No need for harmful Danskammer operation

Dear Editor:

Twenty-one municipalities, including my own, are opposing Danskammer Energy’s proposed fracked-gas plant in the town of Newburgh for solid reasons.

A thoroughly unnecessary plant, it would produce a massive increase in air pollutants as well as a 4,000% increase in greenhouse gases over the small peaker plant that now occupies the site.

The new Danskammer plant would be a baseload facility, running nearly all the time. It will cause serious health problems and deaths throughout the Hudson Valley.

In particular, the town of

Newburgh, where Danskammer is to be located, and Poughkeepsie, which it would affect, include environmental justice communities already battered by unnecessary hazards contributing to respiratory and heart ailments.

The New York System Operator says we do not need more energy plants for the next 10 years, even after the closure of the Indian Point nuclear facility. What we do need is safe, climate-friendly renewable energy, like wind and solar power, not more health threats from fossil fuels. The letter and spirit of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for renewable energy and an end to the building of fossil fuel infrastructure like Danskammer.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo must prioritize building clean energy and upgraded transmission lines to deliver it throughout our state. He must not allow fracked-gas infrastructure to metastasize in New York. Robert Heinemann

Poughkeepsie