Editorial

Our future is literally blowin’ in the wind

Posted

Long Island was supposed to have 40 or more wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean by now, generating electricity 3½ to 4½ miles south of Jones Beach, which would have met 1 to 2 percent of Long Island’s electricity needs — pollution-free.

But in August 2007, despite public opinion polls showing strong support for an offshore wind farm, the Long Island Power Authority, directed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, scuttled the plan, saying that it would cost too much. It would have raised a typical homeowner’s electric rate by $2.50 a month.

Richard Kessel, of Merrick, the LIPA chairman who brought offshore wind to the table before Spitzer ousted him in January 2007, said at a recent Smart Growth Summit, sponsored by the nonprofit Vision Long Island, that he was proud “we advanced the project pretty significantly.” Kessel had spent more than a decade developing plans for what would have been the nation’s first offshore wind farm, while building support for it among environmental and civic groups. Then, with a single decision, it was no more.

LIPA officials, especially Kessel, saw the project as a model for the future of electricity generation, one that could be replicated on both U.S. coasts. The turbines would have been built at a time when offshore wind development was still in its early stages worldwide.

The title of nation’s first now belongs to Deepwater Wind, a private energy company that recently constructed a five-turbine, 30-megawatt wind farm off Block Island, R.I. The farm started beaming wind-generated electricity to Rhode Island on Dec. 12. The project produces enough electricity to light 30,000 homes.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which is in charge of siting wind farms, is now developing a master plan for their future development. That process began in 2016 and is expected to be complete by the end of this year, according to NYSERDA’s website.

In December, the authority bid on the rights to develop 79,350 acres of the Atlantic Ocean 12 miles off Long Island’s coast. State officials wanted to control development of offshore wind, and not leave it to energy companies and private developers.

But NYSERDA lost the bidding war to Statoil US LLC, a subsidiary of Statoil, a Norway-based international energy company that is now private, but was once owned wholly by the people of Norway. Statoil US will pay a record-setting $42.46 million to the federal Bureau of Marine Management to develop wind farms off Long Island.

“Statoil will now have the opportunity to explore the potential development of an offshore wind farm to provide New York City and Long Island with a significant, long-term source of renewable electricity,” the company states on its website.

Norway still owns the majority of stock in Statoil, so when wind farms are finally developed off Long Island, the Norwegian people will profit.
Norway is among the world’s leaders in offshore wind production. The country began with a handful of projects scattered across its coastline. Last March,

Norway announced plans to construct one of the world’s largest wind farms there, at a cost of $1.2 billion. When complete, it will produce enough electricity to light a million homes.

It is a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that Long Island was once positioned to lead the development of offshore wind power. There were even proposals to build wind-turbine factories here and usher in a new technological era. But no more.

Opponents of the first Jones Beach wind-farm proposal –– in particular, a group called Save Jones Beach (once supported by Donald Trump) –– often cited the Nordic countries, saying they were troubled by the “intermittency” of wind power –– meaning that wind doesn’t blow all the time, so you can’t meet 100 percent of your electricity needs with it.

Well, the Nordic countries have apparently solved that problem, and have taken their small local wind projects and gone international, becoming world leaders in wind development.

Wind and solar are our future. We know that, at some not-too-distant point, fossil fuels –– coal, oil and natural gas –– will run out. Moreover, we know that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of “anthropogenic,” or human-caused, global warming, which is raising the level of our seas while also acidifying them, killing marine life, in particular coral.

It’s time that Long Island, and our nation, embrace renewable energy –– now, before it’s too late.