NEW YORK —This was not the way to behave during the days leading up to Earth Day, yesterday. On April 17, Donald Trump cut off permission for completion of a 54-turbine wind power project in New York.
That’s even though construction has already started, by 1,500 unionized workers, with more probably to come. Many are ferried 12 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean to build giant windmills off Jones Beach.
The union coalition backing the project, Climate Jobs New York, is understandably angry. So are environmentalists, civic groups and Democratic politicians, up to and including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. She’s scrambling and seeking ways to keep the workers on the job.
The money came from Democratic-passed legislation in the prior Congress which, among other requirements, mandated union labor on big-ticket green construction projects.
And this one is big. When the $2.5 billion project was to have been completed in 2027, the 810-megawatt Empire Wind 1 farm was expected to generate enough power for 500,000 homes in the city and help the state meet its goals of zero-emissions sources for its electric grid by 2040 and nine gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035, The City and The Gothamist reported.
The project’s sponsor, the Norwegian firm Equinor, may appeal the Trump administration’s stop-work order.
The project will provide thousands of jobs combined in construction and later in the facility’s operation. Besides building the wind farm itself out in the ocean, workers are erecting shore facilities at the Brooklyn Marine Terminal, an assembly and staging area at Arthur Kill on Staten Island, and a component factory in the Albany area. Its supply chain, which is nationwide, generates still another 3,500 jobs.
While green groups, Democrats and environmentalists are protesting and Hochul is trying to get the project back on track, local Republicans show fealty to the White House. GOP Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman praised the project’s halt in a statement.
“Offshore wind turbines “created serious concerns for our firefighters, health officials, and residents,” Blakeman claimed without providing evidence. He pledged “to do everything necessary to protect our quality of life, our shoreline, marine wildlife and our beautiful coastal communities.”
The cutoff follows a Trump executive order to trash alternative energy sources in favor of further profits to the fossil fuel firms—notably coal mine owners and oil company honchos—whose corporate executives were big contributors to the Trump campaign.
The oilmen gained the most notoriety when they met Trump behind closed doors at his Mar-a-Lago estate during the campaign. There, they discussed a quid pro quo: “Drill, baby, drill” with few or no environmental rules in return for millions of dollars in campaign cash.
In his letter announcing the halt, Trump Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, whose agency regulates offshore construction, said there were unspecified problems with the Empire Wind Farm’s permitting and that the Democratic Biden administration “rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.”
Equinor shot back that it met all the state and federal requirements and had all the proper permits.
Reckless and overreaching
“The reckless and overreaching move to halt construction already underway on Empire Wind 1 threatens thousands of good union jobs and jeopardizes the progress New York has made toward cleaner, more affordable energy,” retorted New York City Central Labor Council President Vincent Alvarez when he learned of the Trump move.
“The NYC labor movement opposes this short-sighted and harmful decision politicizing the buildout of clean energy infrastructure that is critically needed to stabilize and reduce energy costs for working families across New York,” Alvarez said when Burgum called a halt. Equinor has built offshore wind farms elsewhere, with union labor.
Hochul was upset and Climate Jobs New York, was, too.
“At a time when energy demand and utility bills are rising across New York, we need to build more energy, not less,” the union coalition said. “Offshore wind and other clean energy projects are creating much-needed energy, while supporting high-quality union jobs and providing a boon to local economies. New York must stay the course to build diverse energy infrastructure and create the middle-class jobs our state needs.
“From offshore construction to port work to manufacturing, there are thousands of union jobs in the offshore wind sector across our state now in jeopardy if projects are stalled. Even local delis and gas stations on Long Island see more business when offshore wind projects are under construction.
“It is out of touch to suggest that killing good jobs and energy sources is a good idea when working New Yorkers are struggling with rising costs of living and our grid needs stability.
“Climate Jobs New York continues to stand in full support of the development of clean energy. Offshore wind has and will continue to deliver great, union jobs and economic benefits for communities on Long Island and across the state. There can be no energy independence strategy without the resources of offshore wind. Our union members are counting on clean energy jobs. We need to protect them.”
Hochul called the Trump government’s decision “overreach” which she vowed would not stand.
“This fully federally permitted project has already put shovels in the ground before the president’s executive orders—it’s exactly the type of bipartisan energy solution we should be working on,” she said. “I will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future.”
Alvarez, New York State Building and Construction Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera and Mike Fishman, a past Secretary-Treasurer of the Service Employees, head the coalition.
The coalition also includes the Transport Workers, Laborers Local 79, Electrical Workers Local 3, the state AFL-CIO, the New York State Nurses Association, Communications Workers District 1, the Plumbers, Utility Workers Local 1-2, SEIU 32BJ, AFSCME District Council 37, the Building Trades Council of Nassau and Suffolk Counties, Operating Engineers Local 30, Painters District Council 9 and the district council of Carpenters.
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