Elected leaders push for wind farms in region

Members of Congress, environmental activists and Long Beach leaders on Wednesday called on the federal Department of the Interior to designate “wind energy areas” in the New York Bight — a wide swath of ocean that includes Long Island — so that wind turbines can finally be erected in the region.

The effort is being led by U.S. Rep. Kathleen Rice, who said the Interior Department was supposed to have made the designation in 2019, but failed to do so.

Rice and others spoke on the boardwalk, at National Boulevard.

Rice said that New York state approved a Climate Leadership and Protection Act last year, which she called “a legally binding document” to provide the state with 9,000 megawatts of energy by 2035. That, she said, would be enough to power six million homes. But to do that, wind turbines are needed.

The United States, Rice and environmentalists said, is way behind Europe in the development of wind power. “I’m calling on the DOI to designate fixed wind energy areas,” Rice said, “and to hold lease auctions before the end of 2020.”

“It’s my opinion that this administration has expressed support” for the coal industry, Rice said, adding, “New York can’t wait” much longer for the wind-power designation. “These delays have been unacceptable.”

Rice said she was sending a letter with bipartisan backing to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt calling for the designations to be made as quickly as possible. She said she was joined in the effort by other members of the state congressional delegation, including Republican Tom Reed and Democrats Tom Suozzi, Jerry Nadler, Nydia Velázquez, Eliot Engel, Adriano Espaillat, Paul Tonko, Gregory Meeks, Yvette Clarke, Grace Meng and Max Rose.

Adrienne Esposito, director of the Citizens Campaign forthe Environment, said her Farmingdale-based organization has been calling for the designations for wind turbines for several years now. “We absolutely need for the government to move this process forward,” Esposito said. “The government must designate suitable areas for these turbines.”

The U.S. has only one operating offshore wind farm, off Block Island, R.I., which has five wind turbines.

Joe Martins, director of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance, which is headquartered in Albany, said the U.S. is decades behind Europe in the development of wind power. He said there are 100 wind farms in Europe that include 4,000 turbines.

“We’re having a lot of states come up with aggressive goals” for wind power, Martins said. “These wind farms would mean thousands of jobs and billions of dollars. New York and Long Island could be in the forefront of all of this.”

Environmentalists say that President Trump has increased his criticism of wind power, claiming the manufacture of the turbines causes “tremendous amounts of fumes spewing into the air” Environmentalists noted, which brings down the value of nearby homes, and that the fumes kill birds.

Interior Department officials say they are conducting a review of wind farms in order to make sure the government gets offshore wind right the first time. But that review, environmentalists claim, appears to have slowed down efforts to build wind farms.

“New York has begun to unleash the potential of wind energy to greatly benefit our environment and economy,” said State Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Long Beach Democrat who chairs the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee. “But there is so much more left to do, and it all begins with the federal government opening up more space for development. I am pleased to work with Congresswoman Rice to encourage and incentivize the production of clean, renewable energy.”