A coalition of North Brooklyn residents and environmental groups are fighting to stop National Grid’s plan to extend a natural gas pipeline through Bushwick, Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
The gas company broke ground on a seven mile pipeline, starting in Brownsville, back in 2018. But since last fall, several blocks in North Brooklyn have been ripped up to make way for the final two phases of the pipeline, which National Grid wants to extend to its Greenpoint depot.
"We don’t want this pipeline," Kevin LaCherra, of Greenpoint, told a crowd of some 60 people rallying at National Grid’s construction site Saturday morning. "We want renewables now."
Residents and environmental groups, including Sane Energy Project, North Brooklyn Extinction Rebellion, Sunrise NYC, Assemblymember Joe Lentol and State Senator Julia Salazar’s office, rallied in 20-degree weather Saturday morning at National Grid’s construction site at Moore Street and Manhattan Avenue, marching along streets lined with pipelines and construction equipment equipment. Activists demanded Mayor Bill de Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo oppose the company’s request to the Public Service Commission for rate increases that would help pay for the last two phases of the project, which require $185 million over the next three years, according to documents the company submitted to the commission.
Moore Street and Manhattan Avenue
"They didn’t let Bushwick and Williamsburg and Greenpoint know this pipeline was coming until it was right at their doorsteps," Lee Zieshe, a community engagement coordinator with Sane Energy Project, told Gothamist. The project has outraged North Brooklyn residents, who have protested the pipeline—called the Metropolitan Natural Gas Reliability Project—at community meetings in recent months. Brooklyn’s Community Board 1 unanimously voted against the project last week, Brooklyn Eagle reported.
"People are frustrated because it’s 2020. We need to be getting off fossil fuels and here is National Grid wanting to raise our monthly bills to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a new fracked gas pipeline," Zieshe said. "That’s just insanity."
In 2014, New York banned hydraulic fracturing, a method of extracting natural gas by injecting liquids below ground, known to impact water and air quality near wells; lower babies’ birth weight for children who live close to fracking wells; and emit methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. The fracked gas under National Grid’s plans would be sourced from Pennsylvania, where fracking is legal.
"If you know anything about this gas, they call it natural, but there’s nothing natural about it," said Roberto Rodriguez, a Bushwick resident of the United Neighborhood Organization. "We need to stop this today because we're going to have a devastating crisis within the community if something goes wrong."
Residents marched along Moore Street, where streets have been opened up to make way for the gas pipeline.
National Grid spokesperson Karen Young says the North Brooklyn pipeline "does not add additional gas into the system" and "improves safety, reliability and resiliency for our existing customers." The company has been under scrutiny for months after it declared a moratorium on new gas hookups after Cuomo rejected the contested Williams pipeline last May. After Cuomo threatened to revoke its franchise with the state, National Grid lifted the moratorium in November.
"The project is important to natural gas customers in the local community who depend on gas service to heat their homes and run their businesses," Young said. "The gas main design, engineering controls and safety features we have in place meet or exceed NYC construction standards."
Activists emphasized the new natural gas infrastructure seems to fly in the face of Cuomo’s and de Blasio’s own climate action plans.
In response to a request for comment on the activists’ demands, City Hall spokesperson said a recent de Blasio administration executive order against new fossil infrastructure kick-started a review of all utility companies’ proposed projects.
"We have to break our addiction to fossil fuels," City Hall spokesperson Julia Arredondo said. "In accordance with last week’s executive order, the administration is reviewing and evaluating every project proposed by utilities." She did not yet have a timeline of when the evaluation of the North Brooklyn project would finished.
The state's Public Service Commission said National Grid’s rates undergo an extensive 11-month review to ensure they’re "just and reasonable."
"Consistent with the Green New Deal and [Reforming the Energy Vision], National Grid’s rate request is being carefully reviewed to ensure capital efficiency, energy efficiency, grid modernization, reliability and affordability are woven into the fabric of any decision by the PSC," commission spokesperson James Denn said. "At the end of the review process, the PSC will have the final say in setting National Grid’s rates." A vote on the rate increases has not yet been scheduled.
