We want our voices heard. Public opposition to the plan to locate the pre-fabricated turbines on Vernon Boulevard has reached a fever pitch since NYPA made its first announcement on November 22nd. Many locals heard about the plan only through an article printed in the New York Times, which stated that NYPA had finished an environmental review process for the site and was only waiting for an air permit. The Western Queens neighborhoods of Astoria and Long Island City already contain three large-scale power plants. Proposals for four more plants are in the works, plus the two smaller generators NYPA is planning to site in the same vicinity on Vernon Boulevard.
Opposition has focused on the turbine project because, say vocal activists, it is the last straw.
As no environmental review process was completed for the dual-turbine project, due to the state s decision to allow NYPA to avoid going through the Article 10 process, many claim the company behaved in an underhanded fashion. Any facility that functions at 80 megawatts or above must go through the state Siting Board, which is part of the Article 10 process set up by Governor Pataki as part of the statewide energy deregulation that started in 1997. The two turbines are each capable of 47-megawatt production, equalling a total output of 94 megawatts. But in a move that has been hotly contested, NYPA received state approval to skip board procedures by promising that it would operate the facilities at a combined level of only 79.9 megawatts. An enraged community, many of whom have been part of the massive economic and development renaissance of Long Island City, which includes the Queens West Development Project, say they re watching all their work and investments on the verge of being lost.