As the world gathers for Climate Week NYC, New York is rightly focused on its own fight against climate change and environmental injustice.
New York’s climate goals, including having 70% of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by 2030, are bold and aggressive. Unfortunately, recent reports have found that we are unlikely to hit these targets on time, calling into question whether these bold initiatives are achievable at all.
But despite this setback, Gov. Hochul and state officials have refused to back down from this daunting challenge and are doing the right thing by trying to find a path forward. In the face of this massive challenge, the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) stands out.
CHPE is more than just a transmission line; it’s a powerful symbol of what’s possible when we commit to a sustainable future. By delivering renewable hydropower from Québec to New York City all year round — including those frigid winter months — this project is a game-changer for our city.
CHPE will provide an impressive 20% of New York City’s energy, delivering 10.4 TWh of clean, renewable hydropower per year, and reducing emissions equivalent to removing one million cars from our streets. But this is only one project, and without more investment in transmission projects, we will not hit our 2030 climate goals. We must move quickly before these targets slip beyond our reach.
CHPE demonstrates how elected officials and policy makers, community leaders, and developers can work together and achieve something transformative.
But something not always reflected in the facts and figures, and broader vision for such an ambitious statewide initiative, is what these projects mean for our residents and members of our community, especially those in my beloved Astoria, which is often referred to as “Asthma Alley,” who historically have been disproportionately exposed to harmful pollutants that drive adverse health impacts and threaten the wellbeing of our community.
Decades of dirty fossil fuel have caused children in our community to have asthma at higher rates than the rest of the borough, including my own son. This has been a generational challenge, families receiving respiratory illness as their inheritance from the environmental racist decisions by policymakers of the past. But thanks to a project like CHPE, and others the state has and is working to get into the pipeline, we look forward to a cleaner, greener future.
CHPE will effectively displace fossil fuel generation and significantly cut down on emissions, particularly in environmental justice communities like Astoria and across the river in the South Bronx which have long borne the brunt of pollution.
For too long, environmental justice communities have been overburdened with pollution and under-served by clean energy investments. CHPE’s ability to displace emissions in these neighborhoods is a long-overdue step toward rectifying these injustices. By delivering clean energy, this project directly addresses the pollution in some of our most vulnerable communities, improving air quality and public health outcomes.
All of New York’s neighborhoods need to be transformed in this way. All of our children deserve to breathe clean air. Our government must work faster to make this a reality.
And these impacts extend far beyond environmental benefits. CHPE and the buildout of a new cleaner, more reliable grid is also a powerful engine for economic development and workforce growth. The project is creating thousands of jobs across the state, from the skilled union laborers building the infrastructure, to the engineers who have been developing it for more than a decade. Moreover, it supports the ongoing development of a green workforce — an essential component of New York’s transition to a clean energy economy.
As a former City Council member, and lifelong New Yorker, I’ve seen firsthand the need for sustainable job creation and environmental stewardship. CHPE is not just an infrastructure project — it’s a blueprint for how we can build a greener, more equitable future. It’s a shining example of what we can achieve when we combine innovation with a commitment to social and environmental justice. But it needs to be just the tip of the iceberg.
During this Climate Week, we need to reflect on the urgency of our mission; the time for action is now. New York’s bold ambition is leading the way, and we owe it to our communities to meet the requirements of the state Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and transform Asthma Alley into Renewable Row.
Constantinides, a former City Council member, is CEO of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens.
