FACT NUMBER ONE: OUR NEIGHBORHOOD IS TGE's TARGET!

What They Claim...What We Know!

TGE claims we need this plant to meet our city's growing energy demands.
Last year, industry groups estimated that we should add 2,000-3,000 megawatts of new generating capacity over the next five years to make New York City the most competitive and efficient energy market in the United States. Since that time, 1,390 new megawatts of energy have either been built or are currently under construction. An additional 1,631 megawatts have been approved and will be built pending financing. (TGE's project does not have any financing beyond the application stage.) Therefore, there are more than enough new projects either being built or already approved to more than meet both the current and projected energy needs for New York City.

TGE claims the plant will not harm the environment.
TGE's claim that it will reduce local emissions by millions of pounds per year is false advertising and has been reported by the Task Force and local elected officials to the New York State Attorney General's Office for investigation. In fact, TGE's proposed plant would introduce some 1,000 tons of additional toxic emissions into our local environment each year, including more than 400 tons of particulate matter. As it is, this community is home to the City's highest concentration of waste transfer stations, the largest sewage treatment plant on the eastern seaboard, a 17-million gallon Mobil Oil spill (larger than the Exxon Valdez spill), a nuclear waste disposal facility, and over 3,500 trips per-day of commercial truck traffic. North Brooklyn presently does not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards for carbon monoxide, ozone precursors, and particulate matter. The TGE plant would compound these problems and jeopardize a cleaner future for our waterfront.

TGE Claims Its Plant Does Not Pose A Threat To Community Health.
Fine particulate matter has been linked to increased asthma rates, upper respiratory illness, lung cancer and increased frequency of heart attacks and cardiac fatalities. Areas of our community already have the third-highest rate of asthma and childhood leukemia in the City, and a cancer rate several times higher than the national average. The proposed plant is adjacent to a new public park and private residences, and just a few blocks from McCarren Park, schools, businesses, houses of worship, a land-marked historic district, and a proposed national historic site. The plant's 325-foot-tall smokestack would disperse its emissions another 2.5 miles into the surrounding area, with prevailing winds driving these pollutants directly into the densely populated Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods.

TGE Claims Its Plant Will Support The Local Economy.
The Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union has estimated that property values near the site would fall as much as 40% after construction of this plant. Developers have also threatened to suspend projects intended to revitalize the waterfront; this would result in the loss of hundreds of union construction jobs expected to last more than a decade. Local businesses are expected to suffer as well. There are also concerns that TGE will threaten the viability of the NYC 2012 Olympic bid. In short, the overall economic loss to our community will be devastating.

What's The Alternative?
Every government- and community-sponsored planning study of this waterfront site has called for redevelopment consistent with the robust socioeconomic growth experienced by the community over the last twenty years. This includes rezoning to create opportunities for residential and commercial development, as well as parks and public access to the shoreline. The community's detailed plans for rezoning and redevelopment were recently approved by the City Council and the Department of City Planning is currently in the process of enacting those plans. The TGE plant, located less than two blocks from the long-awaited waterfront park (co-developed by NYU and the State of New York), would jeopardize these plans, which community groups have worked on for more than ten years.

What Must Be Done?
Before TGE can build plant it must win approval from the State in a licensing process known as Article X, conducted by the New York State Public Service Commission ("PSC"). Under state law, both TGE and the PSC must seek community input on the proposed project. Currently, TGE is trying to complete its formal application after completing a series of impact studies. TGE has announced that it plans to file its application by the end of 2002. At that point, TGE will attempt to advance its proposal through a series of hearings, briefs, and permit approvals. The Task Force has secured legal representation from the Pace University Energy Project, New York's leading energy law institute. With their help, we are challenging TGE in the Article X process and convincing the State that TGE's proposal poses serious environmental, health and economic risks both to this community and the City of New York.

How You Can Help!
A victory over TGE is within our means, but it will take time, money, and plenty of good old-fashioned community action. The Task Force has mounted an ambitious community outreach and action campaign. Funds must be raised to pay the legal and administrative costs of this battle, and volunteers are needed to address the hundreds of tasks, large and small, that will add up to success. Letters, emails, faxes, and phone calls must be made by each and all of us to our elected officials to let them know the TGE plan is wrong for our community. And--because TGE is required to submit a monthly report with the Department of Public Service, including all letters TGE receives from the public--we need to make our voices heard there as well.

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