20 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 20, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Astoria elected offi cials join climate activists in demanding
Albany pass the New York State Build Public Renewables Act
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Elected offi cials and a coalition of
climate activists rallied outside Con
Edison’s complex, which stores NRG’s
fracked-gas peaker plant where they’re
proposing an upgrade to the existing
turbines, to demand that the New York
state Legislature pass the New York State
Build Public Renewables Act, in Astoria
on May 17.
If passed, the legislation would require
the New York Power Authority (NYPA),
the nation’s largest public energy provider,
to lead a mass buildout of 100 percent
renewable energy powering at least 75 percent
of the state and create tens of thousands
of green union jobs in the process,
according to advocates.
Th e measure would require NYPA to
fully decarbonize its existing energy infrastructure
and decommission its fossil fuel
plants by 2025 while rapidly increasing
the state’s renewable energy generation,
according to advocates.
Additionally, the publicly owned and
operated energy supplier, which currently
provides up to 25 percent of New York
state’s electricity, would have to ensure that
all publicly owned buildings run on 100
percent clean power by 2025.
Elected offi cials and the Public Power
Coalition, which is led by the Democratic
Socialists of America and local environmental
justice organizations, say that given
the rapid deterioration of the climate, time
is of the essence. Th ey are urging the state
Legislature to pass the bill by the end of
this session in June.
Astoria resident and community organizer
Elizabeth Oh pointed out that power
plants in New York State emit 27 million
metric tons of greenhouse gases a year
— 6.4 million tons in Queens alone —
impacting New Yorkers’ health and contributing
to global warming.
“Th e New York State Build Public
Renewables Act will allow New York state
to build wind and solar, which we currently
can’t because it literally is illegal,
and service low-income communities at
a locked-in utility price,” Oh said. “So, it
doesn’t cost taxpayers anything. It’s revenue
neutral and will generate 51,000 new
union jobs.”
City Council candidate Tiff any Cabán
called for 100 percent renewable energy
and the complete divestment from fossil
fuels, an major point in her campaign for
District 22. She said that environmental
justice is also racial justice because environmental
pollution disproportionately
aff ects Black and brown communities.
Cabán, a public defender who narrowly
lost the race for Queens district attorney
in 2019, underlined that the bill is also an
economic recovery plan.
“We are experiencing the worst economic
crisis since the Great Recession. So
this is also a ‘New Deal’ moment, and the
New Deal started right here in New York.
And we can create thousands of good
union jobs right here in our city by passing
A coalition of climate activists and elected offi cials demand the passage of the New York State Build Public Renewables Act at a rally in Astoria.
this legislation,” Cabán said.
Democratic District Leader Zachariah
Boyer called out Democrats who are stalling
the bill in the Assembly and said
that New York could not aff ord to leave
thousands of union jobs on the table.
Th e bill is currently in the Energy and
Telecommunications committee.
Boyer, who lives two blocks away from
the power plant, shared that he has been
suff ering from asthma-like symptoms
aft er moving to Astoria.
“My doctors are walking me through
fi guring out what’s wrong with my breathing.
It’s going to be asthma. We all kind of
know it. We live in ‘Asthma Alley’ right
over here,” Boyer said. “Every time I get up
in the morning and I see the plant, I know,
and I believe we can do better.”
Last year, the national energy company
NRG announced that it intends to upgrade
the 50-year-old turbine at the Astoria
plant, which it shares with Con Edison
and the New York Power Authority, with
new natural gas-fi red power, claiming that
the addition of new technology would
provide “immediate clean air benefi ts.”
However, residents, elected offi cials,
and climate activists say the proposed
437 megawatt power plant would prolong
“Asthma Alley” in Queens and the Bronx,
degrading air quality even further.
Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani
said that electricity is a public good —
something people need to survive in
today’s world — and that utility companies
should be publicly owned and controlled.
“And yet we have people being priced
out of their basic human rights,” Mamdani
said. “We have people whose dignity is
being left aside so that we can prioritize
CEOs’ profi ts. And what this bill would do
is start the battle legislatively for the future
that we all deserve and for the future that
we are here today to demand.”
Addressing those who claim that the bill
can’t possibly create new jobs and simultaneously
address the climate emergency,
Mamdani emphasized that the it would
make the air cleaner in pollution-burdened
western Queens.
“Th is legislation would combat the climate
crisis. Th is legislation would protect
working-class people’s bank balances. And
this legislation would create more jobs for
those very same people, prioritizing people
who will be laid off as this climate crisis
accelerates and as the fossil fuel companies
begin to shut down.”
Assembly member Emily Gallagher, who
is fi ghting the north Brooklyn fracked-gas
pipeline and an LNG plant in her district,
stood in solidarity with Queens residents.
“So not only am I here because I share
your air and I share your water, and I share
the same public health concerns, I’m also
here because we are having the same fi ght
about the future in my district that you all
are having here,” Gallagher said. “And I think
this is really important because they want us
to think that this is the only way, and they
are unimaginative, and they don’t put any
real eff ort into shift ing away from fossil fuel.”
Assemblyman Robert Carroll, also from
Brooklyn, said that passing the bill is
instrumental to making sure that New
York meets the goals of the Climate
Leadership and Community Protection
Act (CLCPA). CLCPA, a landmark climate
legislation, went into eff ect in January
2020, and calls for net-zero emissions by
2050 and 100 percent renewable electricity
by 2040 remain loud.
Carroll pointed out that 30 natural gas
power plants keep being proposed in New
York, even though the state is supposed
to reduce emissions by 80 percent in the
next 19 years.
“Th at doesn’t make sense,” Carroll said.
“Because no shareholder would be investing
billions of dollars in pipelines and
plants if they thought that technology was
Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
going to become obsolete in less than 20
years. So the only way that we’re going to
meet the goals of the CLCPA is to put the
power of the people and the power of the
state of New York behind those goals and
actually create public renewable power.”
State Senator Jessica Ramos emphasized
that the CLCPA should not turn into an
unfunded mandate.
“We need a serious commitment. Money
behind the legislation that allows us to
build the renewable energy, the renewable
future we deserve,” Ramos said.
Ramos and Mamdani recently introduced
a bill, the Clean Futures Act, to ban
all new fracked-gas power plants from
being built in New York. It is currently
in the Energy and Telecommunications
Committee.
When QNS asked NRG Vice President
Tom Atkins about the bill, he said it’s
“short sighted.”
“Especially given what’s recently happened
in Texas and California last summer,”
Atkins said, “to think that you can
just put a moratorium on all new natural
gas electric generation is a recipe for disaster
for New York.”
State Senator Michael Gianaris said that
he was proud of the CLPCA, but residents
should be concerned about words without
deeds behind them, especially when the
government is involved — referring to the
Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling in 2006.
“And what happened? Government
ignored it for 15 years until we fi nally got
it done this year,” Gianaris said. “We cannot
wait 15 years to make sure that we’re
moving toward compliance with CLCPA.
When a community makes it clear it has
to be done, that’s when elected representatives
respond. We are here responding
today. We’re going to take that message
to Albany and make sure everybody
else hears it.”
Additional reporting by Angélica Acevedo.
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