Kudos to Gov. Cuomo for vetoing the Port Ambrose Liquified Natural Gas terminal — stealing the thunder out of the column I had prepared urging all to contact Cuomo before the deadline, Dec. 21.
It was more than a grand gesture. It was a major turning point.
In his language, Cuomo, who came to Long Beach on Nov. 12 to announce his decision, clearly heard the sentiments expressed by hundreds and hundreds of Long Islanders and climate activists who overwhelmingly opposed the project, virtually all of them pushing instead for an off-shore windfarm in this same exact area.
Cuomo rejected Port Ambrose for all the right reasons and his veto alone torpedoes the project. (Cuomo’s early action takesNew Jersey Gov. Chris Christie off the hook; Christie, now running to be the GOP presidential nominee, has reversed course on climate action and his willingness to kowtow to the fossil fuel industry like Christie’s giveaway to Exxon-Mobil which cost New Jersey about $8 billion.)
Nixing any liquified natural gas terminal in these waters opens the way for an off-shore wind farm in that same vicinity, and moving us a step further toward a transition away from fossil fuel to an economy based on renewables.
As Gov. Cuomo said, “Three years ago there was a proposal for an LNG plant, which would be just about 19 miles almost from exactly where we are out in the ocean….
“First, there are security concerns. Security in the old fashioned security, where we have terrorists groups that are springing up more and more, almost on a daily basis, who look for targets of opportunity where there is a potential to do a significant amount of damage.
We know that al Qaeda has spoken about LNG terminals as a possible terrorist threat. We know that we haven’t yet fully contained terrorism and terrorists threats. We know that New York is at the top of the list of terrorist targets. So that is a very real concern.
“Second, there is a security concern in terms of when Mother Nature acts up. And look, we have seen painfully, the damage that Mother Nature can do….Hurricane Sandy – we know what it’s like to deal with firsts.
To have on top of that, an LNG plant, with a pipeline, with thousand-foot tankers out there unloading, for me, increases exponentially the concern and the threat you would have to worry about with another hurricane or flood like Hurricane Sandy.
And by the way, I don’t believe that that is the last time we’re going to deal with something like that. Climate change is real. Extreme weather is real.
“I have been governor for just over four years. I have had nine emergencies — natural emergencies — in four and a half years. My father was governor for 12 years and he had 11. So the frequency is way, way up, and that is something we have to take into consideration when we are planning or considering activities like this one.
“Also, this facility is right in the middle of an area that has been proposed for possible renewable energy and it would disrupt that plan and there was no thought as to how the two plans could co-exist. Also, it’s in the middle of an area that is sensitive from a fishing point of view. Commercial fishermen are out there fishing for squid, fishing for scallops, and it would disrupt that.”
At a time when it seems the “will of the People” is being thwarted in every quarter, this is heartening.
But now the grassroots campaign must push for the next major breakthrough: offshore wind.
The proposal for offshore wind has been in the wind for years now, at least as long as the mysterious, Cayman Islands tax sheltered Liberty Natural Gas company’s Port Ambrose project.
But unlike the proposal by a for-profit fossil-fuel company, a clean, renewable energy proposal requires a customer — a power purchase agreement — at the other end before the government will issue a license.
LIPA, which talks big about promoting renewable energy, has yet to sign such a power purchase agreement.
But now, ironically, Long Island may lose out altogether, beaten to the punch by New York City and even New Jersey.
Mayor DiBlasio has declared that New York City will be 100 percent renewable by 2030, which means that Con Ed may well sign to buy all the power that can be generated — at least in the first phase of development —‚ leaving Long Island to do with electricity generated from dirty fossil fuel (even natural gas, though it burns 50 percent cleaner than coal, is just about as bad in terms of all the carbon emissions released along the way).
