Friday, May 25, 2012

All on board for new power plant


From DNA Info:

Residents and officials usually oppose bids by power plants in this Queens neighborhood, which they say has suffered from pollution and high asthma rates for years.

But this time they have thrown their support behind NRG's move to replace its generators to cut peak emissions by 98 percent.

Smart Power NY, a coalition of elected officials and community leaders, formed in April to promote the NRG's bid for a deal to sell power to the grid, which is necessary to obtain financing for the $1.5 billion project.

The group is trying to garner as much support from state and federal officials as possible ahead of May 30 deadline, organizers said at a meeting in Astoria Wednesday night.

The Princeton, N.J.-based company wants to replace 31 decades-old generators, which are currently using primarily oil, with four new units, which would use mostly natural gas.

The switch would allow the company to increase energy production from 600 Megawatts to 1040 Megawatts, increasing generation efficiency by 56 percent while reducing on-site peak day emissions by 98 percent, according to NRG.

Company officials also said the project would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 million tons each year, the equivalent of removing 185,000 cars from New York City’s streets.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

air conditioning in our homes in 95 degrees heat is a plus.

Anonymous said...

Makes sense. Nat gas is much cleaner and cheaper - this should have been accomplished long ago. Lets frack folks!

Anonymous said...

I would have preferred a nuke, but I will take natural gas.

Anonymous said...

Somehow, a replacement seems a lot less threatening than a whole new installation: of course people aren't wigging out. Of course, let's not forget the fracking issue - if the water supply does end up poisened, the cost of power will be a non-issue compared to the cost of water!

Astoria Asthma Alley said...

I have no idea what they mean when the slip in that 'little' modifier of 'peak'

A power plant is a power plant and this concentration in our back yards should be spread around the city - but considering the leadership of that part of Queens that will not happen.

Anonymous said...

Is this the site of "Big Allis?"

Ed Unneland

Anonymous said...

Just because comment boxers repeat "fracking pollutes water" doesn't make it true. When these claims are tested in courts, it can't be shown to be true:

The Environmental Protection Agency has dropped its claim that an energy company contaminated drinking water in Texas, the third time in recent months that the agency has backtracked on high-profile local allegations linking natural-gas drilling and water pollution.

On Friday, the agency told a federal judge it withdrew an administrative order that alleged Range Resources Corp. had polluted water wells in a rural Texas county west of Fort Worth. Under an agreement filed in U.S. court in Dallas, the EPA will also drop the lawsuit it filed in January 2011 against Range, and Range will end its appeal of the administrative order. (WSJ 4/1/12)

Anonymous said...

You would have "preferred a nuke"?

So would the terrorists you damn fool!

Well,
you appear to be spouting plenty
of natural gas, yourself!

Anonymous said...

Frack you MF!

WATER HAS ALREADY BEEN POLLUTED IN PENNSYLVANIA!

You go and drink it.

Or maybe your 90 proof brain has already been too pickled to think straight.

Anonymous said...

the fields and mountain ranges of Pa. have always naturally been filled with natural resources. i spent my teen years in western pa.

in the 1940's ,the steel mills ran 24/7. the coal mines were producing an abundance of the energy source to feed the blast furnaces.

this is what helped to save the world and win the wars against the Nazi SOCIALISTS and Japanese Empire.

if you have scientific evidence and professional expertise of fracking causing water pollution ,present it now ?

Greenie scare tactics are not working anymore.....

Anonymous said...

I've got it!

Let's build a coal-fired plant in N.E. Queens so Gramps and others of similar mindset can enjoy the nostalgic sensations of soot on their lawns and grit in their eyes.

Just like NYC when I was a child in the 1960's.

