FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 • THE QUEENS COURIER 9
to protest proposed NRG power plant upgrade
whatever investments are
necessary to fully decarbonize
our economy and
transition to 100 percent
renewable energy,”
Gianaris and Ramos were among the
speakers who spoke about the importance
of green energy.
“Whether people know it or not, anyone
that supports fossil fuel production
today is a climate change denier,” said
Gianaris. “All you have to do is turn on
your television, look what’s happening in
California, for God’s sake. Th e skies are
orange, the entire west coast of the country
is burning, and that is because we have
not moved fast enough to get off of fossil
fuels and onto renewable energy.”
Th e march comes months aft er the
public power coalition held a town hall
in which Gianaris, Astoria Councilman
Costa Constantinides and Assemblymen
Ron Kim and Brian Barnwell expressed
their support of bills that would enact a
public power utility.
Ramos said
NRG has
“no business
being
in our district.”
“I cannot
believe
that they
are allowing
this to somehow
continue
knowing how
bad of an actor
NRG is,” she
said. “We have to
organize, organize,
organize.”
In response to the march, NRG
Spokersperson Dave Schrader said they
are looking to replace the existing power
plant.
“Queens residents can’t wait for solutions
that are 10 years away – they need
cleaner air as soon as possible. Th at’s
why NRG expects to achieve net-zero
emissions by 2050, in line with New
York’s nation-leading climate goals,”
said Schrader. “Th e project will replace
50-year-old turbines with state-of-the-art
technology, which will reduce on-site air
emissions by up to 99 percent per hour
— meaning cleaner air, lower emissions
and reliable power when New Yorkers
need it most.”
He added that there is “no combination
of renewable energy that exists today to
meet the growing energy needs of New
York City,” and that if the project doesn’t
go through, they risk “California-style
rolling blackouts, which Queens and New
York City simply cannot aff ord.”
NYC-DSA Ecosocialist Organizer
Sarah Lyons said the time for public
power is now.
“NRG has spent decades poisoning
Astoria with fossil fuel emissions, and
now that environmental laws have forced
them to shut down their old plant, they’re
trying to replace it not with the renewables
we need, but a fracked gas peaker
that would make them more money,”
said Lyons. “It’s planetary suicide to build
more fossil fuel infrastructure. It’s time to
take our energy system out of the hands
of corporations whose best off er is to poison
us a little more slowly,
and create a public
power system that puts
people and planet over
profi t.”
/WWW.QNS.COM
