MANHATTAN
SNAPS
PHOTO BY BILL BIGGART/BROOKLYN COLLEGE LIBRARY ARCHIVES
Protesters at the N.Y.U. Loeb Center on Washington Square
South.
On Nov. 5, 1985, in a protest at New York University’s Loeb Center,
on Washington Square South, activists used a big prop to call for a
freeze on deploying cruise missiles. There were antinuclear protests
worldwide in 1985 demanding that the U.S. and NATO halt missile deployments
that were part of the arms race with the Soviets. In New York City,
activists feared that plans to build a Navy port on Staten Island would bring
cruise missiles to the city. Years later, the Loeb Center was replaced by a
new, larger building, the Kimmel Center.
— GABE HERMAN
Publisher of The Villager, Villager Express, Chelsea Now,
Downtown Express and Manhattan Express
VICTORIA SCHNEPS-YUNIS
JOSHUA SCHNEPS
LINCOLN ANDERSON
GABE HERMAN
MICHELE HERMAN
BOB KRASNER
TEQUILA MINSKY
MARY REINHOLZ
PAUL SCHINDLER
JOHN NAPOLI
MARCOS RAMOS
CLIFFORD LUSTER
(718) 260-2504
CLUSTER@CNGLOCAL.COM
MARVIN ROCK
GAYLE GREENBURG
JIM STEELE
JULIO TUMBACO
PUBLISHER’S LIABILITY FOR ERROR ELIZABETH POLLY
The Publisher shall not be liable for slight changes
or typographical errors that do not lessen the value
of an advertisement. The publisher’s liability for
others errors or omissions in connection with an
advertisement is strictly limited to publication of the
advertisement in any subsequent issue.
Published by Schneps Media
One Metrotech North, 10th floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Phone: (718) 260-2500
Fax: (212) 229-2790
On-line: www.thevillager.com
E-mail: news@thevillager.com
© 2019 Schneps Media
New York Press Association
Member of the National
Newspaper Association
Member of the
Member of the
Minority Women Business Enterprise
PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
CEO & CO-PUBLISHER
EDITOR IN CHIEF
REPORTER
CONTRIBUTORS
ART DIRECTORS
ADVERTISING
CIRCULATION SALES MNGR.
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Guest Editorial
Renewable gas is
how city should roll
BY JOANNA UNDERWOOD
New York’s Metropolitan
Transportation Authority is
joining Santa Monica, Los
Angeles Transit and a growing number
of other transit fleets in adopting
ultra-low carbon renewable natural
gas (R.N.G.). Every fleet vehicle
running on R.N.G. in New York will
help meet the state’s ambitious zerocarbon
standard — not 30 years from
now, but today.
That’s a big step forward. But R.N.G.
is relatively unfamiliar to clean-energy
advocates, and sometimes misunderstood.
For example, the article in this
newspaper’s June 20 issue (“M.T.A.
drive for renewable-gas buses”) quoted
Jim Walsh, of Food and Water Watch,
arguing that since R.N.G. is like fossil
natural gas, it could leak from pipelines
and emit toxics and greenhouse gases
(G.H.G.) when burned. He also said it
would enable factory farms and their
negative impacts. These are misunderstandings.
Yes, pipelines can leak. But according
to the California Air Resources
Board (CARB), R.N.G. is the lowestcarbon
fuel available today, even taking
potential leakage into account. R.N.G.
production involves capturing methane
emitted by decomposing organic
wastes that would otherwise enter the
atmosphere and warm the climate.
CARB found that G.H.G. emitted from
tailpipes of buses and trucks burning
R.N.G. is negligible compared to
G.H.G. captured to produce the fuel. It
also found that over its lifecycle, R.N.G.
made from certain feedstocks (food
scraps and manures) was net carbonnegative.
That makes R.N.G. a big net gain for
the climate and a prime decarbonization
strategy. The fact that it is chemically
similar to fossil natural gas and
can be used in the same vehicles, power
plants and pipelines is a good thing. It
means that R.N.G. can easily displace
natural gas, reducing, not compounding,
the natural-gas industry’s climate
impacts.
R.N.G. can also displace diesel, slashing
G.H.G. and toxic emissions from
diesel use. Buses and trucks equipped
with “near zero” natural-gas engines
can run on R.N.G., and they cut nitrogen
oxide and other health-threatening
pollutants to almost nothing (90 percent
below U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency standards).
Food and Water Watch and others
are right to worry about the footprint
of large dairy farms. R.N.G. shrinks it.
Processing farm manures in anaerobic
digesters prevents them from emitting
methane and contaminating waterways,
and yields renewable fuel that farmers
can sell. The additional income stream
can help smaller farms compete.
So what’s not to like? R.N.G. comes
from an abundant, 100-percent renewable
resource. It’s carbon-free, and
displaces dirtier fossil fuels. Once it’s
more widely understood, it should be
embraced as a key part of New York’s
clean energy future.
Underwood is founder and a board
member, Energy Vision (www.energyvision.
org)
Schneps Media
Covering Manhattan
in more ways than one
PRINT • DIGITAL
EVENTS • RADIO
For more news & events happening now
visit www.TheVillager.com
12 June 27, 2019 TVG Schneps Media
/www.energy-vision.org
/www.thevillager.com
link
/www.energy-vision.org
/www.energy-vision.org
link
/www.TheVillager.com
/www.thevillager.com
/www.TheVillager.com
link
link