Audio, Video, B-roll, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Announces Start of Construction of New York's First Offshore Wind Project

Governor Kathy Hochul today, alongside United States Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and other elected officials, celebrated the start of construction of South Fork Wind, New York's first offshore wind project, jointly developed by Ørsted and Eversource off the coast of Long Island. Building on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM) January issuance of the Final Sale Notice for the New York Bight, the recent key offshore wind contract milestone, and the State of the State announcement of a nation-leading $500 million investment in offshore wind ports, manufacturing, and supply chain infrastructure to accompany New York's next offshore wind solicitation, New York continues to advance the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

B-ROLL of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you everyone. Thank you.

What a glorious day here in the town of East Hampton and Supervisor, I want to thank you and your entire community's leadership, not just now, but for generations, East Hampton has been leading the way and showing other municipalities throughout our state and indeed the nation, that the local governments are where the action is, where the visions can be formulated and executed when you work, not just with local governments, but also partnerships with the state and federal government as we're seeing here today.

So everyone from East Hampton, Long Island, you are the first, it's always great to be first. Congratulations.

I spent a little time in local government, 14 years in local government. So I know the winds of fortune change, and it's an opportunity to really just put your words into action. And that's what this project is all about, not just talking about elusive goals or goals we may hit some day when we're all long gone, which are really easy to set forth.

In 2050 we'll do this. Who's going to be around in 2050. I'm not sure anymore, but that being said, you had concrete goals that you're going to be achieving, and we're really proud to be able to work with you. So supervisor, thank you.

And also, as I mentioned, federal partners, This new administration, which has only been in office just over a year, has really put the focus back where it should have been all along. And that is on climate resiliency, fighting climate change, as well as supporting local governments as we transition to a new energy future. In the meantime, creating thousands of jobs and President Biden was very smart in selecting a woman, who is known and is an incredible, well just a woman overall [inaudible].

A woman who has lived a life full of passion and advocacy, and making sure that the voices of all are heard and that in a position as Secretary of Interior, you can use that platform to help lift up people all over this nation. And I'm so proud of the work that the Department of Energy has done under our great Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland. I want to thank her for joining us. Secretary of Interior Haaland.

We're a little partial to that department as well, because one of our own, former assistant secretary for energy, Amanda Lefton has joined as the Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy and Management. I want to thank Amanda. I feel like wherever Amanda goes, New York is in the house and that's a good thing for all of us.

So thank you, Amanda. And all of our great partners, they're mentioned, but also our state officials who I worked very closely with. I want to thank them for always bringing these issues to the conversation in Albany. Thank you.

And also to our friends in labor, you mentioned Matty Aracich who's been, I don't think I've ever sat down once a day with Matty when he didn't talk about the clean energy future.

So to Matty and John Durso, the Long Island Federation of labor, Ed Hill and Frank Muia and Pat Guidice and so many others who have been involved in this. Roger Clayman, these are the names of people that we are going to be talking about for years and say, yes, they were there at the very beginning. They believed, and they made sure that there is a workforce that was trained and ready to step in these jobs that are going to be spectacular.

And I want to thank all of them for what they do as well. And all of our friends at the operating engineers build up as well. I hope I didn't miss anybody. IBEW is in the house as well.

So, I also have another dream team I want you to hear about. This cross-pollination among agencies. It doesn't always happen with ease, but it takes the personalities and the individuals who are so committed in their positions as, as cabinet members.

And I want to thank people like Doreen Harris, the head of NYSERDA, Basil Seggos Commissioner of DEC, Roberta Reardon, our Commissioner Department of Labor. This is the dream to Jeanette Moy, newly appointed commissioner of OGS, Rory Christian, our Public Service commissioner and Robert Rodriguez, our Secretary of State, all working together.

And Empire State Development, soon to be approved by the legislature, Kevin Law, who knows Long Island, like nobody does. He'll soon be the Chair of Empire State Development. Anybody we didn't mention here yet? Okay. I think we've got a lot of you ,but I feel the energy. And what we're here to do is to say, we're going to break ground. We're going to break ground on the South Fork Wind Farm, our state's.

