FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM APRIL 22, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 27
MAYORAL
CANDIDATES
MUST PRIORITIZE
CLIMATE POLICY
I was excited to read of mayoral
candidate Eric Adams’ ambitious
plans to invest in wind
power and agree with his statement
that “New York City has
always been the hub for innovation,
new ideas and progressive
thinking.”
Our city needs mayoral candidates
who prioritize climate policy
and recognize the direct link
between renewable energy and
long-term economic recovery.
But we will not get far enough
with piecemeal solutions.
For real significant change to
happen both city and statewide,
we must push for the passage
of the Climate and Community
Investment Act, the companion
bill to the Climate Leadership
and Community Protection Act
passed in 2019. By imposing a
fine on polluters and investing
the $15 billion in revenues to
build up a green infrastructure,
this bill would allow us to meet
the ambitious goals set forth by
the CLCPA. We must transform
every sector of our economy —
nothing less is enough.
Now more than ever, we
should be taking bold steps to
replace and/or retrofit our aging
infrastructure.
As a resident of western
Queens, I’m acutely aware of the
many aging and high-polluting
power plants, known as “peaker
plants,” which contribute to
respiratory disease in my community.
It is shocking that these
pollution-spewing plants — slated
to be shut down years ago
— are still operating; and even
more disturbing that fossil fuel
groups have significantly upped
their lobbying in order to slow
landmark climate justice bills on
state lawmakers’ agendas.
The fossil fuel industry is
actively trying to obstruct climate
friendly policy, at just the
time we need to speed it up. The
polluters should not hold the
reigns of power. We need swift,
bold and transformative investment
in renewable energy, and
the CCIA, which would put a
fee on corporate pollution, is the
only realistic and long-lasting
way to achieve our climate goals.
Victoria Adler, Jackson Heights
CELEBRATE EARTH
DAY ALL YEAR LONG
Let us celebrate Earth Day,
not just on April 22, but all year
long.
Besides recycling newspapers,
magazines, glass, plastics, old
medicines, paints and cleaning
materials, there are other actions
you can take which will also
contribute to a cleaner environment,
such as leaving your car
at home — for local trips in the
neighborhood, you can walk or
ride a bike.
As more people receive
COVID-19 vaccines, for longer
travels, consider many public
transportation alternatives
already available. MTA, NYC
Transit subway, bus and Staten
Island Railway, MTA Bus (seven
former NYCDOT franchised
subsidized private bus operators
such as Queens Surface, Green
Bus, Triboro Coach and Jamaica
Bus), Long Island Rail Road,
Staten Island Ferry along with
other private transportation
owners offer various options,
such as local and express bus,
ferry, jitney, subway and commuter
rail services.
Most of these systems are
funded with your tax dollars.
They use less fuel and move far
more people than cars. In many
cases, your employer can offer
transit checks to help subsidize
a portion of the costs.
Utilize your investments and
reap the benefits. You’ll be supporting
a cleaner environment
and be less stressed upon arrival
at your final destination.
Many employers continue to
allow employees to telecommute
and work from home full or
part time. Others use alternative
work schedules, which afford
staff the ability to avoid rush
hour gridlock. This saves travel
time and can improve mileage
per gallon. You can also join
a carpool to share the costs of
commuting.
Use a hand-powered lawn
mower instead of a gasoline or
electric one. Rake your leaves
instead of using gasoline-powered
leaf blowers. The amount
of pollution created by gasolinepowered
lawn mowers or leaf
blowers will surprise you.
A cleaner environment starts
with everyone.
Larry Penner, Great Neck
oped letters & comments
With Public Power, Queens
will make generating half the
power in NYC a good thing
BY CHARLIE HELLER
Queens generates almost half the power in the city, and it’s
killing us, literally.
Th e latest research found that air pollution causes 3,000 preventable
deaths a year in New York City alone. Th e stretch
of fossil fuel plants known as “Asthma Alley” causes children
growing up in nearby Queens and South Bronx neighborhoods
to be hospitalized for the disease at rates as high as
fi ve times the national average, and is a huge reason that the
two boroughs have some of the worst COVID-19 death rates
in the city.
We deserve better. But for years, we were told we couldn’t
have it. Th at to keep the lights on in the city that never sleeps,
we had to toss a bit of our health and future into the fi re. But
with 21st-century renewable energy technology, that’s no longer
a choice we need to make. We can keep the lights on without
poisoning our air, lungs or futures.
So there’s no excuse not to.
Astorians have spent almost a year fi ghting against multinational
energy company NRG, who wants to build a fracked gas plant that
will ensure “Asthma Alley” retains its title for decades. Residents in
Brownsville and Newburgh face similar struggles against poisonous
fossil fuel infrastructure. But these are just symptoms of the deeper
disease that, like a virus hijacking the cells in our bodies, turns a
system that should support us, against us.
Greed. More specifi cally, the control of our energy system
by for-profi t, corporate monopolies like Con Ed and National
Grid, whose only goal is to squeeze as much money from New
Yorkers as they can.
Con Ed extorts New Yorkers with the second highest energy
bills in the country. Do we get the second best service? No,
we get crumbling infrastructure that makes what used to be
considered “once-in-a-generation” blackouts an annual event.
We get deadly fossil fuel pollution, especially in working class,
Black and brown neighborhoods. We get corporate lobbying
against the renewables that would save our health and planet.
And of course, we get union busting.
It’s time to take our power back. No more CEOs and Wall
Street investors deciding it’s more profi table to, as one union
said, “run till it breaks” than to repair crumbling infrastructure.
No more corporate boards deciding that ending childhood
asthma cuts too far into their bottom line.
We need Public Power, an energy system owned and run by
us. With two bills, the New York Build Public Renewables Act,
and the New York Utility Democracy Act, we can replace corporate
control of the energy system with public ownership, and
democratic accountability. A system that prioritizes our wellbeing,
because it’s controlled by our vote.
New York’s economy is the 10th largest in the world. Imagine
what we could do if the energy system powering it was designed
to benefi t regular New Yorkers, instead of the wealthy few. With
Public Power, we can do far more than end Con Ed’s exorbitant
bills and toxic pollution. We can make the energy system the
engine to rebuild New York.
Transforming our infrastructure by investing in a 21st-century
electrical grid that keeps the lights on, no matter the weather,
and no matter your ZIP code. Tearing down the fossil fuel
plants and pipelines that poison our air and lungs. Building
a 100 percent renewable energy system as fast as science
demands. And funding a surge of permanent union jobs to do
it — not dozens of them, but tens of thousands.
One in seven Americans already get their power from a public
utility, which is cheaper and more renewable than the forprofi
ts. With Public Power, New York can make this already
successful model the foundation of a 21st-century energy system
and economy. So tell your rep to make it happen, at www.
publicpowertoday.com. Because with Public Power, Queens
will make generating half the power in the city a good thing.
Charlie Heller is a volunteer member of the Public Power NY
Coalition.
FLOWERS ON FOREST PARK DRIVE//
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