlighting
the urgent need to
transition away from peakers
in New York. The session
then moved indoors for a
committee roundtable at the
Variety Boys and Girls Club
in Astoria, where Maloney
was joined by Bronx/Queens
Congresswoman Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez as well as community
members impacted by
peaker plants.
Maloney noted that it’s
been reported that more than
3,000 New Yorkers “lose their
lives” from health conditions
related to particulate
pollution annually. She said
the city’s power plants are
“chiefly responsible.”
“Peakers are the dirtiest
and most dangerous smokestack,
used at times of peak
energy demand and largely
concentrated in low-income
communities. For the 1.2 million
New Yorkers living within
one mile of a peaker, rates
of asthma and deaths from COVID
19 are severely elevated,”
Maloney said. “In addition to
the noxious fumes from peaker
plants, these residents are
exposed to constant pollution
from large power plants that
run all the time, and chronic
vehicle congestion.”
Maloney spoke of Clarke’s
PEAKER Act, which would
create a tax incentive and
a new grant program to
help retire peaker plants in
historically marginalized
communities.
She also said she supports
community-driven solutions,
such as the PEAK Coalition’s
proposals to eliminate half of
the city’s 89 peakers by 2025
and all of them by 2030.
“If we follow their lead, my
constituents in the Queensbridge,
Ravenswood and
Astoria Houses will finally
breathe a little easier,” Maloney
said.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke of the
urgency of stopping an expansion
of peakers in her district,
namely NRG’s controversial
proposal to replace an existing
peaker plant in Astoria.
“Right now in Astoria,
in front-line communities,
in low-income communities,
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney speaks out against peaker plants
during a hearing in Queensbridge Houses, where she was joined by
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Photo courtesy of House Oversight Committee
in Black communities,
immigrant communities,
brown communities, Indigenous
communities, we know
that there is no such thing
as cheap energy,” she said.
“Because the price of cheap
energy has always been our
lives, our health, our lungs,
our cancer rates.”
Ocasio-Cortez also highlighted
solutions she champions,
such as the Green New
Deal for Public Housing,
which she says are essential
to empower environmental
justice communities.
The hearing was held just
hours before a rally in Astoria
Park protesting NRG’s
Astoria Replacement Project,
the same day as one of the
New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation’s
(DEC) public hearings
on the proposal, which would
replace and upgrade existing
generators at the 50-year-old
Astoria Generation Station.
NRG Spokesman Dave
Schrader said their plan to
upgrade the Astoria plant
with state-of-the-art technology
“that can be converted
to green hydrogen in the future
is fully consistent with
the Climate Leadership and
Community Protection Act
as it will immediately result
in significant reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions
and supports the expansion of
renewable energy resources
throughout the state.”
“The project will not only
help ensure the lights stay on
in New York City but will also
bring more than 500 jobs at no
cost to taxpayers, while also
lowering electricity costs by
$1.5 billion in just its first five
years of operation,” Schrader
said.
He added that NRG is
grateful for the public support
for the project in hundreds
of letters submitted
to the Department of Environmental
Conservation on
NRG’s behalf from neighbors,
labor and trade unions.
Reach reporter Bill Parry
by e-mail at bparry@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4538.
Vol. 9, No. 36 36 total pages
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