By Steve Levy
We had to get a chuckle out of the Newsday op-ed entitled “Press pause on offshore wind.” https://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorials/equinor-orsted-offshore-wind-turbines-ijy7ye2r
The editorial board wisely noted that the governor was correct in denying an application by wind developers to receive a massive increase in ratepayer and taxpayer subsidies for their proposals that came in far higher than first submitted.
Many environmental groups have been going off the rails over this veto. But the seeking of higher subsidies from the wind companies should not have been a surprise. Our Center has been warning that there has not been adequate transparency with these applications. Full-fledged articles and editorials were published about the wonders of these wind projects. They were going to save the planet and save us money as well.
As to the latter, we’ve always been suspicious. We’ve noted that studies indicate that these wind projects wind up costing three times more than traditional generation of electricity. https://nypost.com/2023/11/02/opinion/collapse-of-projects-shows-again-that-wind-power-is-not-affordable/ You might decide that it’s worth it if you think it’s environmentally beneficial, but you at least are entitled to know all the facts, including that it may double your electric bill.
And it’s also important that when the calculations are tabulated as to how much of a carbon footprint is reduced, they also include the cost and carbon footprint that relate to the building of an entirely new infrastructure to move the juice from the windmills to a person’s home.
We think wind is much cleaner than electric vehicles, because ultimately, the vehicles still have to be run through electricity, which gets most of its power through the burning of fossil fuels. Little gain there.
So let’s have an intelligent conversation on how we can wean ourselves off dirty fuels and embrace more renewables. But let’s be honest about it and stop playing the shell games where these projects come forward without adequate analysis, only to turn around later and say we need to dramatically increase ratepayer subsidies.
Steve Levy is President of Common Sense Strategies, a political consulting firm. He served as Suffolk County Executive, as a NYS Assemblyman, and host of “The Steve Levy Radio Show.” He is the author of “Solutions to America’s Problems” and “Bias in the Media.” www.SteveLevy.info, Twitter @SteveLevyNY, steve@commonsensestrategies.com