Suffolk Life News 
February 8, 2006 edition
Letters To The Editor  

Wind Farm Needs Proper Review

Since its inception last summer, the Save Jones Beach
Ad Hoc Committee has called for formal public hearings
and full environmental reviews that include cost
benefit analysis regarding the proposed Long Island
offshore wind farm. 

Our goal is to get everything out in the open so that
the public can be fully aware of the impact and assess
whether what Long Islanders might gain will be worth
what we will have to give up.

The fact that the two environmental groups that have
allied themselves with LIPA (“Renewable Energy Long
Island” and “Citizens Campaign for the Environment”)
are now claiming to “support” the call for a full
environmental impact study is a welcome change from
where they were just a few months ago, when the
leaders of these two organizations publicly stated in
Newsday that the only opposition to the wind farm was
coming from “a few beach dwellers” and compared them
to Don Quixote “tilting at windmills.”

So what has changed them from taking a dismissive
approach to one of “supporting but not endorsing” the
LIPA proposal? 

Perhaps it’s because they can no longer ignore the
long list of officials and citizens that have voiced
concerns and questions, including the US Fish and
Wildlife Service, the NY Department of Environmental
Conservation, the towns of Babylon and Oyster Bay, and
environmental organizations like the American Littoral
Society and Clean Ocean Action. 

Yet, it appears that CCE and the RELI still have their
minds made up. Their impartiality is suspect when they
cherry-pick studies or arguments in support of LIPA’s
proposal, while ignoring others that point out
problems. If they are so concerned about our marine
world and our waterways, why are they not asking the
hard questions as well?

For example, why haven’t they questioned LIPA’s
insistence that the offshore to onshore power cable be
run across Jones Beach Barrier Island, through the
Great South Bay, and up Clocks Boulevard, and possibly
resulting in significant environmental impact, when
the cable could have been laid alongside the Neptune
cable currently being installed along the Wantagh
Causeway which may have significantly less
environmental impacts? 

Many of us are questioning LIPA’s action in this
regard and we welcome the CCE and RELI to join us in
challenging LIPA’s position that using the Neptune
route cannot be done because of cost considerations,
while refusing to provide an environmental analysis
comparing these options.

And where are they in regards to the refusal of FPL
Energy and LIPA to do a barge platform radar survey
for avian species in the project zone? Siting of the
project based mostly on wind speed and consistency
along our south shore, and water depth doesn’t cut it.
In Europe a Danish study estimates that the annual
mortality rate from the blades of the 1,7000 wind
turbines in the Netherlands, some of which are
offshore, at 50,000 birds. And closer to home, the
offshore wind plant project being proposed for
Nantucket Sound did avian radar surveys and showed
over 127,000 “targets” within the proposed rotor swept
zone.

It’s time for the CCE and RELI folks and others of the
Long Island Offshore Wind Initiative to stop being
long on promotion and short on facts and start
treating this project like any other one run by big
energy companies. When they do I’ll quit being
skeptical. 

Phil Healey,
Co-Chairman, SJBAHC
Massapequa, NY

 

 

 

 
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