Latest news with #EmpireWindOne
New York Post
15-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
NYC fishermen beg Trump to rethink offshore windfarm OK'd during Biden admin
Commercial fishing workers pleaded with President Trump to again maroon a wind project off the Long Island shore – arguing Tuesday the green energy initiative could throw the industry into disarray. Business and environmental organizations gathered at the Fulton Fish Market Cooperative in the Bronx early Tuesday to emphasize the devastating effects the Empire Wind One project could have on fishermen's jobs and marine life. The Trump administration temporarily paused the project in April while it was already under construction, launching a review of the permits issued during former President Joe Biden's administration. The stop was lifted a month later. 3 Critics of the project want Trump to intervene again. Getty Images But Bonnie Brady, the executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, claimed White House officials don't know how damaging the project is. 'If new information came to him that he was made aware of that made him understand the severity of the situation, I think he's a good American like anyone else that wants to keep this country safe and I think he'd act accordingly,' she told The Post in an interview. Critics of the project – constructed by Norwegian-based Equinor and meant to power some 500,000 homes — argued offshore wind farms can interfere with navigational radar used by ships and smaller boats that could lead to collisions or hamper water rescue efforts. Commercial fisheries also catch an assortment of seafood in the area where the wind turbines are going up, advocates said. Brady and Fulton Fish Market Cooperative CEO Nicole Ackerina said its members would welcome Trump to the area to learn more about the potential pitfalls of Empire Wind One from workers who make up a chunk of his GOP base. 'The reality is that especially seafood and fishing, we're a large population of the Trump-supporters base, especially in New York and New Jersey for him,' Ackerina told The Post. 'So we're kind of of the perspective the only reason why this project is proceeding at this point is probably strictly because of political reasons and political agendas at the city and state level so we'd love the opportunity for him to actually sit down with the people that voted for him and with a industry he claims to align with.' Equinor has said it is committed working with mariners and fishermen to avoid and minimize any potential effects the project could have, according to its website. 3 Map of Empire Wind Project The seafood industry generates billions a year across New York and New Jersey and employs more than 140,000 workers in the two states, according to the groups against the project. 'They are the last of the hunters in a sense of harvesting high-protein, unspoiled seafood source,' Brady said. 'Someone is forgetting about them.' A lawsuit was filed against the Trump administration by various fishing companies and other opponents in June, calling on the president to re-implement the stop work order that was previously put in place by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. An email to the interior Department was not immediately returned Tuesday. The Post has also sought comment from Equinor. 3 The turbines would help power thousands of homes. Empire Wind The project is backed by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams in part because it'll help meet a state law that mandates 100% zero-emission electricity by 2040 and the phasing out of fossil fuels by 2050. Trump has spoken out against wind farms in the past, but Republican mega-donor and billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis said the president told him he can't stop it because the approvals were OK'd before he took office. The project will be built 15-30 miles south of Long Island and made up of 54 wind turbines, according to a project website.
New York Post
09-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Businesses, environmentalists join forces to stop NY offshore wind project they fear will harm fishing, sea life
