Kevin McGee says the complaint program changes fleet behavior
McGee says he participates in the program in his spare time and has seen major fleets like Con Edison, Amazon, and Verizon reduce idling. He urges the Council to reject 561-A and support Intro 48.
I'm a participant in this program.
I have a day job.
I do this in some spare time.
Last time I testified about 941, you were fascinated about my interest in doing this because I walk 12 miles a day.
It's something that I was already doing before.
How many miles a day?
12 miles a day.
I was already doing it.
You were fascinated before when I testified about 941.
Councilmember Villas already cited the figure 2,400 deaths a year from air pollution in New York City.
Illegal wildlife contributes to that.
It's very much preventable.
And I believe, as a participant in this program, that the citizen complaint program works.
This law was practically unenforced for almost four decades, has finally some teeth to it with this program.
Could you speak a little louder or closer to the mic?
As participants, we've watched major fleets change their behavior, including Con Ed, Amazon, Verizon.
We do not see them idling nearly as much as we used to.
Because this enforcement changes behavior.
But air pollution has a particularly cruel future.
Its consequences are indirect, and its victims are easy to overlook.
A child in an under-resourced neighborhood has an asthma attack.
Someone develops lung cancer.
Older New Yorker dies of stroke or heart disease earlier than they would have otherwise.
And we rarely see that connection because
Unfortunately, it just makes it easier for elected officials to fail to protect them.
and to ignore it without consequence.
But these are not abstract statistics.
These are real people and real lives.
And I apologize for the sort of grim analogy here, but if a gunman walked into a school and exacted a quota every year wiping out a classroom, we would not accept that as a minor policy tradeoff.
We would not.
Accept that as a bargaining chip in regular political horse trading.
So the victims of pollution deserve no less urgency, simply because their suffering is less visible.
So I would urge you to reject 561A in its entirety.
I do not think it's redeemable, but support Intro 48 to bring this program to the communities that need it the most.
And to use Councilmember Velasquez's analogy, this would not put the program 10 toes down.
It would put it six feet under.
Thank you.