The Hamptons Whine: Offshore Wind Farm Wouldn't Even Be Visible, But Cable Construction Planned
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The subject of this turmoil isn’t even the wind turbines themselves, a 15-strong cluster called South Fork wind farm that would sit about 35 miles off Montauk, the extreme eastern end of New York’s Long Island. The upscale eastern tip of Long Island, a narrow landmass that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, is fringed by beaches and is known for its wineries, upscale dining and opulent homes. Wainscott is on the southern flank of Long Island and so the turbines wouldn’t be visible from its beach, but a cable to connect the wind farm would have to burrow underneath the hamlet’s beach and several of its streets to join with a substation further inland.
The prospect of this underground extension cable, which would help provide power to about 70,000 Long Island homes, has enraged a cadre of Wainscott property owners, including Ronald Lauder, of cosmetic company Estée Lauder money, who have congregated in a group named Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott. Gouri Edlich, chair of the group, has criticized the wind farm’s developer, the Danish company Ørsted, for being “heartless” and “tone deaf” and claimed that Van Scoyoc has “simply turned over our beach and our rural community to this multinational developer”.
Wainscott was indeed once a largely undisturbed rural community but in recent decades development by wealthy second-homers has sped up, with older buildings torn down for mansions and uninterrupted views of farmland and ocean replaced by screening vegetation to block prying eyes. A glance at the current property listings shows an eight-bedroom, 10-bathroom property with a sauna, wine cellar, powder room, “an optional movie theater”, tennis court and a two-bedroom wing for staff going for $24.5m. “We have people of extreme wealth here,” said Van Scoyoc.
One of the first petitions opposing the cable in 2018 was signed by the actor Edie Falco, Daniel Neidich, a former business partner of the Trump administration treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and Barbara Kavovit, who appeared in Real Housewives of New York and is now running for mayor of New York City with the campaign slogan “It will take a builder to rebuild New York City and I’m the woman to do it”. Also on board was Faith Popcorn, a futurist who has predicted that “mechanized hugging booths” will replace pay phones in cities and that people will be able to custom-design pets with pieces of their own DNA. Undeterred by the town of East Hampton providing an easement for the work, the anti-wind farm cable group has ramped up its efforts. Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott raised nearly $1m in donations in its first year and has spent more than $300,000 over the past year to retain Mercury, a Manhattan public affairs firm. A website called “Truth About Ørsted” has popped up. “A multibillion-dollar corporation is set to make MILLIONS of dollars off of the South Fork wind farm project on the backs of hard-working New Yorkers like you,” the site reads.
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/17/wainscott-new-york-hamptons-offshore-windfarm
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