Cuomo, on the eve of the Paris climate talks, COP21, which brought together nearly 200 countries unified in their alarm over the necessity of taking action to prevent the planet from warming more than two degrees centigrade, directed the state Department of Public Service to design and enact a new Clean Energy Standard mandating that 50 percent of all electricity consumed in New York by 2030 result from clean and renewable energy sources.
“The regulatory process to develop the Clean Energy Standard will include the opportunity for full and complete public and stakeholder participation. State law requires that the Public Service Commission takes all reasonable steps to meet New York’s goals set forth in the State Energy Plan. The Governor’s directive sets forth a timeframe by which the Commission should act. The new standard, which will be developed by the Department of Public Service to complement the Governor’s Reforming the Energy Vision plan, is expected to be presented to the Public Service Commission by June 2016,” the press office stated.
“Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) is Governor Cuomo’s strategy to build a clean, resilient and affordable energy system for all New Yorkers.
“REV is transforming New York’s energy policy with new state-wide initiatives and regulatory reforms. REV will grow the state’s clean energy economy, support innovation, ensure grid resilience, mobilize private capital, create new jobs, and increase choice and affordability for energy consumers.
“REV places clean, locally produced power at the core of New York’s energy system. This protects the environment and supports the State’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent while generating 50 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. Initiatives already launched as part of REV include NY-Sun, NY Green Bank, NY Prize, K-Solar, and a commitment to improve energy affordability for low-income communities.” (To learn more about REV, visit www.ny.gov/REV4NY.)
Frankly, Port Ambrose was so wrong on so many levels, it is even hard to imagine how the Maritime Administrator, would have dared approve it, especially in light of President Obama’s rejection of Keystone Pipeline and Obama’s advocacy of climate action at the Paris COP21 talks.
That’s because where Port Ambrose is proposed happens to be smack in the middle of the best place in the entire nation for a wind farm — the conditions including the depth of the ocean, the wind patterns, the distance from shore, and the proximity to huge population centers — are ideal for a 700 megawatt farm that could supply enough energy to power 700,000 homes (a nuclear plant generates 540 megawatts; Indian Point Nuclear Facility, which has already outlived its life-expectancy and has to be re-licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, generates 2,000 megawatts).
So it is interesting how and why the Liberty project got so far, while credible, advanced proposals for an off-shore wind farm in the same exact area, have languished for years, in a kind of whirligig of Orwellian actionable inaction.
The only reason Port Ambrose got as far as it did is that a private entity made an application for a use of public resource — made all sorts of wild, unjustified claims, such as intended to “supply” Long Island market (which means would have had to sell the natural gas to the utility) — but there was no Power Purchase Agreement with anyone (nor any credible financials).
On the other hand, there have been private applications for a wind farm in the same area. But the laws favor Fossil Fuel endeavors, and place unnecessary obstacles in front of a venture focused on renewables.
So in this sense, the applicant for wind farm would have had to show contracts to supply power – that is, PSEGLI, LIPA, ConEd.
All that is needed is a Power Purchase Agreement that a Long Island utility would purchase wind power, in order to further along the approval process.
Now both LIPA and PSEGLI claim they want to promote more use of renewables ‚certainly, that is the stated goal of Gov. Cuomo, who singled out wind power in his veto of Port Ambrose.
Here again, it seems a whirligig situation — each party points a finger at the other as the obstacle.
LIPA has not come forward with a contract to purchase wind power. Why not? This predates the fact that LIPA has been without a leader since John McCann stepped down, which is weirdly used as an excuse.
This is all the more mystifying when you realize that half of your utility bill is attributed to the cost of fossil fuel necessary to turn the turbines that generate electricity.
We hear that PSEGLI has had such a tough time dealing with LIPA, which owns the $8 billion debt Shoreham Nuclear reactor as well as the transmission lines that PSEGLI needs, and is ostensibly the overseer (customer?) of PSEGLI, that the utility is gathering a “record” to justify walking away from its contract.
But in at the recent Vision Long Island Smart Growth seminar, the ignorance and prejudice against windpower was very disturbing, especially by individuals with power — within the Long Island business community and state’s economic development/energy sphere of influence.
