New York, NY – On Wednesday morning, NYS’s Department of Environmental Conservation denied the permit necessary for NRG to proceed with building a new fracked gas power plant in Astoria, Queens on the grounds that it did not comply with the state’s climate goals outlined by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).This decision comes after over a year of New Yorkers and environmental organizers publicly condemning the plant, including multiple protests, over 6,600 public comments, and hundreds of speakers at DEC’s public hearings. Astoria is one of the neighborhoods with the highest asthma rates in the city and produces much of the city’s energy. The community coalition opposing this power plant represents a broad range of environmental groups, including organizations like the DSA Ecosocialist Working Group, Food & Water Watch, Sierra Club, Queens Climate Project, among others. Nearly every elected official representing Astoria from Majority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Jessica Ramos, Senator Michael Gianaris, Assembly Member Zohran Kwame Mamdani, and Tiffany Cabàn, publicly opposed the power plant.

Assembly Member Mamdani is the prime sponsor of the Clean Futures Act (A6761A) a ban on all new fracked gas power plants across the state.

“Our fight against this plant began more than a year ago. In that time, our office, together with the Stop NRG Coalition, has held rallies, written op-eds, wrote 7,875 postcards to our constituents encouraging them to submit public comments against this plant, called 36,000 households across the 36th Assembly District asking them to do the same, and introduced legislation that would ban such plants from being built statewide. This led to the submission of more than 6,600 public comments and the creation of an ever-growing coalition in opposition to NRG’s proposal. This shows – when we organize against corporations that put capital over the collective, we can win a world where we all live with dignity. Stopping the Astoria power plant is an amazing victory towards a habitable planet and the clean future we all deserve. Now, we must take this momentum from Astoria to Albany and codify this decision by passing the Clean Futures Act, enacting Public Power through the Build Public Renewables Act, and leading the country in our fight against the climate crisis,” said Assembly Member Zohran K. Mamdani.

"DSA organizers worked tirelessly to build the coalition against the plant for the last year to defeat NRG and their $1 million effort to build a new fracked gas power plant in Astoria, and today we celebrate victory.

Only the organized working class can stop the climate crisis, and DSA is committed to winning many more victories in the decade ahead – including the Build Public Renewables Act next session, and a transition to 100% renewables in the coming years," said Stylianos Karolidis, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Ecosocialist Working Group.