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.
Source: LI Press
