“It is an environmental justice community with three peaker plants, the Gowanus Expressway, two solid waste management plants, and a community that is at risk of extreme and recurrent weather events,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, the director of the environmentalist group UPROSE. “In an industrial area, we need to be building for climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience.”
The funding would add to the $57 million that Mayor Bill de Blasio promised the terminal in his State of the City address earlier this year. The city funds would go to offshore wind staging, installation, and maintenance efforts.
The terminal, which is the largest industrial waterfront in the city, is the only site under consideration that wouldn’t require extensive reconstruction in order to accommodate the large vessels and huge assembly area of a wind turbine assembly plant, according to UPROSE.