http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/44246-demanding-renewables-not-pipelines-environmentalists-are-heading-to-albany
[links in on-line article]
Demanding Renewables Not Pipelines, Environmentalists Are Heading to Albany
Sunday, April 22, 2018 By Kim Fraczek, The Indypendent | Op-Ed
That's it, we're storming the castle. On April 23, thousands of New
Yorkers are showing up at Gov. Andrew Cuomo's front door in Albany to
demand genuine action on climate change. We're not going to bus up just
to go "rah-rah-rah" on the steps of the statehouse for the press and
going home. We have three specific demands: halt of all fracking
infrastructure now, a just transition to 100 percent renewables, and
make corporate polluters pay into a transition fund.
We will meet in Albany at noon, at the site of a proposed fracked-gas
plant slated to power Empire State Plaza and hear from local residents
on Sheridan Avenue. Then we will march to the Capitol building and
peacefully walk through its doors.
How did we go from congratulating Gov. Cuomo for banning fracking,
vetoing the Port Ambrose LNG terminal and stopping two pipelines to
storming his castle?
Let's back up to January 2017, when Cuomo declared, "The state must
double down by investing in the fight against dirty fossil fuels and
fracked gas from neighboring states." This is precisely the kind of bold
statement that continues to come from this administration sans action to
make genuine, big-picture progress a reality.
Just four months later Cuomo appeased his fossil fuel donors by playing
right into the industry narrative that fracked gas is a necessary bridge
to a renewable economy. "I don't think you can get from here to there
without using natural gas," he told the Buffalo News.
Record scratch! What happened to doubling down? Of course, we can start
building a renewable energy future now without fracked gas. However,
that will require a shake-up of our economic system, which feeds the
power structure that supports Cuomo. In order to protect what's most
important to him, his donors and his liberal voter base, he's opted to
hide his contradictions in the closet.
Let's talk about what Cuomo's energy system of the future really looks
like: Gas, gas and more gas. Fracked gas in regions that Cuomo deems
sacrifice zones.
If we look at a map of the fracking infrastructure of New York State,
it's clear that we have a fracked gas problem.
Transmission lines, frack waste dumps, storage and support
infrastructure are expanding. All expansions must go through a state
approval process. We're elated for the successes our environmental
movement has had pushing the governor to halt specific projects, but had
it not been for our work to mobilize constituents he considers crucial
to his reelection, he would have approved all of them. He continues to
ignore local communities working to protect their health, safety and
democracy from the fossil fuel industry in regions of the state he deems
disposable.
Cases in point:
In Orange County, N.Y., Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) is
currently constructing a fracked gas plant built on bribes from his
recently-convicted top aide and childhood friend, Joseph Percoco. This
plant is situated near the most fertile farmland in the state adjacent
to an environmental justice community and a Native-American burial
ground, to cite only a few of the most heinous attributes of this project.
In Westchester County, due to immense public outcry, Cuomo finally
mandated an independent risk assessment of the Spectra Energy-Enbridge
Algonquin Pipeline that runs 105 feet from critical safety
infrastructure at the decaying Indian Point nuclear power plant. It has
been over two years and Cuomo continues to ignore local residents'
requests to see the report, as well as pleas to shut down the pipeline
for health and safety violations.
Cuomo's indifference to New Yorkers is echoed along the massive
expansion of the Dominion pipeline that crosses nearly the entire state
from the Southern Tier through Central New York and over to Dutchess
County, where another power plant twice the size of CPV's called Cricket
Valley will continue to lock New Yorkers into a future of fossil fuels.
Cuomo has proposed situating a fracked-gas power plant in Albany's
Sheridan Hollow neighborhood, a predominantly African-American
community, in order to power the complex of government buildings at
Empire State Plaza nearby.
In New York City, gas boiler conversions are cheap and easy due to
fossil fuel subsidies that disincentivize renewable options.
And even as we see offshore wind coming to our shores, the Williams
Pipeline Company is aiming to snake its way back into the Rockaways.
How does Cuomo keep getting away with it?
To maintain his environmentalist facade, the governor launches flashy
websites like rev.ny.gov. Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) is framed as
a network of locally-owned renewable energy microgrids. Meanwhile, his
policies drive capital to the same old power structure, creating another
destructive pattern. If we are to genuinely shift the system onto a
renewable economy, we should shift our system of investments into
renewables instead of using our renewable tax dollars to fund the fossil
fuels in secret. Cuomo's "Energy Czar," Richard Kauffman, a former chair
at Goldman Sachs, revealed the administration's backstage reality in a
February blog post, after New Yorkers, initially excited about the
project, started asking why it was increasingly difficult to get
renewable energy access.
"The goal of REV, and New York State energy policy in general, is not
necessarily to make solar work for every customer right now," according
to Kauffman. "The economics are not going to pencil out for every
customer in every location in the state."
While Governor Cuomo aims at climate hero status by making popular
statements and congratulates himself for defying President Trump by
announcing he will stand by the (very low-bar) Paris Climate Accord, his
administration is busy figuring out how to continue to support the
corporations that create climate destruction. That sure doesn't sound
like a reform of our energy system at all.
It is crucial that we come together on April 23 to force Cuomo and
others playing decision-making roles in Albany to take climate change
seriously. We will carry our demands on hand-crafted signs with drummers
and trumpeters at our side. We know we can succeed here in New York
because we have a track record building movements that shift popular
consensus. Gov. Cuomo is up for reelection this year. Now is the time to
fight for our entire region to push for the required action to protect
our lives and build a future worth living.