Green-energy madness will turn NYC family homes into firetraps

You’ve got to be kidding me.

A massive lithium-ion battery facility is being quietly pushed into the heart of Middle Village, Queens — right across the street from PS/IS 128, where hundreds of children go to school.

And it doesn’t stop there: It’s also next door to an animal hospital, a day-care center and a children’s fun house.

This is not a joke. It’s a fire hazard disguised as green infrastructure, as part of the City of Yes.

And I’m here to say: Not in my neighborhood. Not next door to our kids.

Not without a fight.

NineDot Energy, the company behind this plan, is eyeing a residential lot smack in the middle of a residential neighborhood — a place where kids ride bikes, families walk their dogs and teachers relax on their lunch break.

It’s the last place a dangerous industrial-battery facility should ever be allowed.

These lithium-ion battery systems, necessary to comply with the impossible clean-energy goals of Albany’s 2019 Climate Act, are a disaster waiting to happen.

Look no further than Moss Landing, Calif. — where a giant battery facility caught fire this year and burned for five days, releasing toxic smoke and forcing over 1,000 residents to evacuate.

A month later, it caught fire again.

In 2023 alone, lithium-ion battery fires in New York City killed 18 people and injured 150.

And those were from smaller batteries — imagine what a 40-foot container full of high-capacity battery racks could do in the middle of a neighborhood if it explodes.

Now imagine that happening across the street from a school with thousands of kids inside.

This project is being allowed as-of-right — meaning no public hearing, no environmental review, no input from the community — as part of the City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality, a citywide zoning amendment that I strongly opposed and voted against.

And Middle Village isn’t alone: Similar giant battery sites and proposals are popping up in residential areas all over the outer boroughs — Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx.

The communities most at risk are the ones with the least political clout, and the most working-class families.

This is what happens when City Hall passes sweeping legislation without doing its homework — without understanding the consequences.

They called it “green,” wrapped it in nice language, and pushed it through without asking: What happens when we site hazardous battery facilities in the middle of residential communities?

Moss Landing knows.

This wasn’t about climate. It wasn’t about helping everyday New Yorkers.

It was about helping developers and special interests. The same groups who pushed for this plan — who stood to benefit financially — were the ones who helped write the rules.

And too many of my colleagues in the City Council did their bidding, whether as useful idiots or because they were in on it.

That’s why I’ve joined a lawsuit with the Common Sense Caucus to strike down the entire City of Yes zoning overhaul — because it’s being used to fast-track projects like this one that put people at risk.

And we’re also exploring a separate legal action specifically targeting the carbon-neutrality piece of the zoning law that makes this battery facility possible.

We’re demanding accountability. And we’re demanding a full stop to the reckless placements of these facilities.

Let me be clear: I’m not against clean energy. I support renewable power, responsible planning and real solutions to our climate challenges.

But that doesn’t mean handing our neighborhoods over to developers and crossing our fingers that nobody gets hurt.

We can build a sustainable city without turning schools into blast zones and blocks of family homes into firetraps.

I’m calling for the city to place an immediate moratorium on all large-scale lithium-ion battery facilities in residential areas, until real safeguards are in place and real people have a say.

That means public hearings, fire-safety reviews, community input and accountability — not just backroom deals and rubber stamps.

Middle Village is not a testing ground. Our families will not become the green lobbyists’ collateral damage.

We’ve fought too hard to keep this community safe, and I’m not about to let it go up in flames — literally.

This is about common sense. And I’ll keep fighting until it prevails.

City Council Member Robert Holden (D) represents District 30 in Queens.