Not in Any Back Yard Eliminating Power Plants from the South Bronx

NOT IN ANY BACK YARD ELIMINATING POWER PLANTS FROM THE SOUTH BRONX Thomas Storck M.S. Sustainable Environmental Systems Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development Pratt Institute Demonstration of Professional Competence May 16th, 2016 Advisor: Alec Appelbaum Technical Advisor: Charles Komanoff ABSTRACT In 2001, the New York Power Authority (NYPA) installed four 47 MW gas-fired turbines in Port Morris, The Bronx, a neighborhood already suffering from some of the worst asthma and poverty rates in the country. In doing so, NYPA cut regulatory corners, exploited loopholes and minimized public participation. These turbines continue to be re-permitted every five years. To challenge NYPA’s claim that these gas plants are environmentally beneficial, environmental justice coalition South Bronx Unite reached out to energy policy-analyst and environmental activist Charles Komanoff for advice on how these four turbines could be replaced with clean energy or other carbon-free solutions. This report describes how the State managed to install power plants in environmental justice communities by undermining the laws put in place to protect people from polluting infrastructure before evaluating the capabilities of selected alternatives to replace NYPA’s turbines, including offshore wind, solar PV and demand-side management. 2 INTRODUCTION In 2000, New York State officials agreed to install ten gas-fired turbines across four boroughs in New York City (Parker, 2003). The Bronx was burdened with four units, more than were installed in any other borough, all concentrated in Port Morris, a community already suffering from a disproportionate share of environmental burdens and home to some of the highest asthma rates in the United States (Parker, 2003; Maantay, 2007). Leading the project was The New York Power Authority (NYPA)1, who met their self-imposed deadline2 by exploiting regulatory loopholes, avoiding adequate environmental review and minimizing public participation, leaving communities feeling offended, undervalued and discriminated against (Sze, 2007). The public was led to believe the turbines would last no more than three years, but local environment justice groups continue to fight for their removal (New York State Assembly [NYSA], 2001; Mark-Viverito, 2015). In response to concerns from residents about their neighborhood’s poor air quality exacerbated by these plants, NYPA argues that their gas turbines are the cleanest and most efficient in the City and that their removal would increase citywide pollution by forcing older, dirtier generators to meet electricity demands instead (New York State Department of Environmental Conservation [NYSDEC], 2015). My research for this report was gathered after South Bronx Unite, an environmental justice coalition of residents, organizations and allies working to protect the future of the South Bronx, reached out to energy policy-analyst and environmental activist Charles Komanoff3 for advice. Their question: How could these plants be replaced with clean energy or other non-polluting strategies? (Johnson, 1 The New York Power Authority is a state-owned utility and the largest state power organization in the United States (NYPA website). 2 June 1st, 2001 3 Charles Komanoff is the Director of both Komanoff Energy Associates (www.komanoff.net) and the Carbon Tax Center (www.carbontax.org). He has served as an expert witness on issues of energy policy and economics, including Con Edison’s East River Power Plant expansion in 2000. 3 2016). Under advisement from Mr. Komanoff, I have prepared this report to serve South Bronx Unite and other energy and environmental justice groups in New York City by identifying intervention points and exploring renewable energy and demand-side management strategies for replacing the four turbines in Port Morris, The Bronx. PORT MORRIS, THE BRONX – SHOULDERING THE BURDEN FOR NEW YORK CITY Within the poorest congressional district in the country and the southernmost peninsula of the Bronx lies Port Morris, a minority neighborhood bordered by as many rivers as it is by highways (Mueller, 2016). Unfortunately for its residents, the areas along the waterfront once used for recreation have since been replaced (and in some cases destroyed) by industry (Walshe, 2015; Johnson, 2016). The warehouses, distribution centers and waste transfer stations that now line the neighborhood’s edge are extremely truck-intensive, accounting for over 15,000 diesel trucks trips a day through local streets (Crean, 2015; Johnson, 2016). Nearly one-third of New York City’s solid waste is handled in The South Bronx (Institute, 2002). The City’s waste is no longer shipped away on barges – instead, it gets transferred from large trucks to even larger trucks, burdening the community with pollutants from diesel exhaust, the stench of garbage, and the danger and noise brought by their intrusion into residential areas (Crean, 2015; Johnson, 2016). Consequently, South