Opinion: Astoria stands united against NRG and fracked gas
/
A large number of elected officials have come out against NRG’s plan to create a new peaker plant in Astoria.
Photo via Sen. Gianaris’ office
By Laura Shindell
When I moved to Ditmars, Astoria, it didn’t take long for it to feel like home. I’ve lived in four different neighborhoods across multiple boroughs in New York City, and it wasn’t until Astoria that I felt surrounded by a real community.
And we act like it too — you bump into people you know on the street. You get to know the local businesses and energy of the people around you. And Astorians come together to support each other when times are tough.
For over a year, amidst the enduring pandemic, Astorians have been showing our stripes, coming together to fight a proposal to build yet another fossil fuel power plant right in our neighborhood.
Astoria’s power plants are a well-documented problem. Our neighborhood is known as “asthma alley”. With elevated asthma rates and hospitalizations, Astoria residents suffer from disproportionate exposure to toxins that spew from the fossil fuel power plants that make up our skyline.
And it’s not just the pollution — these plants are dangerous too.
Back in 2018, the ConEd facility in Astoria caught on fire, lighting the city’s sky up with bright blue light. It was a stark reminder of the massive industrial behemoths we live next to every day.
This makes Houston-based energy company NRG’s proposal to build a new fracked gas power plant at the ConEd facility (yes, the one that caught fire) even more ludicrous.
To propose building a polluting plant in spite of the known health impacts it would have on the community is an insult. This malicious out-of-state profiteering effort has enraged residents. And the recent United Nations IPCC report, which signals a “code red” for humanity and highlights the critical need to move off fossil fuels, has only galvanized our movement.
For over a year, the No Astoria NRG Plant Coalition has brought neighbors together to fight this project.
Under former Governor Cuomo’s administration, our calls to prioritize public health and emissions reductions were met by silence. But with our new governor, we are hopeful for what new leadership can bring.
Last week, hundreds of people showed up to a series of four public hearings to give testimony and submit comments against the project. Throughout the enduring pandemic, thousands of Queens residents have mobilized to oppose the foolish NRG fracked gas power plant proposal. And we’ve been joined by government leaders opposing the plant every step of the way, from presumptive City Councilmember-Elect Tiffany Caban all the way to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Now it’s time for Governor Hochul to act.
As our new governor begins her administration, she’s often claiming her difference and distinction from her disgraced predecessor. In jumpstarting her own legacy, she need look no further than Astoria.
There are less than two months remaining for Gov. Hochul to stop this plant. Astoria and the members of the movement we are building against fracked gas will be watching. Despite NRG’s hundreds of thousands of lobbying dollars spent on its effort, the outcry against building more dirty energy plants in our neighborhood is overwhelming. Once again, Astoria has come together when times are tough.
And for that reason, I’m so proud to live in Astoria.
Despite the threat of a new power plant just 300 feet from my home — less than one block away — I am excited to be a part of a people-powered movement that is taking on the monstrous fracked gas industry.
I have faith that Governor Kathy Hochul will see the massive political pressure against NRG – and the massive health threat to Astoria – and direct her Department of Environmental Conservation to deny the permits for this hated, dirty, immoral fracked gas power plant.
I don’t have to worry about the added pollution in my neighborhood, because I know we will win.
Laura Shindell is an Astoria-based Senior New York Organizer with Food & Water Watch.
