New York Just Can't Catch A Break On The March To Climate Utopia

In June 2019, when New York passed its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), it all seemed so easy. Back then, everyone knew that “renewables” were cheaper than fossil fuels for making electricity; it was only the nefarious machinations of evil oil and gas companies that stood in the way of an effortless energy transition. New York would assume the mantle of climate leadership to show everyone the way. And even as recently as December 2022, New York’s path to energy utopia still seemed clear. That’s when the state issued what it called the Final Scoping Plan under the CLCPA, laying out the simple steps to achieve the goal. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and by 2030 we would have 70% of our electricity from renewables.

In the just over two years since then, things have fallen apart with remarkable speed. Yesterday, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered a halt to all construction work on a project called Empire Wind, an offshore wind project located about 20 miles South of Long Island and just East of New York City. This is close to a final stake through the heart of the energy transition program outlined in the Scoping Plan. We have gone from what seemed a clear path to energy transition to being nowhere and with no plan forward. It’s fair to say that New York’s leaders have no idea what their next move is — other than the usual “Sue Trump!”

For some perspective, I’ll summarize the history up to yesterday’s development.

The linchpin of the Scoping Plan was the planned construction of some 9000 MW of off-shore wind capacity, said to be sufficient to supplant most of the existing fossil fuel electricity generation in the state. According to the Scoping Plan, as of 2022 some 4300 MW of that was already under “active development.”

Of the various off-shore wind projects constituting the 4300 MW in active development in 2022, three were the farthest advanced: the 816 MW first phase of a project called Empire Wind, and a second 924 MW capacity facility called Sunrise Wind, and a third much smaller (130 MW) project off Eastern Long Island called South Fork Wind. An agency called New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is responsible for developing all of the projects except South Fork Wind (which got off the ground under a different agency, Long Island Power Authority, before the CLCPA process got going). According to the website of NYSERDA, in October 2019 a contract to develop Empire Wind 1 had been finalized with Norway’s Equinor, and another one for Sunrise Wind had been finalized with Denmark’s Ørsted. The NYSERDA announcement of the contracts touted the projects’ “cost-effectiveness”:

The Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind projects have an average all-in development cost of $83.36 per megawatt hour (2018 dollars) . . . . The average bill impact for residential customers will be less than a dollar per month per customer – approximately $0.73.

One could quibble about exactly how “cost-effective” that $83.36/MWh was — after all, it was a wholesale cost at the generation facility, and for intermittent power, when a modern natural gas plant can probably achieve a wholesale cost of around $50/MWh, and for dispatchable power. But anyway it was all a fantasy. As I reported in a post on October 5, 2023, in September of that year essentially all the developers of off-shore wind projects for New York had canceled their contracts and demanded huge price increases. These cancelations included not just Empire Wind 1, but also Empire Wind 2, Sunrise Wind, and several other projects aggregating to the 4300 MW of “active development.” For Empire Wind 1, the new demanded price was $159.64, and for the project’s second phase, Empire Wind 2, the new demanded price was $177.84.

As was then inevitable, the state put the contracts out for bid again. The bidding process resulted in new contracts involving a minor reduction in the previously demanded increases. Here is NYSERDA’s announcement from February 29, 2024, stating that with the new contracts “Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind are now on a path to project completion,” and that the “weighted average all-in development cost of the awarded offshore wind projects over the life of the contracts is $150.15 per megawatt-hour.” The price increase had been in excess of 80%.

These two projects are both situated in federal off-shore waters, and therefore required permits from the federal government to proceed. The Biden Administration was fully committed to getting the maximum amount of off-shore wind capacity built as quickly as possible, and during 2024 quickly granted permits for both Empire Wind 1 and Sunrise Wind. The developer of Sunrise Wind was apparently eager to proceed. According to a July 17 release from NYSERDA here, Sunrise Wind got its federal permit from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on June 21 and started construction on July 17. At Empire Wind 1, things did not proceed quite as quickly.

And then, on January 20, 2025, came the Trump administration tsunami. One of Trump’s first Executive Orders, on January 20 itself, had the title “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.” Suddenly, all the offshore wind projects that did not already have final permits were thrown into limbo — probably never to leave that state again, at least until a Democrat gets elected President.

And then yesterday came Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s memo to the Acting Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management respecting the Empire Wind project. The Washington Free Beacon has a full story here, complete with a copy of the Burgum memo. Key text from the Burgum memo:

The matters identified thus far suggest that approval for the [Empire Wind] project was rushed through by the prior Administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the Project. In light of these revelations and consistent with the President’s instructions, I am directing you to exercise your authority to order Empire Wind to cease all construction activities. . . .

Today, New York Governor Kathy Hochul reacted as you would expect. A source called Marine Log has a report:

“As Governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand,” said New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul . ‘’I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future. . . . Empire Wind 1 is already employing hundreds of New Yorkers, including 1,000 good-paying union jobs as part of a growing sector that has already spurred significant economic development and private investment throughout the state and beyond. This fully federally permitted project has already put shovels in the ground before the President’s executive orders—it’s exactly the type of bipartisan energy solution we should be working on.”

Hochul used the phrase “shovels in the ground,” but it’s not clear if she is talking literally or only figuratively. Equinor has not proceeded as eagerly as its compatriot Ørsted over at Sunrise, and has apparently only begun preparing the seabed for the turbines (by unloading some tons of rocks from ships) within the past few days. The link goes to an April 13 Tweet from something called SaveLBI (Long Beach Island) saying:

HAPPENING NOW: The Netherlands-flagged Nordnes is dropping rocks 19 miles off Monmouth County, NJ—prepping the seabed for 54 massive wind turbines at the 80,000-acre Empire Wind site.

Hochul has a small problem that the turbines she is hoping to get built are in federal waters and so the federal government is going to have the main say.

The bottom line is that of New York’s grandiose plans for 9000 MW of off-shore wind projects, only South Fork Wind (130 MW) is actually finished, and only Sunrise Wind (924 MW) is actually legitimately under construction. Empire Wind and all the rest have gone into limbo, probably never to come out.

So how is New York supposed to get to the goal of 70% of electricity from renewables by 2030? It has no remaining plan for that. Somehow, Governor Hochul left that issue out of today’s remarks.

2 posted on 04/19/2025 5:43:55 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

3 posted on 04/19/2025 5:44:31 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)

I doubt there is really such a thing as ‘Climate Utopia” that would meet everyone’s description of it, but it would certainly never happen when a group decides to double down on stupid to make it happen, such as NY apparently decided to do. Now, it seems like other places are trying to do the same thing. How can you try to use 2 or 3 completely different sources for electrical power & expect to save costs when at least one of those sources must be for backup when one source fails. To add even oe source of energy is expensive to be used as a backup as there are always going to be separate costs. Seems to me that one RELIABLE source is the better way.

I’m pretty sure Katy perry just exceeded my lifetime carbon footprint in her little joyride so I’m not too worried about the climate.

Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Should be low-hangin' fruit for the DOGE folks.

Empire Wind -

"I doubt there is really such a thing as ‘Climate Utopia” that would meet everyone’s description of it"

It's perfect right now! That's why we have to fight climate change. ;)

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