“This is an example that another world really is possible,” Elizabeth Yeampierre, the president of Uprose, a Sunset Park-based advocacy organization that promotes for racial and environmental justice and sustainable development, said at a press conference Thursday. “New York City is going to position itself as a leader on climate justice, and it’s going to send a message to other industrial waterfront communities that have been surrounded by petrochemical industries, waste transfer stations and powerplants, they’re going to show that it’s not only possible to bring in infrastructure, but to reduce carbon, coal pollutants, but to hire people and pay them decent wages.”
“Had the rezoning had gone through, it would have severely limited the supply chain and expansive impacts that offshore wind will bring to Sunset Park,” said Summer Sandoval, energy democracy coordinator at Uprose. Down the line, Uprose would like to see “manufacturing and decommissioning of wind turbines somewhere on the waterfront,” as opposed to having parts imported from abroad. “The long-term opportunities would have been much more difficult,” she said.