Green life sentence

 

 THE CITY

The Adams administration is adamant it’s not on track to close Rikers Island jails by a legally mandated 2027 deadline — but meanwhile it’s detailing how to turn the island into a hub for renewable energy and greener public works.

On Monday, the same day Mayor Eric Adams’ budget director, Jacques Jiha, declared to the City Council that “We know it’s not going to happen by 2027,” two city entities delivered reports ordered up by the Council declaring it feasible to build a new wastewater treatment plant on the island, along with solar, battery storage and new equipment to feed offshore wind power into the electric grid.

The reports came as a result of the Renewable Rikers Act, signed into law by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, which seeks to reinvent Rikers as a hub for renewable energy.

But for the city to realize the multi-billion-dollar green vision for Rikers Island, the jail complex on Rikers Island must shutter. That rests on the completion of four borough-based jails, at a cost that Jiha testified has now reached $12 billion. 

Another impediment to closing: the current Rikers population of more than 6,200 is significantly higher than the planned 4,160 capacity of the borough jails. Outside criminal justice experts say the Adams administration can and should do more to divert people from jails while awaiting trial.

But Adams continues to cite the size of the jail population as a reason to be skeptical Rikers will close by 2027 and has called for a “Plan B.” 

For backers of Renewable Rikers, the reports are a bright spot at a difficult time for those pressing to close the notorious jails.

The reports “reaffirm we can move forward with Renewable Rikers,” said Councilmember Sandy Nurse (D-Brooklyn), chair of the Council Committee on Criminal Justice. “Given the deplorable conditions on Rikers, the cuts to programs that get people out of Rikers and now more announced delays, it is a good thing there was something to show.”

Darren Mack, co-director of Freedom Agenda at the Urban Justice Center and an organizer of the campaign to close Rikers, described frustration at a climate of disinvestment in city communities that rely on government for services and opportunities.

He says he would like to see the Adams administration “restoring all these proposed cuts to all the city programs and agencies that vulnerable people and marginalized communities rely upon,” in addition to “making investments on top of that…with the construction of these facilities.”

 

de Blasio comes out against Astoria power plant because it's not green enough

 

 LIC Post

Mayor Bill de Blasio has come out against NRG Energy’s proposal to overhaul its Astoria power plant, saying that the plan should be nixed since the plant would continue to rely on fossil fuels.

The mayor joins more than a dozen elected officials who have come out against the proposal over the past year arguing that the plant should tap into renewable energy sources.

NRG plans to replace its 50-year-old Astoria Generation Station with a natural gas-fired generator that it says would significantly reduce its carbon footprint at the site.

But the mayor, like many other elected officials, argues that the plant should rely on green energy.

“We must break our addiction to fossil fuels,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio in a statement. “The best way to do that is to champion projects that put us on a path to clean energy and stand against projects that reinforce our addiction.”

De Blasio also announced his opposition to the replacement of a power plant located in Gowanus, Brooklyn, operated by the Astoria Generating Company. That company plans to overhaul one of its two plants—which is powered by natural gas‐fired units. It will also close the plant that isn’t upgraded.

The mayor says that NRG and Astoria Generating Company should be building plants that don’t depend on “fracked gas.”

“Replacing the Astoria and Gowanus plants are the wrong projects. We need our partners to explore solutions that advance our transition to a green economy, because those are the solutions that ensure a healthy and safe future for all New Yorkers,” de Blasio said.

The Mayor, at his press briefing Monday morning, added that the plants “would take us backwards, not forwards.”

“They are plants that would unfortunately place us in the past,” he said, noting that it would continue “a fossil fuels dependency.”

“They should not be allowed to go forward,” he said.

It's going to get pretty dark in LIC and Astoria pretty soon. On the bright side, at least a lot of people moved so some energy will be conserved.

LIC landowner wants officials to give green energy plant a chance

 

NY Post 

A Long Island City waterfront landowner is trying to get lawmakers excited about turning his property into a “green energy” hub to power neighboring businesses — vowing to bring some spark back to the area after the plan to build an Amazon headquarters there fizzled out.

Bruce Teitelbaum, the general partner of RiverLinC, which owns the six-acre site at Vernon Boulevard and 43rd Street, said he’s had preliminary discussions with city and state officials about building a plant there that could provide eco-friendly juice to others in the area — generated from river water, as well as via solar and geothermal energy.

“It’s a mystery wrapped in a riddle why the city wouldn’t jump at the chance to support the first green energy district in New York,” Teitelbaum said, promising it would create “thousands of jobs” and help cut carbon emissions.

The $250 million project — dubbed River Green Power and abutting the land where the Amazon project was supposed to be built — could connect to the Queensbridge Houses to provide energy to the largest public housing complex in the country, he said.

Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang also has been briefed on the project, according to Teitelbaum, and the plan already has the backing of the Queens Chamber of Commerce — whose CEO called it “fantastic.”

“We’re still smarting over the loss of Amazon. All the reasons Amazon chose western Queens are still there,” said Queens chamber head Thomas Grech. “The Queens Chamber is all for it. I want innovation starting in Queens. The crossroads of energy independence and technology make a project like this feasible.”