Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and eight of her fellow New York City congressional Democrats on Tuesday threw their weight behind calls for Gov. Cuomo’s administration to slam the brakes on a plan to develop what they blasted as a “dangerous” gas-fired power plant in Queens.
The proposed Astoria waterfront project, which would replace a 50-year-old oil-burning turbine with a natural gas plant, isn’t good enough as it still “maintains our reliance on fossil fuel power,” Ocasio-Cortez and her colleagues wrote in a letter to Cuomo and the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
The House Dems charged that fracking, the technique by which natural gas is extracted from the ground, produces methane leaks that make it “as dangerous as coal” in terms of greenhouse emissions that contribute to climate change.
“Frontline and diverse communities, like the ones we represent, stand to be disproportionately exposed,” reads the letter, whose other signees were Reps. Jerry Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, Nydia Velazquez, Jamaal Bowman, Mondaire Jones, Grace Meng, Yvette Clarke and Adriano Espaillat. “A gas-fired power plant would further degrade air quality in neighborhoods already ridden with toxic fossil fuel power plants and elevated levels of asthma.”
NRG Energy, a major utility supplier headquartered in Texas and New Jersey, owns the oil-burning turbine that’s currently in Astoria and unveiled its proposal last year to replace it with a natural gas plant.
The proposal is currently under review by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
NRG says its proposed natural gas plant would mainly operate as a backup to green energy generators.
“It doesn’t operate unless there’s for some reason not enough wind and solar,” said Tom Atkins, NRG’s vice president of business development. “You need projects like this to keep the lights on.”
The company says it aims to eventually transition the plant to hydrogen power to comply with New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, which mandates that the state gets 100% of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040. Hydrogen is not yet a commercially available energy source, however.
In the meantime, Atkins said using natural gas instead of oil is better from an environmental perspective.
“It actually ends up lowering greenhouse gas emissions contrary to what the congressional delegation says,” he said.
Still, the Astoria proposal has been met with intense backlash from local activists, who, like Ocasio-Cortez, say the oil plant should be immediately replaced with 100% green energy turbines, not phased out over time as suggested by NRG.
Laura Shindell, a local resident who leads the “No Astoria NRG Plant Coalition,” praised the House Democrats for getting involved.
“New York must move off dirty fossil fuels,” Shindell said. “We’re proud to stand with legislators in calling for the end to fracked gas plants and their dangerous expansion aims.”
Cuomo’s office did not return a request for comment Tuesday.
Erica Ringewal, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Conservation, said her agency’s review of the NRG proposal will be “stringent.”
“Prior to any final decision on this facility, DEC is undertaking a full environmental review to ensure protection of public health and the environment,” Ringewal said. “This review will include an assessment of the project’s consistency with the State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.”
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How do the Democrats plan on getting the massive amounts of hydrogen needed to run a power plant??
Thanks to AOC and Cuomo’s mismanagement of New York government, people are moving out of the state by the hundreds of thousands, so the need for energy will soon be a lot less and the emissions from burning of fossil fuels in New York may soon become less than the emissions from their burning BLM neighborhoods. This is what you get when fossil brains like Biden, Cuomo, and AOC, who wear Beanie Copters atop their heads to power their thimble sized brains, try to solve difficult issues like fossil fuels, clean air and honest open government.
Five 6 weeks ago I paid $1.69 a gallon for gas,,,today its up a dollar per gallon,,,,,which will go to Russian Oligarchs, Iranian Mullahs, and Middle east sheiks to build wealth overseas instead of here in America and New York. How much is the Biden crime family along with Obama’s Kerry;s and Clintons getting kicked back to they whose 10,000 sq ft homes have to be energized?
Perhaps they plan on NOT HAVING anyone with power….
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, go live in a cave, with the rest of the Democrats. That way you clowns will not produce so much “global warming” carbon. Of course, you clown Democrats breath, just like cows do (Bill Gates wants to eliminate cows, because they cause global warming), so maybe when you Democrats are in caves, we should seal the caves, after all Ocasio Cortez, according to Bill Gates, if you breath, you are causing “global warming”.
IF i was a power company IN NY,i’d just shut down ALL SUPPLY TO EVERY town/city where these nitwits live…
You have to hand it to AOC — she knows more ways to destroy her constituency than you would ever think possible. First she chased the job-creating Amazon facility out of New York; now she wants to take down the electric-producing capacity of the place while doubling or tripling energy prices. And yet the people she’s doing out of jobs and turning the lights out on just reelected her and will probably do it again.
AND Yet it seems the morons STILL LOVE her..
I’d bet the farm she really didn’t win… they just cranked up the ole’ dominion fraud counting machine.
WIth the sheer stupidity of the voters in NY< i am not sure they even NEEDED fraud, to help her win.
Just more stupid thinking – no common sense.
She went through the public school system… they don’t teach that there…. if you openly apply common sense you get detention… and are called a racist.
I think the people of New York City should call for the immediate shut down of the current Oil Fired Generation Plant and not allow the Natural Gas Powered Generation Plant to be built in its place. If the Liberal Citizens of New York City do not want any carbon based fuels to be used to keep their lights and HVAC systems operating then give it to them. When the lights go off and the HVAC shuts down then the ENLIGHTENED PEOPLE OF NEW YORK CITY WILL FREEZE TO DEATH IN THEIR DARK APARTMENTS.
AND If they don’t, the owners OF THOSE power plants, should do it FOR THEM.
she should shut her pie hole, in my opinion a o c is creating more carbon than my car.
Here’s hoping they succeed with their project – we can all use a hearty laugh when these morons get stuck in their elevators while learning the windmills and solar panels can’t pull their weight during a hot summer or cold winter – hahaha…Go Fer It!!
Third world politicians who weaseled their way into American leadership want us to live under third world conditions.
Please first discontinue service of all energy sources except solar and wind energy to these officials for a year on a trial basis first. Then proceed with a larger project of limited energy sources on the general population but only for those that are in agreement with the new programs.