To the editor:
Re: “Group Says ‘no to Fuel Cells, ‘yes to Solar” (news article by Aline Reynolds, Aug. 10)
The Bloomberg administration has demonstrated a commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in NYC with PlaNYC2030. However, we are critical of an emerging official view that these essential reductions in emissions are to be achieved in part by increasing the use of natural gas, expanding NYC’s natural gas infrastructure, and keeping open the Indian Point nuclear reactors, which only provide five to six percent of NYC’s electricity.
Natural gas and nuclear power are part of the problem and not the solution. Their promotion contradicts the strategy of the mayor’s own Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability for implementing PlaNYC2030, which includes generating clean power.
Every day that we rely on fossil fuels like natural gas for our energy needs brings us closer to irreversible climate change tipping points. Only renewable forms of energy like solar power will guarantee us a future.
Cities like NYC and mayors like Mayor Bloomberg have the resources and expertise to elaborate a plan and provide the incentives and subsidies that are necessary to actualize NYC’s potential for renewable energy.
We are calling on Mayor Bloomberg to launch a city-wide educational campaign about energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable energy so that all New Yorkers will become aware of our responsibilities as global citizens to take the individual and collective measures required to stop climate change.
Lisa DiCaprio
Professor of social sciences at New York University
