The Movement to Ban Gas Plants is Getting Stronger

 

Two years ago, NY passed what was then the strongest environmental legislation in the country: The Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which codified a goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. This year, New York missed an opportunity to set another benchmark. Despite popular support and large numbers of cosponsors, the legislature failed to pass a bill that would bar the building of new fossil fuel plants. Shortly after the session ended, Oregon passed a bill to do exactly that- beating New York to the punch. So what happened in Albany? Why is New York falling behind? 

 

Despite our strong advocacy, the fossil fuel industry is convinced that they can continue to build new plants, locking the state into pollution and making it more difficult to meet NY's climate goals. Two companies have applied to build new fracked gas power plants in Astoria, Queens, and in the Town of Newburgh in the Hudson Valley. 

 

Both plant proposals have generated a great deal of outrage. At April hearings on the Danskammer plant in Newburgh, 97% of speakers - across nine hours of testimony - inveighed against the plant. Also in the spring, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced a letter signed by eight other members of the NY congressional delegation against the Astoria plant, which also drew opposition from local elected leaders. 

 

But climate organizations across the state have realized that fighting these projects one by one  commandeers a tremendous amount of civic capacity. It also creates a scenario in which communities with more power are better able to resist polluting infrastructure - a significant part of the development pattern called environmental racism. 

 

It became time for something new. Working closely with the Sierra Club, NY State Sen. Jessica Ramos (D-Queens) and NY State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens) introduced legislation in the 2021 legislative session, the "Clean Futures Act," (S.5939-A/A.6761-A) that would bar the state from issuing any permits for new fossil fuel plants unless the developers could prove (with stringent standards) that the plants were needed for reliability. Over seventy organizations signed a letter to the state legislature at the beginning of session urging them to pass a ban on new fossil fuel plants to fulfill the promise of the CLCPA. 

 

In pursuit of this legislation, the Sierra Club and our coalition partners recruited experts to testify about the bill in a legislative briefing, held rallies in several cities, hosted meetings with dozens of state lawmakers, and generated thousands of phone calls and emails into the state Senate and Assembly. We co-hosted an iftar, the ceremonial breaking of the Ramadan fast, with AM Mamdani’s office at which Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, author of the book The Green Deen on what Islam says about the environment, had a discussion with the Astoria Muslim community. A week of action press conference featured one of the co-authors of the UN’s Global Methane Assessment, a key report that underscored the need for governments to deny new gas infrastructure. 

 

It was an elegant bill that targeted the problem directly. “People I never talk to were coming up to me and saying how much they liked my bill,” AM Mamdani said. But despite garnering more cosponsors than any other bill to address climate pollution this session, the Clean Futures Act has not been passed into law in New York State. It was never scheduled for a vote by Senate Energy Committee Chair Kevin Parker, who did not cosponsor the bill, and it did not make the list in the closed-door party conferences that dictate end-of-session priorities.

 

Journalist Kate Aronoff wrote in The New Republic that the Clean Futures Act wasn’t the only bill to meet a mysterious end in conference; other climate bills also were met with stony silence by state legislative leadership, despite strong support from broad stakeholders and numerous elected officials. Aronoff also highlighted research showing that the fossil fuel industry contributes tens of thousands of dollars to state Democratic leaders. 

 

So where does that leave power plant pollution? The Clean Futures Act’s failure has only strengthened the movement against new fossil fuel plants. Sierra Club members and supporters who cut their teeth meeting with legislators and rallying others to make phone calls are now throwing their weight into the regulatory fight against these plants. New governor Kathy Hochul has the power to state that her agencies will not issue any permits for new polluting fossil fuel power plants, and the Sierra Club - and our partners and champions across the state - will continue to encourage her to do so.