New Yorkers at risk of freezing thanks to City Council bid to kill off vital National Grid upgrade

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://nypost.com/2022/09/20/new-yorkers-at-risk-of-freezing-thanks-to-
council-bid-to-kill-off-national-grid-upgrade/

This week the New York Public Service Commission is holding public
hearings on National Grid’s proposal to add two state-of-the-art, high-
efficiency vaporizers to the Greenpoint Energy Center. This will allow us
to meet existing customer demand for heat on the coldest days of the year
while reducing the facility’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

Some progressive City Council members, however, are playing politics with
the project, even introducing a resolution urging the commission to deny
the permit. If their efforts succeed, the most at-risk New Yorkers and the
city’s small-business owners will pay the price.

National Grid is dedicated to meeting the threat of climate change. In
line with the benchmarks set out in the Paris agreement and the Science
Based Targets initiative, as well as New York’s Climate Leadership and
Community Protection Act, we have committed to achieving net zero by 2050,
and in April we released our Fossil Free Vision to fully eliminate fossil
fuels from our US gas and electric systems.

But the clean-energy transition can’t happen overnight. While we move
toward a fossil-free future, we must continue providing safe, reliable and
affordable service to the New Yorkers who rely on us to heat their homes,
cook their meals and power their businesses.

Vaporizers are critical to ensuring heat on the coldest days of the year.
During the summer and other low-demand periods, National Grid liquifies
and stores natural gas. Then, when temperatures drop, we use vaporizers to
warm up this stored gas so it can be distributed to customers throughout
the city. This does not happen often — as few as two or three days each
year — but when it does, it’s essential to keeping New Yorkers warm. There
is no Plan B.

Everyone deserves reliable heat during winter’s coldest days, but it’s
especially important for the most vulnerable New Yorkers. Older people,
those with chronic health conditions and families suffer the most from
service interruptions. The proposed vaporizers are an important backup
resource to ensure all our customers stay safe and warm year-round.

Besides ensuring affordable heat, the new vaporizers operate more
efficiently than existing equipment, meaning they can provide the same
vital service with fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. Of course, the ultimate
goal remains to eliminate fossil gas from our heating systems, but this is
an important step in the right direction.

Contrary to false claims this project will extend New York’s reliance on
fossil fuels and create health and environmental risks for surrounding
communities, independent assessments have concluded there are no other
viable, short-term solutions to meet peak demand in coming winters — and
the emissions will be lower than those today.

Indeed, it’s these publicity-grabbing efforts to stop approval of this
vital infrastructure that put our customers — council’s constituents — at
risk. Until renewable sources of energy scale to replace energy delivered
by today’s systems, projects like this are not only necessary but critical
to New Yorkers’ safety.

LNG vaporizers are like seatbelts. Most of the time, they’re just a
precaution. But when there’s an emergency, they’re vitally important.
Right now, New York is at greater risk of an emergency if we do not
upgrade the Greenpoint Energy Center to meet rising demand for heat.

Fortunately, there’s a solution that will allow us to meet peak demand,
even on the coldest days, while reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and
advancing our ultimate goal of fossil-free heat. Elected officials
opposing this project seek to score political points at the expense of
their constituents — and environmental advocates are trying to set energy
policy 140 characters at a time.

One would hope our elected leaders would support reasonable energy policy
based on facts and what’s practical for customers, not the idealism of the
few who aren’t responsible for delivering safe, reliable and affordable
energy to anyone.

Bryan Grimaldi is National Grid’s vice president of corporate affairs in
New York.


--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: sf.n...@mail.house.gov

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.