You may think I’m wrong, but I wonder whether the proposal to rid New York City apartments of gas is going to solve our climate change issues. I really think that there are other ways to resolve some of the issues, and they should be in consultation with really qualified scientists.
By Raye G. Schwartz
For the Roosevelt Island Daily News
Here’s my responses to going entirely electric and eliminating gas in NY buildings.
- The enclosed image is the view from my living room. That is the Con Ed power plant on a typical day. Notice the barges: they are delivering oil to power the turbines that produce electricity and they are there almost daily.
- Notice the exhaust pipes, one of which is emitting clouds of polluted combusted fossil fuel. The more electricity they produce the more comes out of those pipes, into Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and this island.
- This power plant continues from one block north of the R.I. bridge to the end of Queensbridge. There is another one on the northern part of Queens. I think there’s one in the Bronx as well as Brooklyn.
- Notice the exterior surfaces of the Con Ed plant and they don’t wash away in the rain: where is Erin Brockovich when we need her?
- The floor I live on in this wing of my building has 10 apartments.
Apt 03: wife died of cancer and husband has leukemia.
Apt.04 former owner died from cancer.
Apt.05 (mine) husband died from cancer.
Apt 07 former owner died from cancer.
Apt 09 former owners, husband and wife, died from cancer.
Apt 10 former owner (my son’s teacher at 217) died from cancer.
So why not add more electric cars and electric heat to get rid of the rest of us?
- Electric cars simply add more carbon emissions in one place (the power plant) instead of distributing it along the roads.
- Rechargeable batteries are now limited to how electric cars currently work (going to a charging station) instead of continuously charging with solar power. Vehicles should all be built with rooftops like the advertisement tops on NYC taxis, but instead of ads they should function as battery chargers, and thus be constantly charging while on the road, and even while parked. Even in cloudy weather, such as the rechargeable solar lights in planters on my apartment balcony, they still light every night. Thus, with similar systems in cars they would not need plugging into charging stations daily except during prolonged bad weather or very long trips. I wonder whether the additional smoke I see at the power plant is related to every time an electric car or hybrid vehicle is plugged in an charging, thus using more electricity.
- All buildings (new and old) should have solar panels installed instead of the cost of just replacing gas and oil heating. However, gas stoves are not the cause of the pollution caused by heating systems, and making everyone convert to electric stoves (yuk) won’t cure our pollution issues.
Conclusion:
Let’s get some real science into fixing the environment…oh wait, we don’t need masks and/or vaccines either, do we?
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Emergency Without Urgency
When government invokes the word “emergency,” normal process changes. Timelines accelerate. Environmental review can narrow. Procurement pathways can shift.
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