Emily Pomilio, emily.pomilio@sierraclub.org (480) 286-0401
East Hampton, NY —Today, environmental, labor and local organizations, and residents attended an East Hampton hearing where they urged the New York Public Service Commission to move forward expeditiously on the permitting process to ensure New York’s first offshore wind farm gets built.
The public hearing focused on the Article VII permitting process for New York’s first offshore wind project, the South Fork Wind Farm, which will dictate the route for the cable carrying electricity from the offshore wind farm. The South Fork Wind Farm, with 15 offshore wind turbines 35 miles off of Montauk Point, will provide clean renewable power to 70,000 Long Island homes.
Governor Cuomo has committed to a carbon free electric sector by 2040 and to source 70 percent of New York’s electric energy from renewables by 2030. Getting New York’s first offshore wind project built and scaling up on offshore wind rapidly is essential to meeting these goals. The town of East Hampton has also committed to powering the town with 100 percent renewable energy and building offshore wind will be necessary to meet that local goal. Offshore wind will be built in New York under project labor agreements creating thousands of family-wage jobs for Long Islanders.
The below organizations provided their response:
"This project is about the future of New York," said Jessica Enzmann, Long Island Organizer for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. "It's about supporting the Governor's larger climate goals and building a renewable energy economy that will create local, family-wage jobs. We're here to ensure that this process moves forward and the state's first offshore wind project gets built on time."
"This is a transformational project for not just the South Fork, but for all of Long Island," said Nassau Suffolk Building and Construction Trades Council President Matthew Aracich. "The first offshore wind project to serve New York State will create incredible job opportunities and take a tremendous step towards our mutual goal to become more sustainable and carbon neutral. Our economic future is deeply rooted in the renewable energy economy, and this project is an essential piece of that puzzle."
“The Long Island labor movement enthusiastically supports the offshore wind project which will power the South Fork with safe, reliable renewable energy,” said Roger Clayman, Executive Director of the Long Island Federation of Labor. “We urge the Public Service Commission to approve the connections to shore proposed by Orsted which have been shown to be safe and non-intrusive.”
“Our current fossil fuel roadmap leads to an unsustainable future,” said Cate Rogers, chair of the Peconic Region Chapter of The Climate Reality Project. “We must transition to renewable energy and supporting the transition in underground infrastructure cannot be separated from this necessary project. In order to be the change we must all work together.”
“One Island, one future. If we are going to change tomorrow we must act today," said Adrienne Esposito, Executive Director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment. "Offshore wind power is an essential part of transitioning away from destructive fossil fuel and leading us towards clean. safe renewables. We must implement wind power into our grid as soon as possible. The waiting is over, action is needed today.”
"Expediting the development of energy producing wind farms is a local, national, and global priority,” said Daniel Busi, Managing Director for the U.S. Green Building Council-Long Island. “Offshore wind has the greatest potential of any renewable energy source to meet our energy needs, and each day we delay its development is another day our power consumption is directly contributing to the climate crisis. Let’s work together to get this done responsibly and without obstruction.”
"East Hampton has an opportunity to host the first offshore wind energy production in New York State which offers exciting potential to begin reversing dependency on harmful fossil fuels, and addressing the devastation of the climate crisis,” said Judith Hope, former East Hampton Supervisor and Steerer at Wind With Wind. “East Hampton Town, with a long history of environmental leadership, will make sure this project is done right. It can and should become a model for other communities on the east coastin pioneering environmentally sensitive wind power in our state.”
"The Town of East Hampton has set visionary and aggressive goals of meeting 100 percent of annual community-wide energy consumption from renewable energy sources,” said Gordian Raacke, Executive Director, Renewable Energy Long Island. “ While solar energy along with energy efficiency and other improvements will contribute to meeting these goals, offshore wind energy is the only clean energy source which can provide the bulk of the energy needed to achieve these goals."
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.