New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have expedited an offshore wind project off the coast of Long Island and allowed for a transmission line under the public beach in the city of Long Beach.
“It is incumbent on renewable energy developers to cultivate and maintain strong ties to their host communities,” Hochul wrote in her veto message. “Here, the City Council of Long Beach, the host community for the wind power project, has made clear that, while it supports the state’s efforts to transition from the use of fossil fuels, it would not support or authorize any alienation of parkland.”
The veto drew recrimination from clean energy supporters who have long been waiting for New York’s offshore wind projects to get underway. The downstate region’s energy sector has become increasingly reliant on natural gas and other fossil fuels in recent years to power one of the world’s most densely populated regions.
Long Beach City Council President John Bendo says residents are acutely aware of rising sea levels and the need for more renewable energy, but that they opposed bringing the power transmission line through the center of town and its beach.
“Our beach is expensive to operate in the summer,” Bendo said in an interview. “We need tourist revenue to keep our beach operating and they’re potentially going to be driving our tourists to other beaches for two years. We just can’t afford that.”
Environmental advocates say the governor’s veto shows that she’s not willing to fight harder to reach the state’s climate goals.
“There’s going to be opposition to some of this stuff, that’s fine,” Alex Beauchamp, regional director for Food & Water Watch, said in an interview. “But we have to be tougher about it. If we’re serious that we need to build it then we have to build it.”
The transmission line was part of the sprawling Empire Wind project being planned roughly 20 miles off the coast of Long Island. Developers say it would consist of about 130 turbines and generate 2.1 gigawatts of electricity — or enough to power 1 million homes.
Bendo faults the wind developer, Equinor, for not addressing the community’s concerns.
“We begged them to implement some kind of public engagement process to talk to the residents. If you want to sell your project to residents, you need to explain to them what benefits are there for them,” Bendo said. “And they just did nothing. They didn’t lift a finger.”
Equinor did not address questions about its community engagement when asked by Gothamist. Instead, the company’s President Molly Morris emailed a statement saying that New York was undermining the state’s renewable energy mandate.
“This decision sends another troubling signal to renewable energy developers following last week’s action by the New York State Public Service Commission,” Morris wrote, referring to a recent failed attempt to renegotiate future power sales contracts.
That and the veto throws the future of the Long Beach wind project into doubt.
Ari Brown, a Republican state assemblymember from Nassau County, said this veto essentially kills the project.
“Could someone introduce another bill where the cable won’t make landfall and be further out to sea? Maybe.” Brown said in an interview. “It’s just not economically viable for the company to do it. That’s the problem.”