Richard Kessel, for example, who reigned twice as head of LIPA, dismissed offshore wind power as a “never going to happen,” citing erroneous, outdated information of the cost effectiveness, the “view” and, more disturbingly, his ignorance that the windfarm could generate as much as 700 mw of power – more than a nuclear power plant, which generates 540 mw (he had to be told by another panelist that the figure was correct).
In fact, other experts say that there is so much windpower along the East Coast, that it could meet the entire electricity needs of the East Coast (and all you would have to do is couple that with the wind power of the Midwest, the Saudi Arabia of windpower). Indeed, New Jersey just approved wind farm 8 miles off Long Beach Island stretching to Cape May.
The technological improvements and wide-scale installations of renewables have brought down the cost to parity with fossil fuels, and the trajectory given the technological advances – guarantees that renewables will over time be cheaper than fossil fuels (especially if the true costs associated with burning fossil fuels are assessed and the taxpayer subsidies removed).
Long Island could find itself out in the cold, unless we act quickly.
Advocates for clean energy including Sane Energy Project will make a big push in 2016 to move windpower along.
“Wind will be one of our main campaigns going forward in 2016,and much is already underway,” stated Clare Donohue, senior advisor, Sane Energy Project, in an email response (www.SaneEnergyProject.org, www.youarehereNYmap.org).
“We hosted the first statewide wind roundtable over the summer, and are partnered with multiple organizations to advocate for that. The REV process is key, and we have regular announcements about that. Just last week, the energy czar, Kauffman, made statements that they will be unveiling a wind policy early next year. Now that Port Ambrose is dead, we’ll be working on getting the drumbeat on wind turned up
“A PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) is needed, but there are other options, for instance, New York City could opt to create its own PPA for a pilot project. The thing that is really needed is a mandate/overarching plan at a higher level (i.e., DiBlasio, Cuomo or Obama administrations) to make it safe for investors to go for it. They need to know that utilities or municipalities are required to buy a percentage of their energy from offshore wind, that’s what will launch it in a big way.”
She added, “Aside from policy changes, one of the key things that needs to happen is public education, especially on Long Island, because although there is a high percentage of voters who support wind, there remain pockets where a lack of knowledge or a lack of understanding about climate change/ocean acidification holds people back from a full endorsement.
“For instance, many birders/environmentalists still equate onshore and offshore wind, even though offshore wind can be built to eliminate bird deaths and construction mitigation can protect migrating whales.
“The commercial fishing association is at present still opposed to OSW, when it is one of the main things that could reduce the acidification that is killing their industry, and the bases could provide artificial reefs that might replenish losses due to overfishing/warming. Plus, builders are more than willing to work around fishing areas, as witnessed by the Rhode Island pilot project.
“And the jobs potential has not gotten enough play; 43,000 regional jobs at stake — the benefits for Long Island could be enormous.
“Then there are those who consider wind turbines as ‘ruining’ a view. Even though these turbines would be past the horizon for most shoreline views, we hope those folks learn to see turbines as protectors of the shoreline that will slow hurricane-force winds and reduce warming.”
I also would suggest that right now, as you sit on our magnificent south shore beaches, all you see across the horizon are oil tankers. How is that better than seeing the graceful tips of a wind turbine?
It seems that Gov. Cuomo, who in his announcement vetoing Port Ambrose pointed to his tacit support for the offshore wind farm in that same location, can break the logjam: just appoint a new leader for LIPA, one who knows Long Island, knows the issues surrounding the energy utility, can manage, who is a visionary and looks favorably on opportunities to transition to renewables (right now, the biggest expense for the utility is oil to power the turbines – it could use that money to purchase wind power instead).
I have just the guy: Jon Kaiman, former North Hempstead Supervisor, current chair of NIFA and an advisor to Gov. Cuomo on Sandy aid for Long Island.
