Advocating in favor of Mayor Bill de Blasio Supporting the Renewable Rikers Act
- Peyton K Yourch
- Aug 4, 2020
- 9 min read
NOTE FROM AUTHOR: This was a project from an Energy Policy class, where we were assigned to advocate for a particular energy policy and I wrote a policy brief to advocate for a bully pulpit by Mayor Bill deBlasio to support the Renewable Rikers Act
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
In both the Climate Mobilization Act and the pledges New York City has made already, the increase in renewable energy is a mandatory next step for the city to combat the climate crisis. New York City is already making strides in facing the climate crisis under de Blasio’s administration and New Yorkers are relying on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s support to lessen New York City’s impact. The proposed policy, the Renewable Rikers Act, proposes transitioning the current land that is being used to house prisoners, to become a solar farm and wastewater treatment facility. The mayor's approval is crucial when deciding if the Renewable Rikers Act will be adopted as his opinion holds a lot of weight in City Council and among New Yorkers, as well as providing a platform for New Yorkers to know and understand the bill.
Since New York City decided to close the prison instead of renewing it, there have been a lot of proposals as to what should be on Rikers Island, the landmark of New York City’s history of criminal injustice. The Renewable Rikers proposal has a lot of traction as it has been proposed as a form of reconciliation with New York City’s carbon footprint and its history of marginalizing its lower income and minority residents. Lower income residents of New York have taken the brunt of the impact of environmental injustice. This brief is urging the mayor to consider how effective and reliable the proposed solar farm will be for New York City residents. With that consideration, the solar farm would be beneficial in terms of immediate action towards climate change and protecting the vulnerable residents of New York City, a necessary step in sustainable energy for New York City that accounts for all residents.
As discussed in the press release by Tereance Cullen (2019), the Renewable Rikers act was proposed in front of the City Council in June 2019 for the transformation of Rikers Island into a solar farm and a wastewater treatment facility. It is designed to cover three aspects; to increase use of renewable energy, provide clean water specifically to lower-income areas of New York City, and transition Rikers Island from a place emblematic of a broken criminal justice system into a forefront of sustainable energy. The Renewable Rikers Act is co-sponsored by Helen Rosenthal and Ben Kallos with strong support from Council Member Costa Constantinides, who is Chair on the Committee on Environmental Protection (Cullen, 2019).
SCOPE OF NEW YORK CITY’S PROBLEM WITH FOSSIL FUEL ENERGY PRODUCTION:
New York City is a leading and influential city in the country and the world. The needs of sustainable transformation is becoming more crucial as time goes on and requires more aggressive action to take place. New York City has an opportunity to use its political power to influence transitions for all major U.S. cities and also to other major cities globally. Being a pioneer of these efforts would dramatically improve the lives of New York City’s 8.6 million residents and set a global precedent for how cities can transition their dependency to renewable energies.
New York City, like a lot of the world, suffers from wrong doings in the form of environmental justice. More specifically, poor air quality caused by particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air has dramatically affected lower income areas of the city such as in the Bronx (Maantay et al., 2009). Energy production through fossil fuels increases the amount of particulate matter and VOCs in the air making it harder for residents in those communities to breathe and more likely for them to have hospital visits pertaining to the poor air quality (Maantay et al., 2009). In addition, there are many polluters in these areas such as Harlem River and Hellgate both in the Bronx and both producing natural gas. Furthermore, the Bronx is not the only borough affected, Queens and Brooklyn also have high production of energy that is detrimental to the area's air quality.
Specific to New York, there have been concerns surrounding the proximity to these plants and the immediate dangers associated with it. New York City is a very densely populated city and having power plants near residents is a concern of poor air quality but also a safety concern. In 2018, a ConEdison transformer exploded at a power plant in Queens causing a huge blue light in the sky and a panic of future danger, if this were to occur again (Salam and Lyons, 2018). In this circumstance there were no reported injuries, but the city should be aware that the close proximity of active plants among residents has the potential to cause harm to the residents and employees at the plant. The city has to consider and prepare for all possible outcomes of these plants and not just consider the coincidental fortune of this explosion's outcome but more so the fact that it occured, the potential of another transformer explosion, or any other dangers associated with plants that could put residents at an immediate risk again.
