by Michelle Mullen<\/p>\n
With another stretch of summer heat pushing air conditioners into overdrive, environmentalists are questioning whether New York\u2019s electrical systems can withstand a drastically warming climate.<\/p>\n
The concern goes beyond keeping the lights on. Electricity powers hospitals, subways, and drinking water and wastewater plants alike. Environmentalists say the July 4 failure at the Yonkers Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant, which sent tens of millions of gallons of partially treated wastewater into the Hudson River, according to Westchester County, showed what happens when that infrastructure is pushed to its limits.<\/p>\n
Robert Fanuzzi, president of the Bronx Council for Environmental Quality, called it a warning,\u00a0 saying hotter summers and a growing population mean demand for power increasingly tests the systems everyone depends on.\u00a0 He believes New York\u00a0 is entering an era in which rising demand for power could increasingly test the resilience of its infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Con Edison appears to be preparing for that future, announcing a $3.9 billion investment in May to strengthen its electric delivery system in New York City and Westchester County. Demand is expected to reach 12,690 megawatts next summer, the utility said, nearing its all-time record of 13,322 megawatts set during the 2013 heat wave.<\/p>\n
Demand is rising even without hotter summers, said Karen Argenti, a Bronx Council for Environmental Quality member. The department of city planning said the city\u2019s population is projected to approach nine million by 2055, putting significant strain on existing energy systems. The Bronx alone is projected to reach roughly 1.65 million people, according to the department. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is the bad weather, crazy weather, very hot, extremely hot weather, and the high need for electricity,\u201d Argenti said. \u201cYou do have to bring in more electricity because you have more people. So there\u2019s a double thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
Fanuzzi called it a \u201cgrowing the pie\u201d problem, citing nearly 50 proposed AI data centers statewide totaling 12 gigawatts \u2014 enough energy to power millions of homes \u2014 which prompted a new one-year moratorium on permits for large-scale data centers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m terrified of the future that is driven by an energy-based economy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re increasing electric demand and hoping that somewhere somebody will pull out a renewable energy source to replace carbon-emitting plants. We\u2019re attempting to air-condition ourselves out of a heat dome that scientists have said is virtually impossible without climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other side, Argenti, Fanuzzi and Rae Zimmerman, professor emerita at NYU\u2019s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, argue, is needing less power by cooling the city down. More electricity treats the symptom, not the cause. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou could do something that would make it better, which is to figure out a way to capture the carbon that\u2019s creating the greenhouse gases,\u201d Argenti said. \u201cAnd you do that by making sure you have more green.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea, she continued, is a city with more trees, wetlands and green roofs that needs less electricity to cool down. <\/p>\n
Zimmerman\u2019s research treats parks and rain gardens as infrastructure, not amenities. Trees shade streets, wetlands soak up stormwater, rain gardens cool the ground, all easing pressure on the grid.<\/p>\n
A green roof\u2019s surface can run up to 56 degrees cooler than a regular one, per the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, lowering nearby air by up to 20 degrees and cutting cooling loads by up to 70 percent. A mapping study by The Nature Conservancy, Columbia University and the Wildlife Conservation Society, however, found the South Bronx combines high heat vulnerability with some of the city\u2019s lowest concentrations of green roofs.<\/p>\n
Zimmerman said the real obstacle isn\u2019t building this infrastructure, but maintaining it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe financing for capitalization is one thing for green infrastructure, but maintenance is another,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s a big deal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Her research argues green infrastructure should be a permanent complement to \u201cgray\u201d infrastructure, a point Argenti\u2019s own council research echoes.<\/p>\n
Fanuzzi said greening public buildings, including plants like the one in Yonkers, could cut their own energy use and ease strains such as that which caused the July 4 failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe New York State will start to rethink its renewable energy policy and start investing in nature-based solutions that lower temperature naturally,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\tNew York power grid,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t climate change,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Con Edison,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Bronx Council for Environmental Quality,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Robert Fanuzzi,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Karen Argenti,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Rae Zimmerman,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t green infrastructure,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t heat wave,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t electricity demand,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Hudson River sewage spill,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t Yonkers Joint Wastewater Treatment Plant,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t renewable energy,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t urban heat island,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t green roofs,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t climate resilience\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Michelle Mullen With another stretch of summer heat pushing air conditioners into overdrive, environmentalists are questioning whether…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":956411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,384768,285,45071,12638,211886,864,114142,5370,384772,384770,405,403,384767,5226,5225,5228,5227,384771,866,384769,67,586,132,5230,71638,68,2969,384773],"class_list":["post-957062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-bronx-council-for-environmental-quality","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-resilience","tag-con-edison","tag-electricity-demand","tag-green-infrastructure","tag-green-roofs","tag-heat-wave","tag-hudson-river-sewage-spill","tag-karen-argenti","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-power-grid","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-rae-zimmerman","tag-renewable-energy","tag-robert-fanuzzi","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-urban-heat-island","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-yonkers-joint-wastewater-treatment-plant"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=957062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/957062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=957062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=957062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=957062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}