Put wind in Long Beach proposal's sails

The war of words over the proposal to build a wind power generating system off the coast of Long Beach has turned the important project into a political beach volleyball. At the center of the fight is a piece of state legislation that would allow the Long Beach City Council to permit the wind farm's transmission line to come onshore buried beneath the beach. The beach itself is considered parkland under state law, which gives it added legal protections.

It's difficult to know who is on which team in this match. The City Council has changed its position on the wind farm known as Empire Wind 2, and the enabling legislation, at least four times in the last five months. Also trying to spike the ball are area Republican leaders like Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, who opposes the project, and GOP candidates for City Council attempting to use the issue to win control of one of Nassau County's last Democratic strongholds.

Then there's Equinor, the company behind the Long Beach proposal, which is trying to navigate a Long Island landscape it doesn't fully grasp.

What the political leaders of Long Beach and Island Park — on both sides of the aisle — are missing is a real understanding of and commitment to the broader issues, including the region's desperate need for renewable energy sources, the state's critical climate goals, and why the legislation, called the Planned Offshore Wind Transmission Act, and the Long Beach project itself, are necessary components to those efforts. Unsurprisingly, they pay lip service to the topic, claiming they support renewable energy, but their actions speak far louder.

Meanwhile, Equinor, and Empire Wind 2's supporters, haven't handled the project as well as they should. They must jump-start a massive communications effort that makes the community a partner rather than an adversary, that overcomes the ugly misinformation campaigns, and that looks for compromise on any legitimate concerns regarding the design of the proposed Island Park substation or the path of the transmission line.

This specific Empire Wind 2 project is part of a much larger effort for Long Island's energy future. Equinor itself has other projects in the pipeline, and other offshore wind players such as Orsted are trying to move their own efforts forward, too. An extensive network of other industries is needed to build and operate this new source of generation; they play their own roles. To develop a successful offshore wind industry, the state needs to make sure all of those pieces work together. That's why legislation like the Planned Offshore Wind Transmission Act is so important — and why Gov. Kathy Hochul, who a spokeswoman says is now reviewing the legislation, must sign it.

But if the harsh political winds blowing through Long Beach become strong enough, they could turn what should be a clear-cut environmental win into an election year battle that everyone could lose.