But not everyone agrees with that upbeat assessment. Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of sustainability advocacy group UPROSE, lamented the Biden administration’s focus on “false solutions and techno-fixes” such as carbon capture and sequestration and deforestation carbon offset projects. And Yeampierre also said the administration’s focus on aiming to deliver 40 percent of the benefits rather than 40 percent of the investments in its "Justice40" Initiative is problematic.
Big spenders
The report was done for the PEAK Coalition, which is fighting to shut down high-emitting plants in New York City and supports the Climate and Community Investment Act to charge large polluters for emissions to fund the state’s transition off fossil fuels.
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“This is sending a message to elected officials and developers that development can no longer look like this,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director at UPROSE, a local environmental justice group that fought the plans.
Advocates push NYPA to shut New York City peakers
“That was an issue of environmental racism — that they had selected these sites thinking the community would not be able to fight it,” said Elizabeth Yeampierre, executive director of UPROSE, a community group based in Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood
Craig said the authority is looking at its options and is in conversations with the PEAK Coalition. That group, which includes UPROSE and NYLPI, is focused on shutting down fossil fuel peaking plants in the city.
New York's sweeping climate law inches along amid pandemic headwinds
“There’s still a long, long way to go to see the CLCPA be implemented with its original intentions,” said Summer Sandoval, with the Sunset Park community group UPROSE.
Both UPROSE and the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance are members of the NY Renews coalition credited with relentlessly pushing the law that forms the basis of the CLCPA. The group is pressing for more scrutiny of how clean energy money is currently being spent to ensure the state meets its commitments. Members sent a letter on Thursday calling for a full audit of Covid-19 related and all agency clean energy spending.
East Side delayed
A new coalition of environmental justice groups called the “PEAK coalition” including the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, UPROSE, The Point, and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest has formed. Their report tallies up capacity revenues for peaker plants located predominantly in low-income or minority communities, including those owned by NYPA. They’re focused on ensuring replacements, which will be driven for the oldest plants by DEC’s NOx regulations, are renewables and storage.