At this rate, can offshore wind take off?

Daily Point

Wondering which way the wind is blowing

Is Long Island’s fledgling offshore wind industry in trouble?

Maybe, according to advocates and observers.

They’re hearing rumblings that the state’s Public Service Commission is getting cold feet and will either reject requests by offshore wind giants Orsted and Equinor for a rate increase or delay making a decision.

All day Friday, advocates waited to see whether the offshore wind issue would make it on the PSC's preliminary agenda for next Thursday's meeting. Around 5:30 p.m., the answer became clear, as the commission posted an agenda that included an item reading only: "In the Matter of Offshore Wind Energy." 

Whether or not the issue comes up for discussion remains to be seen. A final agenda will be posted the day before the meeting and even after that, things could change.

“Even if it makes it on the agenda, there’s a good chance they’re going to table it and not vote on it,” one source with knowledge of the situation told The Point. “But if you table it, you’re effectively killing the project … No decision is in and of itself a decision.”

Another knowledgeable source described the entire New York portfolio of offshore wind projects as being “on tenterhooks.”

If the commission rejects the requests, multiple advocates not affiliated with any of the companies involved said the impact could be enormous.

“If the governor’s office says no to the rate increase, there goes the wind industry,” said one advocate. “I don’t know if they understand the magnitude of this decision.”

Orsted and Equinor, and their partners, have requested changes to their contracts to allow higher rates. A combination of supply chain difficulties and soaring inflation has led to increased costs for the entire industry. Earlier this month, Avangrid, another utility, pulled out of Connecticut’s Park City Wind project, saying it was “unfinanceable.”

While Orsted’s South Fork Wind project is nearly complete, its Sunrise Wind effort is still underway and at risk, sources said. Equinor’s projects, including one off the coast of Long Beach, are in danger as well. Increased costs, the companies have said, lead to rises in the so-called strike price — what local utilities pay for power. That cost, in turn, would be passed on to customers statewide, potentially adding between $3 and $4 to each month’s average bill.

But some observers noted that with costs rising for nearly everything, more traditional energy sources could hike bills, too.

“There is no choice here where there’s not going to be a ratepayer increase,” one source with knowledge of the industry said.

But this is about more than just dollars and cents. Some pointed out that the PSC’s decision could be more complicated, in part because it has to consider the procurement process it already conducted, companies that lost past bids, and terms of contracts offshore wind companies already signed. Others noted another factor: The current PSC commissioners were appointed by former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, not Gov. Kathy Hochul, though Hochul did designate Rory Christian as chairperson.

Still others noted that the state likely is also paying attention to fierce community pushback against Equinor’s Long Beach project, which faces its own PSC hearings next Wednesday. Some observers said they worried that Equinor’s difficulties were affecting both the state’s decision and how other companies like Orsted are perceived, even if the vocal opposition represents a minority view.

In response, environmental groups and labor unions are trying to organize a more cohesive push of their own. They say the repercussions of the state’s decision next week will be enormous.

“That decision is either going to entice labor, neutralize labor or infuriate labor,” said Matthew Aracich, president of the Nassau-Suffolk Building and Construction Trades Council. “It all hinges upon the determination of what [the state’s] plan is.”

A Hochul spokesman did not return calls for comment. That silence may be in part why advocates’ nerves seem frayed. When asked what they’re hearing from Albany, one source put it simply:

“It’s been mostly crickets.”

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Wedunnit!

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Final Point

Smithtown library election gets political — again

Two years ago, the Smithtown Library board of trustees election was a showcase for Long Island’s then-burgeoning culture wars, when three Loud Majority-backed candidates won seats in a high-turnout contest.

The following spring, the new trustees helped to create controversy when the board voted to remove a Pride display from the library’s children’s rooms. The decision led to an ongoing state human rights investigation. Eventually, the trustees rescinded their decision during an emergency board meeting.

But issues linger over the role trustees should play in the library’s displays and content.

And now, once again, censorship, book banning and the question of what books should be in a children’s room are factors in this year’s library trustees election, scheduled for Oct. 10.

This time there are eight candidates split between two slates, each with their own Facebook page, endorsements, and campaign messaging.

On one side is a group calling itself Libraries are for Everyone that includes two incumbents, Barbara Deal and Brianna Baker-Stines, along with newcomer Christopher Sarvis and former trustee Theresa Stabile, who was voted out in the 2021 contest. The candidates, who’ve been endorsed by the library’s CSEA union, advertise that they “believe our library should be a safe and inclusive place for all residents.”

On the other side is Libraries for All, which includes challengers Lucian Durso, Vanest Avergel, JoAnn Lynch and Hector Gavilla. Gavilla, who now lives in Smithtown, ran for a seat in the Suffolk County Legislature in 2019 but lost to Susan Berland. Lynch ran for library board and lost in 2022.

Libraries for All, which has been endorsed by the leaders of the conservative America First Warehouse in Ronkonkoma, says it would be a “clear, unbiased voice to represent our FAMILY and COMMUNITY values.”

The election rhetoric has been heated, with plenty of political undertones, even during a League of Women Voters Meet the Candidates night earlier this week.

During the session, Lynch argued that more “conservative” children’s books were being kept out of the library, including books from publisher Brave Books, such as Kirk Cameron’s “Pride Comes Before the Fall.”

Current library president Baker-Stines took a different tack. “I believe the library belongs to everyone — not just those who are loudest or most pushy,” she said. “It belongs to our vulnerable communities as well.”

During the Zoom conversation, Gavilla held up the graphic novel, “Gender Queer.”

“This is what is in ‘Gender Queer,’ a book that is in the children’s section in the library that shows a sexual act,” Gavilla said. “It’s pornography that should not be in the children’s section.”

There’s only one problem: “Gender Queer” isn’t in the children’s section and never has been, according to library officials. It is listed in, and located in, the Smithtown library’s adult section.

— Randi F. Marshall randi.marshall@newsday.com

Programming Point

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