Wind Worries: Will Sunrise Wind Farm Project Get Cancelled Next?

The Trump administration’s stop work order blocking construction of the Empire Wind 1 offshore wind project off the coast of Long Beach raised concerns over the fate of Sunrise Wind off Montauk.U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s order to stop work on Empire Wind 1’s 54 turbines on April 16 triggered protests in Nassau County as Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to reverse the decision. But given the unpredictable nature of President Donald Trump, it remained an open question if the Sunrise Wind project might be next on the chopping block.“County Executive (Ed) Romaine fully supports wind and other alternative energy resources and is confident the project will move forward,” Michael Martino, the county executive’s spokesman, told Dan’s Papers.

The statement was in stark contrast to comments by his counterpart to the west, fellow Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who held a news conference declaring his opposition to wind power on the day Empire Wind 1 was halted.Danish offshore wind farm developer Ørsted began construction in July on Sunrise Wind, an 84-turbine project that will be seven times bigger than its neighbor, South Fork Wind — the first utility-scale project of its kind in the nation — about 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. The 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project, which is expected to power approximately 600,000 homes upon its target completion date in 2026.

Both projects were part of President Joe Biden’s goal of a carbon-neutral electric grid by 2035 and the state having 70% of its electricity sourced from renewable energy in the next six years. But the winds have changed since the Trump administration blew into town with an eye toward following through on a campaign promise to switch gears from renewable energy to fossil fuels.

“I’m worried about all wind in the US,” Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, told Dan’s Papers following an Earth Day protest in Mineola rallying against the Empire Wind 1 decision. “Although Ørsted is much further along in development and will be done by next year.”Ørsted executives had told Reuters in 2023 that Sunrise Wind was “extremely challenged” well before the change of administration. Two years ago, the company wrote off $4 billion, due largely to the cancellation of two similar proposals off the coast of New Jersey — Ocean Wind I and II — citing supply chain issues, rising interest rates and not securing enough tax credits. An Ørsted representative was not immediately available for comment on Sunrise Wind’s prospects.

Nearly 1,000 jobs were created with the construction of Sunrise Wind, which will connect to a Holbrook substation after its transmission comes ashore at Smith Point County Park. Workers have been running that line since March.Trump had issued an executive order on his first day in office in January, blocking or pausing all new wind energy leasing in federal waterways, but Equinor had already received the federal approvals it needed to continue with its Empire Wind 1 project.

Hochul has supported the Empire Wind 1 project and criticized the Trump administration’s move.

“As governor, I will not allow this federal overreach to stand,” Hochul said in a statement on Wednesday after the halt of the project was announced. “I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future.”

Christina Kramer, founder of Long Island’s Protect Our Coast organization, said the group is launching a federal lawsuit against the U.S.  Commerce Commission and the Department of the Interior due to the environmental risks to the community.

Environmentalists weren’t the only ones miffed by the news. So were labor leaders.

“This intentional and detrimental decision is chilling to the entire clean energy industry and directly harms our members, our communities, and our state,” IBEW Local 3 Business Manager Christopher Erikson said. “There is a critical need for more clean energy to be added to the grid to help power our neighborhoods, but now so many things are at risk, including the family sustaining union wages and benefits that would’ve been earned on this project and others like it.”The Empire Wind 1 development was the latest blow to the renewable energy industry, which had already been facing headwinds. Several offshore wind farms planned along the Northeast were canceled in recent years as costs rose due to inflation and supply chain problems during the pandemic.

The Trump administration and rising construction costs haven’t been the only issues, either. Wind power requires the construction of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) backed by massive lithium-ion batteries that have forced the state to rewrite the fire code to address how firefighters should best respond to incidents at such facilities, which fuel fires that are harder than usual to extinguish. As a result, local leaders such as those in the towns of Southold and Southampton have enacted moratoria halting the construction of any proposed BESS.

But those local decisions are framed as temporary to give time to refine regulations of the new facilities — a far cry from the major federal work stoppage.“The federal government’s interference not only ignores the reality surrounding the future energy security of our state and country, it’s fueled by a shortsighted, political agenda that ignores the well-demonstrated economic benefits that this industry can provide as the state and nation work to ensure an affordable, reliable and abundant energy supply for future generations,” New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said of the Empire Wind 1 decision. “The irrefutable harm created by this action will send a chilling signal to any party investing in the U.S. market, all of whom rely on regulatory certainty.”

-With Casey Fahrer and Reuters