Opinion: Vote yes on green energy for Western Queens
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Costa Constantinides is the CEO of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens and a former City Councilmember for District 22, representing Astoria, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside. He was chair of the council’s Environmental Protection Committee. Eagle file photo by Jonathan Sperling
By Costa Constantinides
New York City is about a week away from Earth Day but today, Thursday, April 14th, is actually Earth Day here in New York State.
The Public Service Commission will decide today whether or not to move forward with two critical pieces of the renewable energy puzzle that would help move our city from an 85 percent reliance on fossil fuels to a renewable energy future before 2030. This agency isn’t the most well-known but it has the power to undo the governor and NYSERDA’s plan to bring renewable energy to NYS residents.
Here in Queens, the ramifications of this vote will reverberate for years to come.
Western Queens is home to close to potentially 55 percent of New York City’s energy production on any given day. On the hottest days in July and August, when everyone has their air conditioners running, the plants here in Queens are running overtime.
On high-energy use days, the city turns to “peaker” plants. These peaker plants, running only during peak demand, are the most polluting entities and spew toxins into the air that cause asthma.
It is no secret why Queens zip codes 11101, 11102, 11106 have higher than borough average asthma rates, according to the Queens Asthma Project. The cost of running all this fossil fuel-based infrastructure in our backyard manifests in our lungs.
We are literally getting sicker particularly closer to the plants where residents of Queensbridge, Ravenswood and Astoria Houses bear the highest burdens. Yet, the state has yet to recognize these costs as part of the equation when evaluating project costs.
When we look at the two projects, selected by NYSERDA and Governor Kathy Hochul, to bring us clean renewable energy, I have heard some opposition about cost. But let’s dissect that argument.
What costs are we really evaluating? What dollars and cents are we making the argument about when we say a renewable future is too expensive? Is it the rates consumers are already paying? We have seen our energy bills on a yo-yo string going up and down over the last few months due partly to reliance on gas and oil markets that have fluctuated. No real savings when it comes to fossil fuels there. It seems like we are already paying too much for the status quo.
The costs we haven’t truly dealt with are the social costs of placing power production in environmental justice neighborhoods and poisoning the air. I would hope that now finally we are ready to address these real costs to families here in Western Queens. Generations of families holding asthma pumps and going to the hospital for respiratory illness. The way we begin to address these wrongs is to transform our energy sector from Asthma Alley to Renewable Row.
We cannot say we are committed to making right these decades of environmental injustice without a plan to move away from polluting infrastructure.
The Champlain Hudson Power Express and Clean Path represent a move toward the green future we deserve here in Queens. With about 2500 megawatts worth of power, about a quarter of our energy would go green in just a few years. When we add Equinor wind, battery storage, and Renewable Rikers to the equation, we reach our bold emissions goals and just as importantly reduce our reliance on polluting power plants.
So today, when the commissioners vote far away from New York City, I ask them to look at the total cost of doing nothing. The cost of allowing the status quo is a continuation of polluting our community here in Western Queens. The cost of voting no is a vote for increased medical bills and hardship for residents that deserve better.
I urge the Public Service Commissioners to vote yes today to bring our community toward a brighter and greener future. If you vote no, the cost is way too great for us to bear and you owe this community an explanation. Hiding in Albany behind your bureaucracy is not going to cut it.
Costa Constantinides is the CEO of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens and a former City Councilmember for District 22, representing Astoria, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Woodside. He was chair of the council’s Environmental Protection Committee.
