The Winds of Change Are Blowing
By Doug Schmid, Executive Committee member
Long Island’s transition to clean, renewable energy is upon us, with offshore wind projects in planning and development that will produce enough electricity to power 2.4 million homes.
We all know how important immediate action is to address the existential challenge of global climate change and the Sierra Club is a strong advocate and supporter of offshore wind power as a big part of our local solution.
New York State has the largest number of offshore wind projects underway of any state in the nation, with five in active development. After a rigorous application and permitting process the first offshore wind farm is currently under construction. The South Fork Wind project will be comprised of 12 turbines, or enough to power 70,000 homes, and located 17 miles off Montauk Point. Offshore wind farms are located many miles out to sea, where the maritime winds are more consistent.
Credit: Orsted
Long Island’s transition to clean, renewable energy is upon us, with offshore wind projects in planning and development that will produce enough electricity to power 2.4 million homes.
We all know how important immediate action is to address the existential challenge of global climate change and the Sierra Club is a strong advocate and supporter of offshore wind power as a big part of our local solution.
New York State has the largest number of offshore wind projects underway of any state in the nation, with five in active development. After a rigorous application and permitting process the first offshore wind farm is currently under construction. The South Fork Wind project will be comprised of 12 turbines, or enough to power 70,000 homes, and located 17 miles off Montauk Point. Offshore wind farms are located many miles out to sea, where the maritime winds are more consistent.
“Thanks to the bold leadership of New York’s elected officials, community leaders, and environmental groups including the Sierra Club, New York’s vision for a cleaner energy future will take a major leap forward in 2023 with the start of operations on the state’s first offshore wind farm, South Fork Wind. We have an exciting few months ahead, as we approach the start of installation of foundations and turbines this summer. With the project expected to be operational by the end of 2023, South Fork Wind is on track to be America’s first completed utility-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters.” – South Fork Wind
Those interested in learning more about the project, including weekly updates, can visit https://southforkwind.com/.
Offshore wind development is a win- win- win.
-Wind power provides clean, renewable energy and will allow us to replace existing fossil fuel burning plants in our area, thereby improving our air quality, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and decreasing the need for fracked gas.
-Due to advances in technology, wind power creates electricity at a lower cost than burning dirty fossil fuels. Wind power costs have been falling dramatically as this new technology develops, and costs are expected to continue to decrease over time. Buring fossil fuels is an old, mature technology and generation costs will not be decreasing in the future.
-These offshore wind projects will provide thousands of high paying, local jobs through the construction phase and then for operations and maintenance. The positive economic aspect will extend to US manufacturing as the turbine blades, transmission lines and other components will be manufactured here in New York State. Also, the federal government collects lease fees from companies to use offshore wind sites. This past February, the federal government announced a record $4.37 billion sale of six offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and New Jersey.
New York State has set a goal of generating 70% of our energy needs from renewable sources (solar and wind) by 2030. According to the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority, existing renewable energy plus those projects under contract and development will already meet 66% of our needs. So, the State’s ambitious and admirable goals for our future are clearly attainable. The climate crisis requires an urgent transition to renewable energy. Offshore wind supplying Long Island is essential for us to make that transition to clean energy and meet New York State’s goal to achieve 9,000 megawatts by 2035.
Construction has started on New York’s first offshore wind project.
Credit: South Fork Wind
Now for the bad news…
Unfortunately, there is an organized campaign of misinformation, partly fostered by the oil and gas industry, to discredit and oppose offshore wind. Your Sierra Club is actively fighting back with timely and accurate information presented to the media in articles and letters to the editors and testimony at permit hearings and other venues.
Conservative politicians, oil and gas interests and some local groups have been making false claims about offshore wind and disingenuously trying to link offshore wind to whale deaths in our area. They claim, without foundation, that the acoustic disturbance from offshore wind leads to whale deaths.
Fortunately, the scientific consensus is strong and unambiguous here. After extensive study, there is no evidence that offshore wind development and operation, causes marine mammal mortality. European countries have been operating offshore wind farms since 1991, with over 3,000 turbines operating, with no observed injury to whales.
The survey work from offshore oil and gas drilling can cause temporary disturbance of marine mammals (although far less than the much more intensive acoustic disturbances of offshore oil and gas exploration!). These are short-lived and closely monitored. If marine mammals are in the area- work must stop.
“At this point, there is no evidence to support speculation that noise resulting from wind development-related site characterization surveys could potentially cause mortality of whales, and no specific links between recent large whale mortalities and currently ongoing surveys.” – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
In 2016 the federal government declared an Unusual Mortality Event due to increased whale deaths off the east coast. Since then, over 186 humpback whales have died on our Atlantic Coast. This of course started well before offshore wind development.
On our Atlantic coast, researchers have been able to necropsy 40% of dead whales this season and they have shown injuries, including propeller cuts, consistent with vessel strikes or fishing gear entanglement in our heavily trafficked waters.
There are over 16,000 large vessels utilizing NY waters each year, with a recent increase in large freighter traffic. Vessel traffic due to offshore wind adds a small fraction to that. In addition, offshore wind survey and construction vessels follow stringent rules mandating reduced speeds that other vessels do not follow and carry onboard marine mammal observers.
NOAA states that they have…” not authorized—or proposed to authorize—mortality or serious injury of whales for any wind-related action. Offshore wind developers have not applied for, and NOAA Fisheries has not approved, authorization to kill any marine mammals incidental to any offshore wind activities.”
The RealClearEnergy website, a misnomer if I ever read one, goes so far as to state that the Sierra Club claims to care about the endangered North Atlantic right whale, but cannot if we support offshore wind. Although offshore wind does not harm marine mammals, the consequences of climate change in our oceans are already causing real harm. One alarming consequence of ocean warming is that the North Atlantic right whale population is now following their prey and moving from their traditional Maine waters, where regulations to protect them, such as modified fishing gear to prevent entanglements, have long been in place, to cooler Canadian waters, where there is currently little awareness. The subsequent spike in mortality is alarming.
Recently, the two companies building South Fork Wind, Ostred and Evergreen, signed an agreement with the National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Conservation Law Foundation to further enhance measures designed to protect the North Atlantic right whale during construction and operation of the offshore wind farm.
“In order to address the climate crisis, we need the offshore wind industry to grow and thrive,” said Alison Chase, a senior policy analyst at NRDC. “Measures like these by South Fork Wind to avoid, minimize, and mitigate impacts on the North Atlantic right whale are key to ensuring offshore wind development is done in a smart way that protects our valuable and vulnerable wildlife. We don’t need to choose between clean energy development and wildlife protection, and this agreement shows how we can do both.”
Offshore wind is part of the solution, not the problem.