President-elect Trump could end NYS off-shore wind turbine programs

Long Island Morning Edition

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday approved the newly reduced $9 toll rate for its first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan in Manhattan, despite the objections of many Long Islanders and their representatives, including the MTA Board member from Nassau County who cast the lone vote against the plan. Alfonso A. Castillo and John Asbury report in NEWSDAY that the race is now on to have federal transportation regulators from President Joe Biden's administration issue final approval for congestion pricing before incoming President Donald Trump has the opportunity to nix the plan, as he has previously vowed to do. If the MTA gets its way, the new tolls will take effect on Jan. 5, after a 30-day public review period.

It's the second time this year the MTA voted on a toll structure for its Central Business District Tolling Program. The board approved a $15 base toll in March. But in a stunning reversal from her past support for congestion pricing, Governor Kathy Hochul, citing affordability concerns, ordered a pause on the plan three weeks before the new tolls were to take effect in June. Hochul proposed a new plan to charge most vehicles $9 for driving below 60th Street in Manhattan, then gradually increasing the toll rate until raising it to the originally proposed $15 in 2030. Toll rates will be about 50% higher for drivers without E-ZPass. The board voted 12-1 in favor of the new toll rates. The MTA's chairman said the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers will benefit from congestion pricing, including Long Island commuters who will see improvements to the LIRR funded by the tolls.

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Environmental advocates have launched a full-court press to get Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that would ban the harvesting of horseshoe crabs in New York. Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that the Horseshoe Crab Protection Act, passed by the State Legislature in June bans the taking of horseshoe crabs from New York waters for commercial fishing or biomedical purposes. Hochul has until the end of the year to sign the bill into law. The legislation aims to protect an ancient species advocates say plays a vital role in the marine ecosystem, but its decline is so serious they describe the arthropod as “on the brink of local extinction.” Horseshoe crabs, which evolved more than 200 million years ago, are found from Nova Scotia to Mexico and live year-round in Long Island Sound. Its decline, due to harvesting and habitat loss, is documented by the Long Island Sound Study research. Horseshoe crabs are an important bait for commercial fishermen of whelk and eel. Horseshoe crab is the only usable bait for commercial fishermen catching whelk, Rob Carpenter of the Long Island Farm Bureau told Times Beacon Record Newspapers in June. The bill would severely impact Long Island’s commercial fishing industry, he said. The Horseshoe Crab Protection Act, sponsored by Assembly Member Deborah Glick and State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, both Democrats who represent districts in Manhattan, passed the legislature in largely party-line votes in both chambers. The East End legislative delegation, State Senator Anthony Palumbo (R-New Suffolk) and Assembly Members Fred Thiele (D-Sag Harbor) and Jodi Giglio (R-Baiting Hollow), opposed the bill. The Group for the East End, based in Southold, has launched an email campaign to urge Hochul to sign the bill.

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The Greater Jamesport Civic Association has put together a committee of people experienced in land preservation “to tackle the critical and timely issue of land preservation in Riverhead and throughout the East End.” Denise Civiletti reports on Riverheadlocal.com that members of the committee, dubbed the “Blue Ribbon Panel for Preservation” by the civic group, are “committed to work together to address land use and preservation concerns, with a particular focus on farmland, shoreline and open spaces in Riverhead Town,” according to a press release. The panel was established, partly, in response to requests by Riverhead Town officials for the public to present new ideas for land preservation. The panel’s mission is to recommend “methods and tools” that Riverhead and potentially other East End towns can use “to further the goal of preservation of farmland, shoreline and open space,” while recognizing Riverhead Town’s fiscal constraints, the Greater Jamesport Civic Association said in the press release.

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Democrats kept their majority in the NYS Legislature but fell one Senate seat short of retaining a supermajority, losing the ability to easily override a veto from Gov. Kathy Hochul and giving her more bargaining power in the upcoming legislative session. Late last week, as final absentee and mail-in ballots were counted, Democrat Chris Ryan claimed a victory over his Republican challenger Nick Paro in the Central New York 50th State Senate District. The race had previously been too close to call. The win gives Democrats 41 of the 63 State Senate seats, maintaining the majority but falling one seat short of a supermajority. Republicans, who in the Senate were able to flip one seat and maintain all their incumbent candidates, see it as a move in the right direction and already are looking to the 2026 elections which includes a race for governor. NYS Senate and Assembly members are elected to two-year terms.

Democrats in the Assembly maintained their supermajority and picked up at least one seat, winning 103 of 150 seats. Keshia Clukey reports in NEWSDAY that much will be status quo in Albany when the legislative session starts in January, with Democrats holding onto their trifecta: a Democratic governor and majorities in both houses.

