Hochul, unions demand feds withdraw stop-work order for wind projects; NYS files suits

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday wielded the power of organized labor to demand the Trump administration withdraw its stop-work order for offshore wind arrays under construction.

Hochul appeared with labor leaders, environmentalists and several hundred unionized workers, some engaged to work on the projects off Long Island, at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 25 union hall in Hauppauge to say freezing the work jeopardizes union jobs and to criticize President Donald Trump’s national security justification for the move.

Late Friday, state Attorney General Letitia James’ office filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration that challenge the stop-work orders for Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind, calling them “arbitrary and unwarranted.” James said halting the projects could threaten the state economy and energy grid and requested the court step in and overturn them.

“This reckless decision puts workers, families, and our climate goals at risk, and my office is taking action to stop it,” James said in a statement.

The actions come amid a flurry of legal filings from offshore wind developers demanding the stop-work order be lifted so the costly projects well underway can continue. One of those companies, Equinor of Norway, on Friday called the situation "critical" and said that if construction didn't resume by mid-January, cascading delays "could ultimately lead to cancellation of the project." 

Trump’s Department of the Interior on Dec. 22 issued the stop-work order for five offshore wind arrays that had received all federal permits and were under construction, citing unspecified national security concerns.

“I guess they’re expecting long-range missiles to come from somewhere, I don’t know what they’re expecting, but it is BS,” Hochul told the crowd. “It is made up, because we’ve had wind in other parts of our country.”

In response, White House spokesman Taylor Rogers in a statement said, “Governor Hochul must have forgotten that it was her party that frivolously launched an ideological crusade on the coal, oil, and gas industries by shutting down coal plants and refineries to advance a radical Green New Scam and raise costs for everyday families and businesses. For years, Americans have been forced by radical Democrats to pay billions more for the least reliable source of energy. The Trump administration has paused the construction of all large-scale offshore wind projects because our number one priority is to put America First and protect the national security of the American people.”

Hochul called the national security justification a “pretext to shut this down so they can make sure their oil and gas benefactors and donors can continue on the path they’re on. …They just want to shut us down to help their rich buddies, and we’re just not going to take that anymore.”

Hochul urged labor leaders and workers to challenge other public officials who stand with Trump in opposition to wind, solar and batteries that there will be “consequences” to those who don’t support energy jobs.

Her likely gubernatorial rival in November, Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has been an opponent of wind and battery storage projects. “There are consequences” for not supporting green energy, she said. Blakeman didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kevin Casey, business manager for IBEW Local 25, noted “it’s not just our president, we have local politicians that are also against the offshore wind and battery storage and solar. Let me tell you this right now, we support politicians that support green energy. … If there’s any politicians in the back there that don’t support it, do not call me for support in your reelection.”

Billy Haugland, chief executive of Haugland Group, a Melville-based energy infrastructure company that is working on Sunrise Wind, said the company had 100 workers offshore on that project when the stop-work order hit. Haugland, who noted he voted for Trump, said his message to him now is simple. “Build baby build.”

LIPA is expecting the 924 megawatts of energy from Sunrise Wind in 2027, a “critical component of our long-term reliability planning,” LIPA chief Carrie Meek Gallagher said in a statement. “Ongoing delays complicate efforts to ensure adequate, dependable resources as demand grows and existing generation ages.”

Blake Roux and Anastasia Grishkevich, members of the Iron Workers Local 361, said they were among eight who had planned to go out to the Empire Wind project next Wednesday, after weeks of training, to do welding. That’s been cancelled, Roux said.

“They asked us to be on standby until they could get this going again and that kind of puts us out of work for a while,” Grishkevich said.

Asked what his response to the Trump administration is, Pat Guidice, business manager for Local 1049 of the IBEW, said, “These projects need to move forward. Whatever we need to do, labor is 100% in favor of any initiative to move this forward.”

Separately on Friday, Molly Morris, senior vice president overseeing Empire Wind, which is building the Empire Wind project off Long Island to deliver more than 800 megawatts of wind power to New York City, cited recent legal filings seeking to overturn the order and said “every day matters” in terms of getting back to work.

Equinor has already spent about $4 billion on the project, plans to spend another $2 billion this year, and “right now the project is at a critical situation. Construction must resume by mid-January to avoid cascading delays that could ultimately lead to cancellation of the project,” Morris said.

She said Equinor has told federal agencies that it’s “ready to address any national security concerns,” but thus far has not been provided “any explanation of those concerns or what actions to mitigate them would be required.”

“Obviously with a stoppage like this it puts risk on the schedule which is why there is a very clear sense of urgency,” said Morris. “Every day matters.”

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.