Hello Everyone,

We are meeting today, Tuesday, 2-3:30pm.  Here’s the registration link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0vdumprzIoHNfMhAvbhp0cYjoeHJMZMZHA

It is urgent that everyone attend this meeting, and particularly all historic preservation organizations in NYC.

Bills being fast tracked in Congress are threatening to virtually eliminate any environmental and historic preservation reviews being conducted in NYC and around the nation and expressly prohibiting moratoria on wireless facilities. Here’s a Fact Sheet summarizing the bills.

As you may know, there has been widespread opposition in NYC against the 5G towers.  With 16 community boards in NYC that have either disapproved or called for moratoria on these towers, that represents about 2 million NYC residents -- more than a quarter of the population of NYC.  Also, the site developer for these towers, CityBridge, was notified by the FCC that it is required to undergo environmental and historical preservation review for all towers prior to construction, and as to those that have already been constructed, there must be post-construction review.  In September, more community boards will weigh in on the towers.  In addition, the major historical societies in NYC have been united in opposing the 5G towers in NYC historical districts.

These bills virtually eliminate the very environmental and historical preservation reviews that the site developer is required to undergo in NYC, and HR3557 explicitly prohibits moratoria, the very vehicle by which NYC residents and community boards have expressed their opposition.  

Also, these bills are intended to overturn a 2019 major court decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals which ruled against the FCC when the FCC attempted to exclude 5G technology from environmental and historical preservation reviews.  United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians v FCC (representing about 20 tribes).  Those reviews are now required by law, but these bills will overturn them.  See their notice here: https://www.ukb-nsn.gov/post/ukb-wins-critical-case-against-fcc-5g-deployment.  (See also: https://ehtrust.org/federal-court-overturns-fcc-order-which-bypassed-environmental-review-for-5g-small-cell-wireless/.)

As you can see, these bills target with surgical precision the very successes New Yorkers and the Indian Tribal Nations have had so far in requiring that industry follow the rule of law.  The other bills that have passed out of the Energy and Commerce Committee and other committees, work synergistically to also silence New Yorkers. 

Reviews are required under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, and local control on operations and siting is now reserved to local government under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.  These bills will virtually eliminate the foregoing in favor of industry dictates.

As to the proffered rationale for these bills - to bridge the digital divide - it is commonly known that expanding wireless will perpetuate and even exacerbate the digital divide, as reported by the U.S. Govt Accountability Office and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance.  With wireless' built-in obsolescence, as prior "generations" are sunsetted by industry (to guarantee future revenue), new devices and equipment will need to be purchased, meaning that low-income New Yorkers who cannot afford them will continue to be left behind.  Of course, the solution is fiber to the premises which has no built-in obsolescence, prioritized by the NTIA and advocated by former FCC Chair, Tom Wheeler.