They're in uncharted waters. In a rare move, businesses and environmentalists have joined forces in court to furiously fight New York's Empire Wind One offshore project, saying that it will devastate both the commercial fishing industry and marine life in local waters. 'A decade ago, we said it would affect fishermen, fisheries, and guess what? The state didn't care,' said Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. 8 Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, is pushing back against a plan to build an off-shore wind farm off the coast of Long Island. Gabriella Bass 'We are collateral damage — even though we feed people.' The decade-long planned energy initiative, which began construction last April off the coasts of New York and New Jersey, faces a growing lawsuit from stakeholders in the tri-state area. The Bronx's massive Fulton Fish Market Cooperative, which employs around 1,200, and Nassau County's Point Lookout Fishing Club, and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association are some of the groups joining a legal action brought by environmentalists in the area. Fulton's CEO said that the project will 'kill longstanding American port communities and economies' and grab 'thousands of real jobs, a sustainable food source, and the heart of the NY restaurant and tourism industry' by the gills as well. Ocean City, Maryland has also come out in opposition of another offshore wind project close to its coast as well. Locally on LI, Brady explained that in Point Lookout and nearby Long Beach — a mere 14 miles from the Empire project in the New York Bight — boats must dramatically divert around the massive windmill poles to reach canyons for fishing. 8 Brady getting interviewed on businessman John Catsimatidis' WABC radio show about the Long Island wind farm project. Gabriella Bass 'Think of cruising on the Long Island Expressway and suddenly there's a bunch of telephone poles in the road.' 'They can't go through these projects because, God forbid, they lose power. Then what? Then they're just floating in the sea, so they can hit one of them,' she said, adding that fishing organizations in New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts are also in the lawsuit for similar reasons. Beyond afflicting the industry, the intense, concussive noise and vibrations of the Empire Wind's construction are deafening whales, advocates warn. 8 A map of the planned Empire Wind One project. 8 A rendering of a Empire Wind 1 Sunset Park Onshore Substation. Empire Wind 8 The size of a Empire Wind turbine compared to the Chrysler Building. Empire Wind Environmental groups Protect Our Coast NJ and Clean Ocean Action are also driving the same legal action over the threat to local whales — including the endangered North Atlantic right whale. 'Some of them are going to be permanently deafened as a result of this project,' said Brady, who noted that three dead humpback whales were recently spotted off local shores. 'If you're deaf and the sea is dark, and then you have to come up to the surface because you can't hear or see what's going on. Then you can be hit by a ship.' 8 A beached whale found on Long Island's south shore near Lido Bech on Jan. 30, 2023. Environmentalists warn that wind farms could pose a threat to marine life like whales off of Long Island. REUTERS/Mike Segar Wailing on business Billionaire John Catsimatidis has also been a staunch opponent of the project as well. 'Not only is it killing the fishing business on Long Island, they're going to kill our whales, and they're going to increase the price of electricity for homes,' he said. 'I talked to the President about it a few weeks ago…he hates windmills, but he wasn't able to stop it because it was already put through before his term.' Catsimatidis recently interviewed Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, who also is churning against the 180 foot tall windmills — ones which will cost New Yorkers about 2.5 times the market rate for electricity, per a recent analysis. 'If you're not sure which way to go… you look at the map and you look at the economics, well, that should convince you against wind,' the Long Island based politician told Catsimatidis Sunday on WABC 770. 8 Catsimatidis is an opponent of the wind project off the coast of Long Island. Gabriella Bass Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also expressed fears over increased sightings of dead whales around offshore wind sites. 'We've had 109 whale groundings in the last 22 months. And they're all in the proximity of these new offshore wind farms,' Kennedy told Catsimatidis last month. 'In the 20 years before that, the average whale grounding was 2.6 per year.' 8 A map of off-shore wind projects in the northeast. Gabriella Bass Kevin Halpin of the Point Lookout Fishing Club fears that the damage to marine life and the local ecosystem 'could be irreversible.' 'All for a project which is dirty, dangerous to our safety, and completely inefficient,' he added. Equinor, the company in charge of Empire Wind, did not immediately return a request for comment.
