A Rally for Offshore Wind
A rally hosted by environmental groups, elected officials, labor unions, and civic organizations drew more than 100 people to the Long Island Power Authority’s headquarters in Uniondale on Tuesday. Participants sought to build momentum for offshore wind and other renewable, emission-free energy sources.
The rally was intended to praise LIPA’s support for offshore wind farms and encourage its board, which was meeting at the time, to formally approve a proposed 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm that would be located 30 miles from Montauk.
“We had more people there than ever before,” said Gordian Raacke, executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island and a member of the town’s energy sustainability advisory committee.
The board meeting and rally came one week after Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island company, announced that the Block Island Wind Farm, the nation’s first offshore wind farm, had commenced operation. Deepwater Wind has proposed the larger South Fork wind farm, which LIPA’s chief executive officer signaled would be approved in July, before the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority asked it to delay a vote so that the project could be examined in the larger context of the Offshore Wind Master Plan that was still under development. A blueprint of the master plan, which is expected next year, was released in September.
Participants in the rally also called on LIPA to move forward on an islandwide renewable energy request for proposals that could include another 210 megawatts of wind power off Long Island.
In August, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the New York State Public Service Commission had approved the Clean Energy Standard, which requires that 50 percent of the state’s electricity come from renewable energy sources by 2030.