TransGas: TGE Takes it to Court Again

Last Thursday, while some community members were in downtown Manhattan testifying at the City Planning Commission’s public hearing on the Broadway Triangle, other Greenpoint/Williamsburg neighbors ventured out of the nabe to downtown Brooklyn, where representatives from TransGas and Energy (TGE) testified before the Brooklyn Appellate Court in an attempt to overturn the decision to block a power plant from being built on the Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront. The court heard arguments from those in support and those in opposition to the power plant—The Borough President Marty Markowitz, Community Board 1 and the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Waterfront Task Force—which has been a hotly contested community issue for the better part of a decade.
In July of last year, the Sitings Board voted against the TGE power plant, which would include a 1,100 megawatt cogeneration steam and electric facility complete with a 325-foot smoke stack, to be constructed at One N. 12th Street just south of Bushwick Inlet Park. As a result, TransGas has not received the necessary permits that would allow the power plant to move towards underground construction, though they have been given the option to bid on the lot currently occupied by Bayside Fuel.
Both parties appeared before a panel of judges including Justice Joseph Covello, Justice Peter Skelos, Justice Mark Dillon, and Justice Robert Spolzino, and presented brief, 15-minute testimonies regarding the authority of the city and state in terms of using public city streets and spaces to install the underground water and power lines necessary to construct the plant. While the Siting Board denied the TransGas application based on the belief that the city had overall jurisdiction over the usage of city streets, on Wednesday John Dax, who is representing TransGas in court, challenged that decision.
“Our primary legal point is that we challenged the Siting Board’s conclusion that they did not have the authority to override the city’s control over the use of city streets to locate underground utilities, which the project would require,” said Dax. “If our appeal is granted, the court will most likely order a remand back to the Siting Board to pick up the proposal in change of legal interpretation.”
Though the issue of city and state control is now up in the air, as both parties await a verdict from the appellate court, community members are prepared to fight the power plant every step of the way, no matter how long it takes. Residents who have been vocal in their opposition to the TransGas power plant believe that installing smoke stacks on the waterfront would in fact counteract the remediations promised in the 2005 rezoning, including parks and open space.
“All the plans for the esplanade and pocket parks, and for Bushwick Inlet Park would be ruined,” said community leader Laura Hoffman. “Whether the power plant is above ground or underground, it would never be good for this area. The whole idea of the community fighting through this whole process of the rezoning, just to go ahead and take away our parks, it would be a huge loss.”
Assemblyman Joe Lentol, who has also been a vehement opponent of the power plant, agreed, explaining that constructing a power plant on the Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront would serve only to perpetuate the notion of the land as toxic and noxious, rather than a potentially vibrant, healthy and healthful community space.
“Our waterfront was rotting for years, and it wasn’t eve rezoned yet,” Lentol said. “Even then, a power plant was a bad idea because we’d never get anything built on this waterfront, and it would continue to house only noxious uses that this community has suffered with all its life. This is the wrong place and the wrong time—we’re in the midst of the development of the waterfront, and to put a power plant right smack in the middle of that wouldn’t be a wise thing to do. The community—practically everybody—has come out and oppose it, but these proceedings might be TransGas’ last gasp.”