New York Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Mayor Adams successfully requested Trump WH meeting hoping to score win for NYC as he faces slim reelection prospects: sources
Mayor Eric Adams successfully requested a meeting with President Trump to score a win for New York City as he gears up for a long-shot bid to stay in City Hall, The Post has learned. Adams jetted to Washington, DC, on Friday for a rare White House confab with Trump, where he's expected to bend the president's ear on the now-paused Empire Wind One project, Medicaid funding and state and local tax (SALT) deductions, a source briefed on the meeting told The Post. The source said the embattled Adams, who faces a steep uphill reelection battle, is not only looking for a win, but also for his budding ally Trump to give him some credit. The mayor wants to show that his strategy of cozying up to Trump and not joining most fellow city and state Democrats — and his opponents in the November mayoral race — in criticizing the president will bring about wins for the Big Apple, according to the source. 'It's a real substantive thing, he has to show he's getting something out of him for being nice,' the source said. 'The fact he can go sit down with the president is an amazing thing that no other mayor can do right now.' 3 Mayor Eric Adams announced in an X video that he'll meet with President Trump in the White House. X/NYC Mayor The anticipated meeting with Trump — roughly scheduled for 3 p.m. — also comes hours before a deadline for the Department of Justice to unseal documents in Adams' now-dismissed corruption case. Adams dropped out of the Democratic mayoral primary and is running for reelection as an independent after his popularity cratered, in part because of his corruption case that the Trump administration successfully — and controversially — moved to scuttle. The mayor's wooing of the New York City real estate mogul-turned-president started during the federal criminal case — a pivot that many critics, including his electoral challengers, cast as Adams putting himself in Trump's pocket. Those close to the president have noticed Adams' overtures. 'Adams has been on a mission to make MAGA connections,' said a source close to White House. 3 Trump has largely welcomed Adams' political overtures. REUTERS 3 White House meetings between presidents and New York City mayors are relatively rare. WILL OLIVER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock The source speculated Adams could be trying to drum up favor with Trump, pointing out that the president loves Democrats-turned-Republicans, and that they could potentially be eyeing strategies on how to flip New York red. Hizzoner only served up bare-bones details about his visit with the president and Trump administration officials in an X video he took from a flight headed to DC. 'We're looking forward to finding ways that we can collaborate together to address infrastructure and other funding items,' he said in the video, as his fellow flight passengers gawked in the background. Though now loath to publicly criticize Trump, Adams hasn't always been so shy. He had called Trump an 'idiot' in 2018, likening the president to a 'crackhead' spouting nonsense on the street, The City reported. But Adams has considerably changed his tune in recent months, though he bristled Thursday at British journalist and Post columnist Piers Morgan questioning why he doesn't just 'become a Republican.' Adams said he's only aligned with protecting New Yorkers. 'I was aligned with what President [Joe] Biden did that was correct. I'm aligned with whatever President Trump do[es] that's correct,' an irritated Adams told Morgan. Adams has been noticeably absent from the campaign trail as he has all-but-admitted he's relying on the profile of his office to garner attention. Trump and his second White House administration have largely spared Adams from the fire they've thrown toward Gov. Kathy Hochul and the MTA amid an ongoing fight over congestion pricing. White House sitdowns between New York City mayors and presidents are relatively rare. Adams had met with former President Joe Biden at the White House in 2021, before he was elected mayor. Former Mayor Bill de Blasio met with Barack Obama in 2015, as did his predecessor Michael Bloomberg three years earlier. — Additional reporting by Diana Glebova
New York Post
25-04-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Long Island wind power is yet another green screwjob — forcing New Yorkers to pay more than DOUBLE for energy
Gov. Kathy Hochul's green-energy lunacy keeps socking New Yorkers, with the latest blow coming from the Empire Wind One offshore turbine project. Team Trump has blocked it for now, and that's great news (despite Eric Adams' pleading that it should go forward): If it went into operation, New Yorkers would be forced to pay a brain-busting 2.5 times the market rate for energy, an independent analysis found. Advertisement The project won a sweetheart contract to provide energy at $155 per megawatt hour, as opposed to the wholesale-market rate of around $50, an effective subsidy on the order of $9 billion over the life of the facility. Taxpayers will see their bills soar. Why on earth, you might ask, is that jacked-up rate even on the table? Advertisement Because the New York Independent System Operator, the entity in charge of the state's power grid, is mandated to buy 'green' energy over cheaper and more reliable gas or nuclear. Under Andrew Cuomo's insane Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York has to move to 70% renewable energy by 2030, and 100% zero-emissions energy by 2040. Neither of those goals will be met, of course. And even if they were, it would make virtually no difference in mitigating climate change, as greenhouse-gas output continues to rise unhindered elsewhere in America and from China, the world's biggest emitter. Advertisement All the law and related policies will do is put ever-tighter squeezes on New Yorkers in pursuit of solar and wind energy and severely limit the available supply of power, boosting the risk of blackouts. Lose-lose-lose, in other words. Wind and solar are fine as limited backups, but they can't, and won't, replace fossil fuels and nuclear energy in the today's economy any time soon. It's high time the climate radicals admit this and embrace an abundance agenda — and stop hurting everyday New Yorkers in the name of their fantasy ideology.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Yorkers would be forced to pay 2.5x market rate for wind energy from Empire Wind One offshore farm: expert
