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Fresh on the heels of a huge setback in their campaign to close down the unwanted Rosebank power plant, Staten Island elected officials are mobilizing to open some new fronts in their 4-year-old battle.
Last week, the state Department of Environmental Conservation shrugged off numerous violations at the 47-megawatt plant and recommended that the federal Environmental Protection Agency give the New York Power Authority, which operates the facility, a permit to keep it operating another five years.
While the decision, made in the face of NYPA's deception and mismanagement, outraged people in Rosebank and across Staten Island, it came as no surprise.
The DEC has long been little more than NYPA's beard throughout this entire process, pretending to be regulating the plant operation for the benefit of the public while rubber-stamping everything NYPA sent its way.
Some people hoped against hope that the DEC would finally be ashamed enough by its past complicity with NYPA's Machiavellian maneuverings to do the right thing, but it wasn't to be. Now, the battle goes to Washington, D.C., and perhaps, back to the state. Rep. Vito Fossella wrote a letter to the EPA that cited the hundreds of emissions violations and emphasized a "lack of adequate security at the facility" seen in a March 30 incident when a security alarm went unanswered.
"Simply stated," Mr. Fossella wrote, "NYPA did not act in the best interest of the people of Staten Island when siting this facility and [has] failed to live up to its promise of being a good neighbor to the residents of Rosebank. It is my belief the permit should be rejected and steps should be taken at the state level to close this facility."
Strong stuff -- and it should give the EPA a lot to think about in the 45 days it has to make a decision on the permit recommendation. We would have only added that the DEC's recommendation is hardly worth the paper it's written on since that state agency has been collaborating with NYPA, another state agency for years on this issue.
The most severe punishment the DEC has meted out was to fine NYPA $550,000 for more than 300 emissions violations in late 2002 and early 2003.
Sound tough enough? Don't be fooled by this strictly-for-show penalty. Again, NYPA's a state agency. The fine comes out of its budget, which is financed and will be replenished entirely by state taxpayers.
So, given the EPA's relatively short time frame for rendering a decision, that's the most immediate course of action. And we hope that Mr. Fossella will be joined by Sen. Charles Schumer and Sen. Hillary Clinton in making the case against the Rosebank plant before that period elapses.
Meanwhile, Councilman Michael McMahon, the most outspoken opponent of the plant all along, has shrewdly suggested that the rigged state regulatory that resulted in the misbegotten siting and continued operation of this power plant should become an issue in the governor's race next year.
Perhaps Mr. McMahon can persuade Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, to get on board against the plant early on.
Certainly, incumbent Gov. George Pataki's miserable handling of this issue throughout leaves a sorry legacy for Mr. Pataki or any other Republican nominee that Mr. Spitzer could exploit on Staten Island.
A NYPA spokesman, with typical smugness, rebutted the lawmakers' challenge by saying, "We urge the EPA to consider any facts Congressman Fossella may raise and base its decision under the provisions of the Clean Air Act. We would urge Mr. McMahon, as well, to give the EPA any facts he has regarding the impacts of this plant under the provisions of the Clean Air Act."
In other words, NYPA complied (maybe) with the technicalities of a single federal law, barely, and was not required to consider any other factors -- not the impact on the community, not the ease with which the plant could have been built in a better location, not its repeated lies, not the frequency of its violations.
As it always has on the state level, NYPA thinks it has the deck stacked in its favor on the federal level, as well.
Maybe. Maybe not.
In any case, NYPA's insufferable arrogance and absolute refusal to acknowledge community concerns in anything more than a pro-forma manner have infuriated not just the people of Rosebank, but people all over Staten Island.
Perhaps all those people can now let the EPA -- and the governor and the candidates for state office -- know that this isn't just a Rosebank issue, but a Staten Island issue.
That plant's existence -- how it came to be, where it is, how it is operated, how it is managed -- is an insult to every person in this borough.
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