A group of protesters organized by the Long Island Progressive Coalition (LPC) demonstrated at the site of a proposed power plant in Yaphank, New York on Tuesday. The group accused the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) of racism and of dumping on their neighborhoods.
The protesters said the proposal by the Manhattan-based Caithness Energy to build a 326-megawatt plant near the low-income, black neighborhood of North Bellport would unfairly burden a community already living in the shadow of the Brookhaven Town landfill. They asked LIPA to instead look at repowering existing plants and alternative energy.
"When people think of North Bellport, they think of a poor community, a minority community," Maurice Mitchell, project coordinator of the Long Island Progressive Coalition told Newsday. "We think LIPA is siting their plant here because they think the people won't fight back."
Organizers were curious as to why several environmental groups declined invitations to join the protest. "We just don't understand, because we believed that all environmental groups oppose power plants," said coalition director Lisa Tyson. "Just because this is a poor community, doesn't mean we don't put resources into it."
Richard Amper, executive director of the Pine Barrens Society, an environmental group situated on Long Island said his group is not opposing the plant because Caithness agreed to build outside the Pine Barrens. "Would we love it if we could supply all of Long Island's energy needs with wind turbines and solar cells? Yes!" Amper said. "Is that realistic? No." According to Newsday Amper accused the LPC of “playing the race card.”
Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, agreed. "This type of egregious accusations don't change the scientific fact that this plant is a cleaner, safer technology," she said. Esposito recently was quoted as saying, "I know no one likes a power plant in their neighborhood, but we have to have power, and it's going to come from somewhere."
Both of these environmental groups seem unable to understand the question of environmental racism being raised by the LPC, a community-based organization dedicated to promoting sustainable development, revitalizing local communities, enhancing human dignity, creating effective democracy, and achieving economic, social, and racial justice.
And then there is Caithness Energy which doesn’t even seem to accept the fact that the affected communities exist.
Ross Ain, senior vice president Caithness Energy told the Long Island Press recently that the new plant will be a bonus for Long Island. "This plant will be the most efficient plant on Long Island from an energy standpoint," says Ain. "We save on water, we save on fuel, we save dramatically on air emissions. And we're not in anybody's backyard."
Well, at least, not in the backyard of wealthy Long Islanders anyway.
The plant would be in the neighborhood, if not the backyard, of Miles Malone, who has lived on Bellport Avenue, less than two miles from the proposed site, all his life. Other neighborhoods surrounding the plant include Gordon Heights, Medford, Bellport, North Bellport, Patchogue and Shirley.
"I'm completely outraged," says Malone, the 39-year-old entrepreneur who is vice chairman of the Central Bellport Civic Association. "If it's so benign and so clean, why don't they put it in the Pine Barrens where really no one lives?"
During a question and answer period with Caithness Energy Senior Vice President Ain earlier this year, Don Seubert, an executive board member of the Medford Taxpayers and Civic Association, expressed concerns that Medford “is in an area that is already impacted with a metal recycling plant, concrete company, auto wreckers, the old Holtsville landfill, the town landfill, sand and gravel facilities, and a 250,000-square-foot warehouse on Sills Road.” Seubert is also concerned about the close proximity of some of Patchogue-Medford’s schools to the site of the proposed power plant. “Our schools are much closer than some of South Country’s schools,” Seubert said. “I also think that we’re going down the same fossil fuel trail with another gas and oil-fired plant that I’m not so sure will displace older plants we already have.”
The LPC and Malone believe that increased supply, via underground cables or upgrades to existing plants, can eliminate the need for additional plants. The Cross Sound Cable to Connecticut has been supplying LI with power since last summer, and the Neptune cable from New Jersey is expected to be connected by 2007 and boost capacity by more than 600 megawatts.
LPC Director Lisa Tyson believes the lack of public outcry may have more to do with the socioeconomics of the proposed location.
"I just find it amazing that when a power plant is proposed on [Spagnoli Road], the community got up in arms, organizations focused on it and they stopped it from happening," she says. She's referring to the opposition that KeySpan Energy faced when planning to put up a plant in tony Melville.
Bellport/North Bellport is not “tony.” It is an economically depressed area, with a Main Street of "junkyards, usurious delis and vacant lots," according to Malone.
"In this community, where there's poverty and they're unable to have that kind of activity on such an issue, where is everyone? Where are those other organizations? Where are the people who oppose power plants?" she continues. "Just because it's in a poor black community should not be a reason why people don't fight it. This is environmental racism at its best—or its worst." Tyson is willing to admit the new plant will be, “… cleaner than traditional power plants, which we are of course happy with. However, she points out, “At the same time, it will still give thousands and thousands of tons of pollution to the Bellport community every year—tons."
The Long Island Press reports the plant which is projected to come on line in May 2008 if a projected timeline is met would be sited in an Empire Zone, a state-designated area that provides incentives for businesses to stimulate depressed local economies. Caithness will save millions of dollars in taxes by locating there, which the company says will be passed onto LIPA.
But even Ain admits that the plant will create few if any new permanent jobs for area residents. The entire facility will employ only about 25 workers, he says, and most of those are specialists who may have to be recruited from elsewhere.
"When you have an Economic Development [Zone], you're trying to lift a particular area out of poverty," says Connie Kepert, a local civic leader who is running for Town Council of the District. "That [plant] doesn't help do that." Sources: Newsday, Long Island Press, Suffolk Life Newspapers, LPC
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