New York State Must Champion Offshore Wind to Meet 2030 Renewables Goal

New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo is expected to promote the state’s offshore wind power potential in his State of the State address on Wednesday, seeing that without its ”tremendous offshore wind power resource,” New York most likely will not meet the 50% renewables goal set for 2030, according to Kit Kennedy of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

By creating a plan to incentivize offshore wind power, New York can jumpstart a new industry that can create tens of thousands of new jobs, all while cutting energy supply costs and generating clean power during the peak periods, Kennedy said.

Late last year, the governor vetoed a marine liquefied natural gas facility that a developer wanted to build in a stretch of water south of Long Beach where an offshore wind project had already been proposed, citing that conflict as part of his veto message.

NRDC believes there should be an explicit offshore wind component and the environmental group hopes for an approach modeled after the NY-Sun solar initiative.