The winds of change just got a big vote of support.
In the name of economic and environmental benefits, Long Island’s biggest business groups, labor leaders and various public officials are urging the federal government to drop its opposition to the offshore Sunrise Wind project.
In December the Trump administration issued a stop-work order to all five off-shore wind projects nationwide, including Sunrise, although all five have since won the right, at least temporarily, to proceed.
Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia earlier this month granted clean energy company Ørsted a preliminary injunction, allowing work to continue as the litigation proceeds.
Several groups — The Long Island Association, Association for a Better Long Island, Long Island Builders Institute, Long Island Contractors Association, HIA-LIA, Long Island Federation of Labor and Building Trades of Nassau and Suffolk Counties –,joined in a push Friday, Feb. 6, to get the federal government to support the project.
They wrote a letter, asking U.S. Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management Acting Director Matthew Giancona to end the suspension of a land lease to the Sunrise Wind project.
The project, 45% completed and slated to finish next year, and others were halted after the Trump administration stepped in, citing “security” issues.
The groups said this project, 30 miles off Montauk, would actually provide greater energy security, lower energy costs, create jobs and supply enough energy to power 600,000 homes.
They argue Sunrise would provide clean, green energy that would be both economical and environmental. Nassau County Executive and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, on the other hand, has opposed off-shore wind, calling it inefficient.
Supporters said the project will create more than 1,000 local union jobs and nearly $2 billion in economic benefits in New York, including more than $800 million in wages and benefits over the project’s 25-year contract with the state.
LIA President and CEO Matt Cohen said it would help supply Long Island with a “stable grid capable of accommodating future economic growth.”
“The economic benefits to Long Island and New York are undeniable,” Cohen said, adding he supports a diversified or “all-of-the-above energy strategy.”
LIA Chairman Lawrence Waldman said the project has “undergone an extensive government approval process” and would add a “source of energy” which he said “is critical for a reliable and affordable grid.”
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said it would “provide much-needed alternative energy” at a time when demand is expected to rise.
And Kyle Strober, executive director of the Association for a Better Long Island, said, “Long Island’s unique geography positions it well” to benefit from this source.
HIA-LIA CEO and President Terri Alessi-Miceli called the project a “practical step toward diversifying our energy mix and investing in offshore wind.”
And Long Island Builders Institute CEO Mike Florio said the region needs “energy solutions that are sustainable, scalable, and planned with growth in mind.”
The group sent the letter less than two weeks after Gov. Kathy Hochul at the LIA’s state of the region breakfast said she supports Sunrise and believes “national security” is a pretext to block the project.
“There’s a hostility to clean energy in this administration,” Hochul said at the time. “And I’m counting on it as part of my ‘all-of-the-above’ approach.”
She said “to take away a critical element of our energy strategy to ensure energy independence was just cruel and unfounded.”
Supporters believe litigation is delaying a much needed project that has already undergone an extensive approval process.
“After repeated attempts to disrupt this project, the court’s ruling is a much-needed win for Long Islanders,” Long Island Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, President John Durso said “We cannot afford further delays to critical energy infrastructure.”
Ørsted on its website said construction began in summer 2024 and they anticipate that Sunrise Wind will be operational in 2027.
In addition to energy and income, Sunrise also would generate $170 million in payments to the Town of Brookhaven, a $10 million grant to the National Offshore Wind Training Center and a $5 million grant to Stony Brook University.
This is the second off-shore wind project near Long Island to face litigation and to win the right to proceed, as Long Island finds itself caught in a tug-of-war over the future of wind turbines.
The Trump administration last April and again in December issued a stop-work order to Empire Wind, between 15 and 30 miles southeast of Long Island, and about 15 miles south of Jones Beach.
A federal judge earlier this year granted Empire Wind a preliminary injunction, allowing Equinor, a developer partially owned by the government of Norway, to proceed with the project that was already 60 percent complete.
