FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 2, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 17
Queens congresswomen speak out against peaker
plants during hearing on environmental justice
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Th e progressive war against peaker
power plants in western Queens
— long known as “Asthma Alley” —
got some additional fi repower when
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney
held a community roundtable discussion
during a House Oversight and
Reform Committee session in Astoria
on Th ursday, Aug. 26.
Th e special session began with a press
briefi ng 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. Th e 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
“chiefl y 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 fi nally
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,
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.
Th e 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 stateof
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 signifi
cant reductions in greenhouse gas
emissions and supports the expansion
of renewable energy resources throughout
the state.”
“Th e 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
fi rst fi ve 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.
On Tuesday, Aug. 24, the DEC held
the first of four public hearings on
the proposal with more than
100 concerned New Yorkers
voicing their opposition.
“In 2019, climate advocates
across the state
demanded that the
legislature pass the
Climate Leadership
and Community
Protection Act.
This bold and
aggressive climate
law mandates
that 70 percent
of our electricity
must come
from renewable
sources by 2030,
and that we withdraw
from fossil
fuels completely by
2050,” Elaine O’Brien,
core group member
of Queens Climate
Project, said following
the hearing. “How
do we expect to achieve
these ambitious goals
by building yet another
dirty fracked gas power
plant in 2021? Governor
Hochul and the DEC
need to act on behalf of
New Yorkers, not greedy
fossil fuel corporations
like NRG.”
Photo courtesy of House Oversight
Committee
Congresswoman
Carolyn Maloney
speaks out against
peaker plants
during a
hearing in
Queensbridge
Houses.
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