Return of Wind Power

The East Hampton Star - Letter to the Editor 06.09.16 - by Linda James

Return of Wind Power - East Hampton - June 6, 2016

Dear David,

Last week, the U.S. Interior Department, following a presidential directive, announced it would lease 81,000 ocean acres off New York’s coastline for wind development. Announcing this new leasing auction, in a release by Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Sally Jewell, secretary of the Interior, was quoted: “In addition to providing clean power, offshore wind energy marks a new frontier in renewable energy development, creating the path for sustainable electricity generation, job creation, and strengthening our nation’s economic competitiveness.”

On Long Island’s East End, Deepwater Wind, an offshore wind and transmission developer, has submitted a LIPA proposal to develop an offshore wind farm 30 miles over the horizon from Montauk. It would be built within a 256-square-mile site already leased in 2013 by the Interior Department to Deepwater Wind for 30 years. A LIPA decision on Deepwater’s proposal is anticipated next month. With LIPA’s approval, Deepwater Wind’s South Fork proposal for 15 six-megawatt wind turbines and battery energy storage facilities sufficient to annually power 50,000 East End homes has the green light, with a projected operational date of 2022. The Deepwater demonstration project, five turbines off Block Island, will be operational this fall.

East Hampton Town continues to move forward on its renewable energy pledge. In order to meet the governor’s renewable energy New York State commitment, LIPA, with a nod from PSEG-LI, needs to open the gateway in July to the vast resources of wind energy on the East Coast. Given the East Hampton Town 2020 goal to replace 100 percent of its electricity consumption with clean renewable energy, a New York State Climate Smart Certification, and the town board-approved climate action plan, town board offshore wind farm support, expressed at the last two LIPA trustee meetings, in addition to the delivery to the LIPA trustees of the East Hampton Wind Energy Forum’s local audience pledges, 423 East Hampton student signatures on a petition circulated in the high school over two days, 500-plus letters of support to the governor from the Renewable Energy Long Island website (renewableenergylongisland.org), and local newspaper editorial support, our coastal community is ready to trigger the return of wind power to its 350 years of East Hampton history and to a resilient future! 

Deepwater Wind’s vice president, Clint Plummer, referred to the proposed offshore wind farm in one of his presentations to the East Hampton community as “an exciting opportunity for the South Fork and the town to be a global leader in demonstrating not just offshore wind but a completely new way of thinking about how to supply energy.”

LINDA JAMES

http://easthamptonstar.com/Letters-Editor/2016609/Letters-Editor-060916