Bronx residents breathe some of the worst air in country. Half of the area’s pre-Kindergarten to 8th grade students attend schools less than two blocks away from a highway or truck route (Institute, 2009). The asthma hospitalization rate for this same age group is three times higher than the citywide average (King, 2015). Based on the findings from Institute (2009), New York University’s School of Medicine concluded that air pollution reduction policies should be implemented, such as support for public transportation and creating more green space. Flying in the face of these recommendations, City and State governments recently invested over $100 million to build a new 4 operations center for FreshDirect, a major trucking company, on one of the last remaining open spaces on Port Morris’s waterfront (New York State, 2012). The facility is expected to add a thousand more truck trips a day (Johnson, 2016). “Even if all of freshDirect’s trucks ran on water,” noted Johnson (2016) of South Bronx Unite, the added traffic will cause other vehicles to idle along the highways surrounding the neighborhood, exacerbating the pollution from existing mobile sources. Port Morris has very little green space, as demonstrated on this year’s annual Earth Day Environmental Justice Waterfront Bike Tour lead by Mychal Johnson. Pulaski Park, their largest recreational space, is made of concrete, and the waterfront areas surrounded the neighborhood are no longer accessible to the public. The tour eventually brought us to what used to be the East 132nd St pier, where South Bronx Unite’s Danny Chervoni – a local resident for 60 years – recalled how valuable the destination was for the community and how he would go there to swim as a young kid. The pier was destroyed in 1989 when a severed gas line caused a deadly explosion, explained Johnson. People can still manage to reach the water. That afternoon a group of men were out there fishing, but only after slipping through a barbed wire fence now blocking the old pier’s remains. The Hell Gate power plant, which includes two of NYPA’s turbines, is directly adjacent to the pier. ELECTRICITY SYSTEMS – NEW YORK Peak Demand Electricity demand can be categorized as base load or peak load. As described in fox-Penner (2014), demand levels fluctuate throughout the day, but base load is the amount that is always needed – the lowest point on the demand curve. Peak load includes the part that fluctuates between the base load and the highest point of the demand curve (see below). Over the course of a year in New York, peak load may reach its highest point on a very hot day in the summer, or after a series of exceptionally 5 hot and humid days (fox-Penner, 2014; Audin, 2016). This moment is called peak demand, and determines how much generation capacity will be required for that year. PeakinG Plants Fox-Penner (2014) describes how power plants that serve the base load are designed to operate continuously at high output and have low incremental costs per unit of electricity. As demand increases, intermediate power plants must be turned on to provide power for consumers, increasing the cost per unit of electricity for consumers. When demand approaches peak levels, the last power plants that may need to be turned on are typically the most expensive and are designed to run no more than a few hundred hours a year. These are known as peaking plants, or “peakers,” and typically use natural gas to run combustion turbines similar to jet engines (Fox-Penner, 2014). 6 Capacity Requirements The level of installed generation capacity required to maintain reliability4 is determined by peak demand. New York State has a margin of error supply requirement of 18% of projected peak demand, a cushion between the State’s peak demand and total capacity (Parker, 2003; Gold, 2015). Because of the limited capacity of transmission lines from outside its borders, New York City has a separate requirement to generate at least 80% of its peak electric demand within the five boroughs (New York City Energy Policy Task force [NYCEPTf], 2004). The maximum capacities of transmission lines feeding into the City are: 3,700 MW via Westchester; 1,000 MW via New Jersey; 300 MW via Long Island (NYCEPTf, 2004). New lines are difficult to site because of population density, high property values and the extended time to receive permit approvals (Sze, 2007). Because its peak demand is higher than what these lines can carry, New York City is considered a load pocket (NYCEPTf, 2004). THE PORT MORRIS TURBINES The turbines in the South Bronx are simple-cycle gas turbines, often characterized as peaking plants. Each is owned and operated by the New York Power Authority and designed to produce up to 47 MW of electricity at ambient temperatures below 100°F, with a net output capability of 44 MW (3 MW are needed for on-site operations) (Parker, 2003). Sites with dual generators have a total capacity of 94 MW with a net output capability of 88 MW.

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