4 THE QUEENS COURIER • APRIL 15, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Photo by Bill Parry
Rockaway organizations urge feds to reject Williams Pipeline
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
While Rockaway businesses are thrilled
with the city’s announcement that public
beaches will reopen to the public on
Memorial Day weekend, environmental
Howard Beach store sells second winning lottery ticket in two weeks
BY JACOB KAYE
jkaye@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
April has been a great month for Take-
5 lottery players in Queens, particularly
for players at a Howard Beach convenience
store.
Over the weekend, a winning Take-
5 ticket, worth $70,933.50, was sold at
Village Card & Gift s, a Howard Beach
convenience store located at 82-31 153rd
Ave., and selected during the April 9 drawing,
the New York Lottery announced
Monday.
Th e winning ticket was the fi ft h sold in
the borough in the past month and the
second sold at Village Card & Gift s since
April 4.
On April 9, two prize-winning tickets,
both worth nearly $13,000, were sold in
Queens – one at Resorts World Casino in
South Ozone Park and the other at Enjoy
Convenience Store, located at 76-15 37th
Ave., in Jackson Heights.
Th ree days before, a Take-5 ticket,
worth $32,113, was sold a Bayside convenience
store and selected for the April
6 drawing.
Two days before that, a winning ticket
worth $55,105 was sold at Village Card
& Gift s and selected during the April 4
drawing.
Take-5 drawings take place every night
at 10:30 p.m., when fi ve winning numbers
between a fi eld of one to 39 are selected as
the day’s winners.
Winning ticket holders have up to one
year from the date of the drawing to claim
their prize.
groups and elected offi cials are less
than enthusiastic with the return of the
Williams Pipeline proposal.
In 2019 and again in 2020, New York
state regulators denied key construction
permits for the Northeast Supply
Enhancement Pipeline, which would have
brought fracked gas from Pennsylvania into
New York City to a terminus less than three
miles off the shore of Rockaway Beach.
Despite signifi cant public opposition to
the previous attempts, Williams Transco’s
recent extension request to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
noted plans to reapply again this year
bringing the project “back from the grave,”
according to one environmental group.
“As part of a community that endured
the devastating impacts of Superstorm
Sandy, we recognize the urgent need to
move away from fossil fuels and fracked
gas infrastructure to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions in alignment with New
York’s climate goals,” the Rockaway Beach
Civic Association said in a statement.
“Clean water and healthy ecosystems are
essential to the environment and economy.
Th e NYS DEC and the NJ DEP decisively
denied the water quality permits
necessary for the Williams NESE Pipeline,
and the facts and fi ndings of those determinations
have not changed.”
Nor has the coalition of Queens elected
offi cials who have risen up against the
Williams Pipeline. More than a dozen
signed on to a letter from Comptroller
Scott Stringer to federal regulators calling
for the fi nal rejection of the proposal.
“Simply put, the Williams Pipeline
has no place here. As a member of the
Rockaway community and as a member
of the NYS Assembly Corporation,
Authorities and Commissions Committee,
the re-emergence of this pipeline is unwelcome
and unwanted,” Assemblywoman
Stacey Pfeff er Amato said. “We’ve fought
this pipeline before, and we will continue
to fi ght as long as it’s necessary to preserve
our beautiful and irreplaceable beaches.”
Rockaway District Leader Lew Simon
said he was “fl abbergasted” that the company
was once again presenting the same
project that was denied last May.
“It is apparent that they have no clue
about the reality that fossil fuels are not
the future and in the next fi ve years will
be worthless, he said. It is a sentiment
echoed for former Councilman Costa
Constantinides, who added his signature
to the letter before leaving offi ce last week
for a position in the private sector.
“Every gallon or cubic meter of fossil
fuel burned pushes us that much closer
to climate catastrophe,” Constantinides
said. “Th ere is no future for humanity if
we keep building oil and gas infrastructure,
and the Williams Pipeline presents
an unacceptable risk to all New Yorkers.
Let’s put an end to this fracked gas nightmare
that goes against the city and state
climate policy and start investing in real
sustainable solutions for our city.”
QNS reached out to National Grid, the corporate
utility that is contracted to purchase
100 percent of the gas from the Williams
Pipeline, and is awaiting a response.
“It’s obvious Williams Transco is grabbing
for whatever is left as we see the
approaching end of fossil fuel dominance,”
Sane Energy Project Rockaway Outreach
Coordinator JK Canepa said. “We expect
FERC to deny them yet another chance to
irrevocably damage our waters and our
waterfront communities.”
Photo by Mike Segar/Reuters
Rockaway environmentalist groups and elected leaders have renewed their call for the feds to reject the Williams Pipeline project once and for all.
/WWW.QNS.COM
link
link
link
link