One of New York City’s priorities in terms of energy use is reliability. Millions of residents rely on constant use of energy from all capacities for their daily lives. When there’s an energy deficit New Yorker’s face an upset, representatives face backlash, and most importantly there are health risks to the most vulnerable people in the city. In 2003, the city faced a heatwave and energy usage increased exponentially. The supply of energy at the time did not reach the demand and created a deficit, causing a major blackout. These blackouts increased the health risks and it is estimated that around 90 people died because of the blackout (Anderson and Bell, 2012). New York City has faced these blackouts multiple times but during a heatwave, the effects specifically fall on the vulnerable; the old, young, and/or poor (Maantay et al., 2009). For the livelihood of New Yorker’s it is crucial that our energy is reliable and can extend the average parameters in case of an emergency. Historically, fossil fuels have been the form of reliability for New York City since its industrialization. With the additional demand for energy in conjunction with the damaging effects of carbon on the planet, the transition to reliable renewable energy is necessary.
APPLICATION OF RENEWABLE RIKERS:
The Renewable Rikers act aims to address the current energy policies and aid in the production of more renewable energy within New York City’s jurisdiction. The implementation of this bill specifically encourages participation and protection of lower income residents and also assists in current pledges made by New York City. During Climate Week in 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio made a pledge to have 1,000 megawatts of energy from solar power in New York City by 2030 (De Costanzo, 2016). The implementation of a solar farm can help evolve that pledge into action but also quicker than intended, making it more likely that Mayor de Blasio’s pledge is fulfilled during his time serving as mayor, giving full credit to the de Blasio Administration for the pledge and the action. Transitioning the demand of energy to be on solar can make it easier to fulfill other demands indirectly. The Climate Mobilization Act which was passed in April 2019, puts a cap on greenhouse gas emissions (Council to Vote on Climate Mobilization Act ahead of Earth Day, 2019). This prevents the expansion of fossil fuel energy sources in New York City, but the solar farm allows for development in infrastructure while adhering to the standards set by the city. Or New York City could relieve the city of the allotted greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining the same energy output. The Rikers Island solar farm would benefit Mayor de Blasio because of New York City’s commitments to fighting climate change while fulfilling energy needs for all New York City residents.
Solar energy also has benefits not explicitly mentioned in the proposal or press releases, such as increasing air quality. Solar power produces minimal amounts of VOCs and particulate matter when compared to natural gas, coal, and oil plants. Therefore using solar power over power plants will lessen the impact of air quality negatively affecting low income residents, considering the location of plants. Many plants are currently located in the Bronx’s jurisdiction which holds “the highest asthma hospitalization rate, highest percentage of minority population, lowest mean household income, and lowest average educational attainment level, compared to the city’s other boroughs,” (Maantay et al., 2009). The introduction of solar energy would relieve Mayor de Blasio’s constituents in the Bronx and other lower-income areas of an undue medical and financial burden that is caused by increased hospitalization.
CRITIQUES OF THE RENEWABLE RIKERS ACT:
Critics of this policy believe that other renewable energy policies are better for the city or are advocating for the current energy policy in order to maintain reliability. The solar farm on Rikers Island has the potential, based on land availability, to produce 90 megawatts in available energy and 300 megawatts in stored energy (Turner, 2019). This energy output is relatively small when compared to the volume of energy demanded by New York City. During a heatwave in 2011, New York City required around 11,500 megawatts in energy (Turner, 2019). Critics such as these do not understand that the Rikers Solar Farm would not be established in order to power the entire city on its own, but rather to meet solar energy pledges and reduce a large amount of dependency on plants. While 90 megawatts in available energy does not sound like much, when compared to the 1,000 megawatts of solar pledge, it covers almost 10% of it in available energy alone. Additionally critics argue that solar energy is heavily dependent on weather, and access to the sun is not always consistent in New York, as the amount of sun energy is heavily dependent on the season and day-to-day weather in a temperate climate (Kabir et al., 2018). This is what the engineers of the solar panels have accounted for in their goals to establish and maintain reliability of solar panels. The solar farm is projected to have over three times the amount of available energy in stored energy, to be converted and used in times when solar energy is not able to be produced.
