Members of the Public Service Commission:
Thank you for taking the time to hold these hearings on National Grid’s proposal to build new liquified natural gas vaporizers at their North Brooklyn facility.
As Brooklyn Borough President, this issue is important to me not only because I care deeply about advancing climate resiliency and environmental justice in the borough, but also because this site is located in the district I represented as Council Member for eight years. This community is my home, and I’m here today on behalf of my neighbors in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, and especially my neighbors here at Cooper Park Houses, to ask you to deny this application.
The CLCPA sets ambitious targets for transitioning away from gas and electrifying New York’s building stock. Given that context, it makes no sense to allocate public dollars to support fossil fuel infrastructure that will be outdated before it is even completed, and likely only used between two days and two weeks per year. We should instead be focusing spending on supporting an equitable transition away from fossil fuels completely and using new, green technologies to meet our energy needs. That this proposal calls for a rate hike when our working families are already struggling to keep up with increased energy costs is absolutely unacceptable.
The PSC should support the Climate Justice Working Group’s recommendation in the CLCPA draft scoping plan that no new fossil fuel infrastructure permits be approved, especially not in designated disadvantaged communities like this one. The community surrounding Newtown Creek, a Federally designated Superfund site, has suffered from environmental racism since its founding. The toxic legacy of our industrial waterfront includes one of the largest oil spills in US history, yet another Superfund site of chlorinated solvent plumes, the over-concentration of truckdependent facilities such as waste transfer stations, and air polluting facilities such as National Grid’s. Our community and especially our public housing residents have experienced the associated health impacts for too long, and now we’re saying no more.
Thank you again for holding these hearings. I hope you’ll take what you hear yesterday and today extremely seriously. We need your help and support to uphold the principles of the CLCPA and ensure a green future for our communities.