Letters to the Editor: Deepwater 06.29.17

Turbine Parade

East Hampton

June 26, 2017

Dear David,

With the East Hampton Town Board’s unanimous 2014 mandate, our town was the first New York State municipality to set a goal for 100 percent of the town’s community-wide electricity needs to be satisfied by renewable energy sources. In January 2017, LIPA trustees approved the Deepwater offshore wind farm, 30 miles over the Montauk horizon, adding to the town’s renewable energy portfolio enough clean power annually for 50,000 East Hampton homes. 

A new offshore wind power industry, reducing fossil fuel carbon gas emissions into the planet’s choking atmosphere, has arrived in the United States. And East Hampton Town, our own coastal community, is the hub for this new industry. We have a wonderful story to tell the next generation of East Hampton residents witnessing 350 years of wind power returning to our community. It’s a breath of fresh air, even in anticipation!

The Deepwater wind demonstration project, five turbines three miles off the Block Island shoreline, is now operational. Block Island has turned off its fossil fuel diesel generators that to date had been supplying, at great cost to the residents, the island’s power. And a silence fell over this beautiful island! 

The island’s five turbines are now the power source, providing the residents clean and silent energy, not at the expense of fossil fuel carbon gas emissions, while selling the balance of power to the mainland. This new source of power is a very good deal for the Block Island residents! 

Now a very complex East Hampton, state, and federal planning process has begun for Deepwater Wind and its team of experts as the town’s residents continue to work toward the mandated 100 percent clean energy goal. Making history takes courage, commitment, and patience!

I had an opportunity to see these turbines in action last month from an excursion boat. I found the turbines magical, they have to be, they are windmills now sited three miles off the Block Island shoreline.  For those who this summer have the opportunity to visually connect with this Block Island turbine parade by excursion, do not miss any opportunity to see a new U.S. industry developing off our coastline and over the horizon. 

And remember, as the industry’s current hub, this is just the beginning. How encouraging for our future legacies and our planet.

LINDA JAMES

Acting Chairwoman

East Hampton 

Energy Sustainability Committee