Additionally, critics believe that investing in solar energy is risky when considering the evolution of solar and the cost of labor for maintenance and improvements as well as the production of the solar panels to begin with (Kabir et al., 2018). Solar panels are an ever-evolving technology that will have improvements in efficiency as time goes on, which requires the work of solar panel maintenance. Though that evolution and maintenance would have a considerable cost, they create a lot of specialized jobs. Solar energy also requires technicians to repair any damages to the solar farms and for general upkeep to ensure usability (Kabir et al., 2018). These maintenance expenses and initial construction will cost the city but are a long-term investment in New York’s energy portfolio and employees. The solar farm would be owned by the city, allocating the revenue of the solar farm’s energy production to go back to the city, making up for the investment into renewable infrastructure in the long-run. Additionally, a slow transition of jobs from fossil fuel energy to renewable energy is beneficial for workers in the long-term. The world is evolving in a way that will need to transition our energy dependence to renewable energy. Considering how damaging fossil fuels are, any dependency on them will eventually need to be phased out. If the city equips its unskilled plant workers to be trained in the maintenance of renewable energy, it will be more likely that those workers will be protected from extreme job loss and physically dangerous working conditions from VOCs and particulate matter emissions. The transitions of jobs can also be slower and on the terms of New York City, as the city would be doing it before a drastic and mandatory revolution of energy portfolios.
RECOMMENDATION:
The recommendation for Mayor de Balsio’s administration is to publicly advocate for diversifying New York City’s energy portfolio in a way that transitions our dependency from fossil fuels to sustainable energy and includes solar. By diversifying the energy there will be an increase in reliability. For example, if there’s an increased cost in natural gas the availability of electricity to all New Yorkers would decrease. By increasing the use of solar, it in turn provides options for New Yorkers if an event were to happen to another fuel source. Mayor de Blasio has the opportunity to increase his public image, fulfill long-term promises that he made during his term, and aid significantly in fighting the climate crisis. Additionally, it is advised that in your decision you consider the future in relation to the climate crisis and the effects of existing policy surrounding energy use for vulnerable New Yorkers.
Works Cited
Council to Vote on Climate Mobilization Act ahead of Earth Day. (2019, April 18).
Retrieved February 29, 2020, from https://council.nyc.gov/press/2019/04/18/1730/
Cullen, T. (2019, June 10). Constantinides, Rosenthal, Kallos to Introduce Renewable
Rikers Act on the Future of the Island in City Council this Week. Retrieved
February 29, 2020, from
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council-this-week/
DeCostanzo, D. (2016, December 15). Here Comes the Sun-NYC Sets Climate Week
Solar, Storage Goal. Retrieved April 19, 2020, from
climate-week-solar-storage-goal
Kabir, E., Kumar, P., Kumar, S., Adelodun, A. A., & Kim, K.-H. (2018). Solar energy:
Potential and future prospects. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews.
Maantay, J. A., Tu, J., & Maroko, A. R. (2009). Loose-coupling an air dispersion model
and a geographic information system (GIS) for studying air pollution and asthma
in the Bronx, New York City. International Journal of Environmental Health
Research, 19(1), 59–79. doi: 10.1080/09603120802392868
New York City's Rikers Solar Plan Makes No Sense. (2019, July 11). Retrieved
February 29, 2020, from
plan_makes_no_sense.html
Salam, E., & Lyons, K. (2018, December 28). New York City sky lights up bright blue
after Queens power plant explosion. Retrieved February 29, 2020, from
lights-explosion-astoria-power-plant-queens
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