This is New York State's very first offshore wind project. It's happening right now, right today. And this is the future ladies and gentlemen, you are seeing the future unfold before our eyes, and this is exciting.

And if you ask what the energy future looks like, I say the answer, my friend is blowing in the wind. Sorry, Bob Dylan had to do that. So this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning. Think about it, we're going to have 9,000 megawatts. That'll supply 30% of New York State's electricity needs that's 6 million homes.

We have the most ambitious renewable energy plan, not the state, the nation. And I'm going to put a challenge out to the rest of the world. We're coming after you. We believe in this, this is our future, and we are very bold and ambitious here.

So this project is going to help us unlock the future. And part of this comes from our $500 million proposed spending in our State budget. I know the legislators are very excited about this as well, and that'll help us build that offshore wind energy infrastructure. You can't just declare that you're going to have offshore wind. There's a whole ecosystem and supply chain that has seen part of this. And part of that is training the workforce. And again, Roberta Reardon, working with the Empire State Development, and DOL, the collaboration that is going to occur is going to make sure that there are plenty of individuals representing a very diverse workforce. This is what I want to make sure we see happen, that we lift people up in communities that have been not having the same opportunities, communities of color in particular, and also individuals who've just been left on the sidelines.

And I want to see more women in these jobs. I go to work sites all over and I know labor unions want to see this happen as well. This has to be intentional. This has to be intentional, to go into the schools and talk to the young people, particularly the girls, and say, "Listen, this is so exciting. This is something that your parents never even dreamed of." But this opportunity lies before you right here and right now, and you can help lead the way into this future.

And we're going to be so aggressive and ambitious about this. These projects, as well as with some other, we just also finalize two contracts for additional offshore wind projects. Empire Wind Two which will be operational in 2027, Beacon wind, operational in 2028, together those two products will power 1.3 million homes, and usher in nearly $9 billion in economic activity. So we're going to continue all of our partnerships here, but this one is extraordinary, because there's nothing like being the first. And I want to thank the people who really truly believed in this, and our friends at Ørsted, David Hardy and Joe Nolan, and others who are part of those company. Let's give them a round of applause

And once again, to this community, you're going to have this opportunity to meet your own energy goals, but your energy goals are aligned with our energy goals. And we're going to be able to point to what happened here in Easthampton and say to other communities, "Yes, it can be done. You put your minds to it. You work with the community, you get this over the finish line," because overall we'll benefit from this tremendous investment. So this one project will generate enough clean, renewable energy to power 70,000 homes every single year, and eliminate up to 6 million tons of carbon emissions over the next 25 years. That's the equivalent, that's the same as taking 60,000 cars off the road. How about that for a metric that we're very proud of.

So again, we're going to continue. You're going to see us out here much more often, with shovels in our hands. This is just the beginning. I'm pretty good at that. My Lieutenant Governor thinks he's going to be better than me, we'll have a shoveling competition one of these days and see so who's better at that. We work very closely together and I do want to thank my Lieutenant Governor, Brian Benjamin for all he does as well. But this is a great day, this is a great day. And we're going to continue leaning into our objectives. You're going to hear from some people as well, but I just wanted to say, I am so energized by what we're doing here today to really lean into the clean energy future.

It lies before us, the possibilities are absolutely endless and that all began here. So today we spark a new beginning in the future. You're going to look back and you won't see these off in the horizon. We made sure of that actually, that you will not see these, 35 miles off in the horizon. But unlike here, I actually see this right outside my window in Buffalo. And to see a transformation, which is unbelievable, on the site of the former steel plant, where my grandpa and my uncles and my dad worked, is now the site of onshore wind. I see the turbine spinning and it is a beautiful sight to see how a community can reimagine itself. Just as we're doing right here off the shore of Long Island.

So I know that in partnership with the Department Of Interior, Secretary Holland, we made some other announcements that you're going to continue to talk, when we did a call with Phil Murphy to talk about the bight and our opportunities there. So this is a collaboration, not just with local growers, but also with other states as well. So, I'm excited. Can you tell I'm excited? This is fantastic. So with that, let me introduce our great Secretary Of The Interior, Debra Haaland. Thank you.