But losing the supermajority does take some of the bargaining power away from legislative leaders who, without at least some Republican support in the Senate, would no longer be able to override gubernatorial vetoes.

Democrats have had control of the Assembly for decades, but the majority in the Senate is relatively new. Democrats gained control after flipping the chamber in 2018.

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Residents and visitors to New York City should walk, bike or leave the driving to bus and train operators during the holiday season's 15 "gridlock alert days" that fall between Wednesday and the end of the year, according to the city transportation department. Nicholas Grasso reports in NEWSDAY that tomorrow through Friday and Nov. 26, all ahead of Thanksgiving, will be the most congested for the remainder of this month, according to the department, which also urged the use of public transportation Dec. 3 through 6, Dec. 10 through 13 and Dec. 17 through 19.

"Whether traveling for work, errands or recreation, please consider walking, biking or taking public transportation whenever possible," the NYC transportation department's website says.

Those who typically endure city holiday traffic should know that congestion this year could be worse because of "the rise of Uber and Lyft" and an increase in the number of trucks, which "have the impact of two to three cars." said Samuel Schwartz, a former NYC traffic commissioner known as "Gridlock Sam" who has studied traffic speeds since 1971.

Schwarts noted that new modes of transportation, such as e-bikes, also play a role in slowing overall traffic down.

Despite the call to take public transportation, plunging gas prices could be hard for motorists to resist between now and the new year, according to Robert Sinclair, a spokesman for AAA Northeast.

The average price for gas on Long Island has dropped from $3.47 this time last year to $2.97, Sinclair said. New York City's average fell from $3.66 a gallon to $3.08.

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A juvenile bald eagle that found itself in a precarious situation recently experienced a happy ending, thanks to the work of the staff at the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center. Cailin Riley reports on 27east.com that on October 30, staff at the center got a call from a woman in North Sea, who had spotted the eagle struggling to extract itself from shrubbery around Scallop Pond. Volunteers from the Hampton Bays-based center drove out to the area and untangled the large bird from the bushes and brought it back to the center for treatment and evaluation. As the bird regained its strength, the center volunteers started flight testing, to assess whether it would be able to return to its native habitat safely. After two weeks at the Center, the bird was returned back to the same area where it was found, at Scallop Pond Preserve in North Sea on November 13.Jessica Chiarello of Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center said it was a happy ending for the bird, which took off when they opened the cage and flew over the pond and in a few circles in the air around them. She estimated that the bird was somewhere between the age of 2 and 5. Bald eagles do not develop their characteristic white head feathering until the age of 5, but Chiarello added that the bird was old enough to have learned to be fully self-sufficient. While they will never know exactly what happened to the bird, the best guess of the volunteers and staff who treated the eagle is that it had perhaps crashed into something or maybe even been hit by a car, leaving it with some head trauma that made flying challenging for some time. “It’s a beautiful property,” Chiarello said of the Scallop Pond Preserve, where they released the bird. “And it’s very likely that the bird lives there.”

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This story originally appeared in New York Focus, a nonprofit news publication investigating power in New York. Sign up for their newsletter here.

President-elect Donald Trump wants to “terminate” Democrats’ climate agenda — and let America “drill, baby, drill.” Those promises could stymie a key component of New York’s plan to help slow global warming over the next few decades: building wind turbines off the coast of Long Island. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to end all offshore wind projects on “day one” of his second term. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order,” he said at a May rally on the Jersey shore. He said that offshore turbines, which New York is hoping will supply a sixth of its electricity within a decade, “destroy everything.” Colin Kinniburgh of New York Focus reports that while other sources of renewable energy are mainly regulated by the state, offshore wind can’t move forward without approval from the federal government, which provides leases, permits, and subsidies. New York’s projects rely on all three. If Trump follows through on his campaign pledge, it could blow a big hole in the state’s efforts to clean up its grid, which are already far behind schedule.

However, at least one of Trump’s GOP allies in Congress has a track record of supporting offshore wind. US Representative Nick LaLota, who two years ago took over the east end 1st Congressional District seat of former New York gubernatorial candidate and incoming EPA chief Lee Zeldin, co-chairs a bipartisan Congressional Offshore Wind Caucus that aims to “establish the United States as a leader in the industry.” LaLota has touted the industry’s promise of jobs and climate resiliency for storm-prone Long Island.

“There is a level of confidence that we can find common ground and work with a Trump administration,” said Nick Guariglia, outreach manager for the New York Offshore Wind Alliance. The industry is already starting to provide “good-paying blue collar jobs,” he said, which aligns with Trump’s desire to revive US manufacturing and boost energy independence.