Anonymous said...

soot exists everywhere. GREEN words will not remove it ?
stop telling lies and using scare tactics to prevent common sense energy sources that consumers are able to afford.

by John Hinderaker,ny post...".President Obama said that his policies would cause the cost of electricity to skyrocket. Well IT HAS, but not only because of Obama.
A Manhattan Inst. study of the cost of renewable-energy mandates notes that , in most states regulators have required utilities to obtain some power from re-newables : wind, solar, etc.
Those sources aren't nearly as efficient as coal and natural gas and cost far more per kilowatt - hour. So the cost is passed on to rate-payers, who have no idea that they are paying extra to subsidize "GREEN " fantasies. (powerlineblog.com)

"WHUPPED O : I LIKE COAL !" by S.A.Miller, nypost/5/12/12, Washington

President Obama has suddenly added support for " CLEAN COAL" to his campaign website--days after West Virginia voters protested his coal policies by giving a PRISONER 43 % OF THEIR VOTES in the state's Democratic primary.
The backing for Keith Judd was viewed as a rebuke to Obama policies that stifle coal production

Anonymous said...

" Clean coal"

"Intelligent republican"

Oxymoron.

With the possible, and not always practical carbon capture and sequestration technique, coal is a filthy energy source that even the Chinese are moving away from -in part by cornering the world market on wind and solar technologies. Things that fossils don't believe in.

At 55 I remember what this City was like back in the days of coal chutes and incinerators.

The turning point came in summer 1966 what a thermal inversion trapped an unusually large amount of effluent in lower atmosphere and over 200 New Yorkers died due to respiratory failure brought on by pollution.

In the years that followed environmental regulations (that were still fought tooth and nail) banned or required incinerators to install scrubber pumps, phased out coal, and Federal standards signed by none other than Richard Nixon mandated automobile emission standards.

NO sensible person would sanction going back to the bad old day -only a few ignorant, biased geezers. Nature will take care of that, just as it clears our air when we stop polluting it.

Joe said...

I remember this.. my grandfather was a fireman at 104 Brooklyn who had almost died from like lung damage (acid steam) fighting the USS Constellations fire. The fire was so hot the flight deck was melting
Retired from doing calls he was made chief and was part of this investigation.
In 1966 a strange thick fog developed and absorbed sulfur dioxide and pollutants from industrial furnaces and oil refining over in New Jersey. This fog became a deadly sulfuric acid fog that burned peoples throats and lungs.

Anonymous said...

#13..DID you inadvertently omit any comment about NATURAL GAS ?

Boone Pickens is investing many billions of his fortune in producing NATURAL GAS .

would you dare tell the readers about the NEW and IMPROVED techniques being used for energy retrieval presently ?

China is one of the largest importers of U.S. coal presently. it is reported that they can beat the world solar energy prices by using cheap coal energy ? why is there no GREEN protesting in China ?

HOPE& CHANGE equals $1.80 gasolinei/gal. in 2008 for $4.20 gasoline/gal in 2012.

Joe said...

Renewable s like wind, solar are efficient in turning the energy the receive into electricity.
Its piggish spoiled brat people, appliances and lighting that are the problem.
Plasma TVs, ACs, Incandescent lighting and millions of incandescent sodium street lights are the biggest energy wasters on the grid.

They should all be done away with and replaced with LED modules. They have been perfected for true soft white and daylight now. A 7 watt LED module can have the light output of a 100 watt bulb and last 100,000 hours.
AC's should be made to connect to hot water heaters instead of throwing all that heat energy into the air
In Southold I have the the POOL water cooling the ACs condenser heat. I get 26,000 BTUs with only 5 amps PLUS the same BTUs heating the pool water. I did it myself with a pump and some irrigation hose for under $200 with a window air conditioner I had
I could power all my needs with a 200 Watt 12 volt panel and a deep cycle boat battery

Anonymous said...

Oh there goes Gramp's selective memory again:

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/05/average-us-retail-gasoline-prices/

Forgotten that nice spike in July 08. And don't forget those record profits for the oil companies.

They deflect the blame onto "world events" but their bottom line sets records.

Joe: NYC is expanding it's use of LED's

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/pr2012/pr12_19.shtml

See Gramps? Progress and conservation move on. You can sit in your little box with your 100 watt bulbs and tube TV dreaming of the glory days of coal. Bye.

Anonymous said...

you still forgot to discuss NATURAL GAS. too inconvenient to spin your text ?

Anonymous said...

we live in a capitalist nation. profits lead to success and the good life .

failures become progressives and liberals and socialists ,until the tax money they steal runs dry.

Post a Comment