OcasioCortez.com - We fought as a community, we won as a community

 

Have time for a story? We’d like to tell a little tale about the power of community organizing right here in our backyard…

Flashback: it’s 2021 and Texas-based energy company NRG announces they want to build a fracked-gas power plant right in NY-14, in Astoria, Queens. We knew this power plant would maintain our reliance on fossil fuels while further degrading air quality in neighborhoods already riddled with elevated levels of asthma.

In response, Team AOC, alongside the No Astoria NRG Power Plant Coalition, held weekly phone banks to educate residents about this power plant and why New York must move off dirty fossil fuels. We collected hundreds of public comments for Governor Hochul’s office and recruited supporters to attend public hearings hosted by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). In total, we knocked on more than 3,000 doors, made over 160,000 calls, and sent over 50,000 texts to voters about this project.

Because of this work and the work of our community partners, last fall New York officially denied the permit for the Astoria NRG fracking plant citing inconsistency with New York’s climate laws. It was a huge victory — but the fight wasn’t over yet, because NRG appealed the decision. 

But then, just last week, NRG filed a petition seeking approval to transfer the land’s ownership to Beacon Wind to build clean, wind energy infrastructure!¹ Rather than a fossil fuel plant, Beacon Wind will bring jobs and renewable energy to NY-14. 

This is a tremendous win for the community organizers who stepped up in the fight for environmental justice and put the ideals of the Green New Deal into place. Frontline communities — especially those living in the deadly neighborhoods that form Asthma Alley — already bear the burden of fossil fuels.² This is one major step in turning the tide.

When we join together to organize, we can protect frontline communities, build renewables, create good-paying union jobs, and grow the movement for a Green New Deal nationwide.

In solidarity,

Team AOC

 

1 - Earth justice
2 - The Guardian