Equinor’s $3 billion Empire Offshore Wind Project led to many Long Island South Shore residents speaking out against it at informational sessions held last week in Atlantic Beach and Island Park.
Equinor’s project is currently in the midst of a review by the state Public Service Commission. The project would have two parts: Empire Wind 1, which will supply power to the Brooklyn area, and Empire Wind 2, which will power the Long Beach area and connect to the E.F. Barrett Power Station in Island Park.
Empire Wind 1 and 2 would be built 15 to 30 miles offshore. 147 turbines, each standing 886 feet tall, will be three to five miles farther out.
Residents and leading citizens who attended meetings asked a variety of questions and clearly had reservations.
“The entire board of trustees and I are vehemently opposed to this project,” Island Park Mayor Michael McGinty said at one session.
Long Beach resident Christina Kramer, who led the first session in Atlantic Beach, echoed several concerns raised by residents.
“We’ve all purchased property here, raising our children here, because we love this peaceful environment,” Kramer said. “They’re going to be running three high-voltage cables right in front of my home.”
If the project is ultimately approved, the high-voltage cables would come ashore at Riverside Boulevard in Long Beach and be routed to a substation on Railroad Place in Island Park. The lines would then run north, parallel to the Long Island Rail Road tracks, to the Barrett plant, and then connect to the power grid.
“We’re not entirely sure why Equinor thinks it’s appropriate to run the cables through our city,” Kramer said. “It’s about 350,000 volts of electric current running through our densely populated residential area.”
The Long Beach City Council now also opposes the idea, and sent a letter to Kathy Hochul on Monday expressing its opposition. The letter said that the council is “fully in support of the necessary and urgently needed transition to renewable energy” and is ready to engage with an “offshore wind developer that proposes a reasonable project.”
“Equinor and the proposed Empire Wind project meet none of those criteria and, as a result, we are fervently opposed to that project,” the letter says.
Opponents also expressed concerns last week about the expected noise from the estimated 60-foot-tall substation, which would be located next to Grand Nursing Home and other Island Park residences. They additionally discussed their future energy bills, the length of the construction process, the project’s impact on property values, and the wind farm’s ability to withstand anything stronger than a Category 2 hurricane.
Assemblyman Ari Brown and State Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, who attended the July 13 session, supported residents who expressed their opposition.
“Assemblyman Brown and I have been working as a team on this because we believe very strongly that this is not what the community wants, and that this is not something that has been handled properly,” Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick said.
“I have met with Equinor and have asked so many of the questions that have been posed about the effects on marine life,” she added. “Why are we having dead whales on our coast in both New York and New Jersey? We’ve asked about the (electromagnetic field). We’ve asked about alternative routes, and we’ve asked about studies that ‘prove’ that this isn’t going to affect the health of our residents and what is essentially the value decrease in our property, because who will want to buy a home that’s within 150 feet of buried lines?”
The environmental pros of the project are likely the biggest boon in its favor. The Empire Wind 2 project, if approved, is expected to contribute over one-third of New York’s climate goal of 9 gigawatts of energy produced by offshore wind. But it seems like other cons mostly outweigh the pro.