New Yorkers would be forced to pay 2.5 times the market rate for electricity generated by the Empire Wind One offshore wind farm if the deal goes through, according to an independent financial analysis. The Trump Administration paused construction of the controversial project — 54 turbines in the Atlantic Ocean some 14 miles south of Long Island — last week, saying it needs further review. The project has seen strong backing from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Trump's move was welcomed by those who claim the project is going to overcharge taxpayers. 'New Yorkers are entitled to clean, affordable, reliable energy,' Christina Kramer, president of Protect Our Coast Long Island New York, told The Post. 'And this is none of those things.' The organization had requested analysis from Edward P. O'Donnell, a New Jersey nuclear engineer and consultant who spent 35 years running nuclear plants. 'Empire Wind One was awarded a contract to charge $155 a megawatt hour (MWH) for their power,' O'Donnell told The Post. 'It's a subsidy, because if you didn't have Empire Wind One, the utilities would buy [power] from the wholesale market at about $50 a megawatt hour.' The total amount of the subsidy, O'Donnell said, would be $9 billion. The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), who manages the state's power grid, is mandated to buy power generated by offshore wind over cheaper power from gas-fired or nuclear plants. The federal Inflation Reduction Act, signed by former President Joe Biden in 2022, also provides a 30% tax credit for offshore wind projects that begin construction before Jan. 1, 2026, and additional credits are available for using US labor and building materials. 'A company who is building an $8 billion offshore wind project — that's what they're costing — can get up to half of that refunded to them as a tax credit,' O'Donnell said. 'That's on us, federal taxpayers throughout the country. We're all footing that bill.' Congress may repeal the federal tax credit, O'Donnell said, but he also expects that would get thrown back at the consumer. 'If and when the tax credit gets repealed they would then lose $2 billion of their capital funding. They would go back to NYSERDA and say, we need another $50 per megawatt hour, or we need $205 or $210 per megawatt hour, whatever, or else we can't go forward,' he speculated. O'Donnell points to previous examples of Empire Wind One and another contractor, Sunrise Wind — which is building 84 turbines in the ocean 30 miles east of Montauk Point — having already done this. In 2019, NYSERDA awarded a contract to Empire Wind One, owned by the Norwegian company Equinor, at a rate of $118 per MWH for 25 years. It also agreed to pay Sunrise Wind, owned by Orsted, a Danish energy giant, $110.37 per MWH for 25 years. Three years later, both companies wanted rate hikes, citing high costs and supply chain bottlenecks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The requests were declined by the New York State Public Service Commission, but NYSERDA gave them the opportunity to rebid their contract and awarded them more money. NYSERDA re-signed the developers with contracts at significantly higher prices: $155 per MWH for Empire Wind One, a 31% increase, and $146 per MWH for Sunrise, a 32% price hike. 'The Empire Wind One rebid ratepayer subsidy will total $9 billion over the life of the facility,' O'Donnell wrote in his report. 'The 2024 present value of these above-market ratepayer costs is $6.2 billion, compared with $4.4 billion for the original Empire Wind One contract.' O'Donnell claims New York ratepayers will provide $18 billion in subsidies to the two foreign offshore wind companies. With the ratepayer and federal subsidies, O'Donnell says his research shows Equinor would see a rate of return on their investment over 20%, much higher than the 9% regulated utility companies are generally allowed to earn. 'I think that no public utility should be making money off of the residents. A public utility is supposed to be just that — a service that's provided, that is created out of our tax dollars in part. But having these private equity companies make a fortune off of us after we've subsidized it is a proverbial slap in the face. We're onto it, and we're not going to stop,' Kramer added. Empire Wind declined to comment on the subsidies. A NYSERDA spokesperson declined to comment on the economic analysis but complained about its sponsor. 'Protect Our Coast Long Island is a vocal critic of offshore wind energy and has been engaged in a strategic political effort to derail New York's offshore wind industry and the substantial economic opportunities it delivers,' the spokesperson said via email. 'Staff of the Department of the Interior has obtained information that raises serious issues with respect to the project approvals for the Empire Wind Project,' Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum wrote in a Wednesday letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. 'Approval for the project was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation,' he added. Kramer is pleased construction has stopped, but added: 'I think that we'd be even more elated if they said, 'Well, we're just going to put a full stop to them.' '
