Astoria Peaker Plant 'Should Not Go Forward,' Says Mayor

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Mayor Bill de Blasio joined climate activists and a growing list of local politicians on Monday saying that he opposes the peaker power plant in Astoria, as a part of his push to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.

The Mayor's announcement came during an Earth Week segment of his daily press briefing comes as NRG, one of the largest fossil fuel companies in the country, seeks state approval to replace the 50-year-old turbine at their fossil fueled peaker plant in Astoria — which prevents blackouts during times of high electricity demand, like when AC use increases during the summer — with a new natural gas-fired generator.

“These are plants that would be run on fracked gas,” said Mayor de Blasio in his stand against the peaker plants in Gowanus and Astoria. “They are plants that would unfortunately place us in that past of fossil fuel dependency, and hold us back. They should not be allowed to go forward,” he said.

NRG says their proposed update would significantly reduce gas emissions, but opponents — now including the Mayor — argue that the plant should be powered by renewable energy sources.

“The city has made major investments in renewables, there’s many more investments being made in power reliability, we don’t need these peaker plants, certainly not with fossil fuels as their fuels,” said Mayor de Blasio, adding “those plants should go nowhere, let’s start really devoting ourselves to renewables.”

Many other opponents believe that NRG’s proposal will maintain the city's dependence on fossil fuels.

In March, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and eight members of New York’s congressional delegation, including Grace Meng of Queens, wrote a letter to the Governor outlining their opposition to the replacement project in Astoria, and asking him to invest in green infrastructure instead of gas-power at the power plant.

“Gas-powered energy and the process of extraction is not clean energy as some have touted,” they wrote, adding that in addition to setting the city back in their fight against climate change “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.”

Today the Mayor also stated that this issue is about “climate justice,” not just fighting climate change, since burning fossil fuels disproportionately affects lower income communities.

Almost all of the peaker plants operating in New York City are located in historically low-income communities and communities of color, reported Gothamist.

"We've seen a clear line drawn between our continued reliance on peaker plants and the devastation COVID-19 has brought to over-polluted communities," former New York City Council Member Costa Constantides told Gothamist, pointing out that higher than average asthma rates among residents who live in the vicinity of these plants, many of whom are Black and brown, impacts health outcomes, including susceptibility to COVID-19.

Constantinides, who up until recently chaired the councils’ Committee on Environmental Protection and represented Astoria’s 22nd city council district, has been a staunch advocate against the peaker plant, and spent his last day in office alongside other advocacy groups and local politicians who oppose the project.

State Assembly Member Zohran K. Mamdani, who represents the 36th district of Astoria and Long Island City, has also advocated against the project, and told Patch in a written statement that he is “so excited that today, Mayor DeBlasio joins our neighbors in calling for a stop to these fracked gas plants. We deserve clean air, plentiful jobs, and a promise for a greener future — and these dirty energy plants don’t provide that.”