Politico - In ritzy East Hampton, the biggest hurdle to offshore wind is a single cable

It seemed innocuous enough: a gaggle of homeowners in the idyllic East Hampton hamlet of Wainscott circulated a petition opposing a key aspect of the state’s first offshore wind project — the landing spot for a transmission cable.

Called “Save Beach Lane,” the group took issue with a proposal to bury a cable beneath a stretch of sand used by the nearby owners of multimillion dollar mansions. It warned the beach was “already prone to erosion” and would be “forever altered” if swift action wasn’t taken by elected leaders to move the cable landing elsewhere. The cable is necessary for the project to move forward, as it will directly deliver the power generated by the South Fork wind farm to Long Island residents.

But what first appeared as a run-of-the-mill NIMBY organizing effort has since transformed into a much larger operation. “Save Beach Lane” became the “Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott,” a well-financed group formed in Jan. 2019 that has spent at least $28,000 in advertisements urging the Public Service Commission, New York’s energy regulator, to wholly reject the wind project — being developed by the Danish energy giant, Orsted, and New England-based company Eversource.

The group warns of drastically higher energy bills and calls on New Yorkers to not allow “foreign companies profit off of Long Island families.”

The organization is at the center of a fight over the fate of New York’s first offshore wind farm, which could set the tone for future planned developments. The state energy regulator must approve the cable landing before developers can erect giant turbines in the water, launching an era of offshore wind that Gov. Andrew Cuomo has promised for years, but which remains in the drafting stages. The group’s vocal opposition in recent months speaks to the general difficulty of siting major renewable energy projects — prompting a renewed look by the state into that process.

But as local bodies and state regulators mull how to proceed, some residents question whether the Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott truly represents the community at large.

“I feel that the true locals in East Hampton are not opposed to this project and they are not a part of that group,” said Francis Bock, clerk of the East Hampton Trustees, one of two local bodies that must eventually vote on whether to permit the cable landing. “There’s just very big money and I’m sure when it all shakes out that’s what it will be about.”

Gouri Edlich, chair of the Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott, pushed back on that characterization in a statement.

“We are a citizens’ organization that grew out of grassroots community activism over concerns about water contamination in Wainscott and the lack of information about many topics, including [South Fork] Wind,” she said.

The Long Island Power Authority in 2015 put out a request for proposals for a large-scale energy project to address growing demand on Long Island’s South Fork. Currently, the area relies on diesel generators to handle rising energy usage in the summer, when the area becomes a hot destination for wealthy out-of-towners looking to escape the city’s heat. The South Fork wind project was selected following a competitive solicitation process and will provide 130 megawatts of power to the area.

But opposition to the project has only intensified since its genesis as a petition-gathering effort in Sept. 2018.

Those known to be behind the Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott have deep pockets. The group’s charity registration with the state lists three directors in addition to Edlich, including Brooke Garber Neidich, the owner and designer of the Sidney Garber Fine Jewelry. It also lists Vanessa Cornell, who owns a vineyard in Sonoma, California with her husband, and Carol T. Finley, who sits on the art foundation Dia’s board of trustees and is married to a senior managing director at Blackstone — a mulitnational investment firm based in Manhattan.

The organization’s certificate of incorporation also lists its initial directors, including Edlich’s husband, Alexander, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, and Daniel Neidich, who co-founded Dune Capital Management with fellow Goldman Sachs alum Steven Mnuchin — President Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary. Dune Capital was shut down in 2013 and Neidich now heads its spin off, Dune Real Estate — which has no direct affiliation to Mnuchin.

The organization’s registration says its purpose is to protect the natural beauty and ecosystem of Wainscott, in part by increasing public awareness of the importance of ecological conservation. But there isn’t any evidence of it serving a purpose outside of opposing the wind farm, including on its own website.

The Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott launched a “Truth About Orsted” campaign in late November, spending $28,700 on advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. The group also ran advertisements in local news outlets.

The organization has hired Mercury’s Michael McKeon to represent it. McKeon said he is “involved” in the group in “multiple ways,” including handling their press relations and the digital ad campaign. He said Mercury doesn’t lobby on their behalf.

But much about the group is unknown. As a 501(c)(4), the group isn’t required to disclose its donors — obscuring who else is behind the offshore wind offensive. Edlich declined to voluntarily disclose the group’s donors and how much it has raised and spent to date. It’s evident that the group’s spending far exceeds the known advertisement blitz, as it has also retained environmental lawyers and engineers, transmission experts and technicians to bolster its argument that the cable can and should be moved elsewhere.

For some, the lack of transparency raises questions over how representative the group is of the larger community’s desires.

“I do not think they speak for the larger community at all — I think they speak for a finite number of homeowners who are right in that main area where the cable is planned to go,” said Vicki Luria Blatt, an East Hampton resident of 20 years and member of the town’s Democratic committee. “This is a self-interested group trying to protect their own property values and their convenience.”

Edlich insists that the group’s supporters “reflect the community itself: full-time residents, part-time residents, farmers and small business owners,” without providing specifics as to who is officially associated with the group.

She points to the fact that the Wainscott Citizen Advisory Committee, a group of 16 residents who discuss community issues, has also voted to formally oppose the cable landing.

Michael Hansen, a member of the advisory committee who supports the wind project, said he sees the area as divided on the issue.

“I honestly think it’s a mix — there are longtime residents, some of them I am related to, who oppose it out of hand. There are a lot of weekend people who oppose and support it,” he said.

The issue became a flashpoint in a recent town board election. Hansen noted that candidates running in opposition to the wind farm lost the race.

“You can argue there are many reasons people win an election, but I look at it as a referendum on wind power,” said Hansen, who is also a member of advocacy group Win With Wind.

The opposition has collected over 1,000 signatures for its petition calling on the town board to not approve the cable landing, Edlich said.

The validity of the petition has been questioned by some residents — including those who support the project — claiming they were falsely told the cable landing would permanently close the beach and the wind turbines would be visible from the shoreline when they were asked to sign.

Luria Blatt said she was at the beach last summer when the petition was being circulated and felt those distributing it “didn’t make it clear to people what they were doing.”

“I just know that they didn’t explain even who they were representing,” she said. “They were saying they were going to protect the beach.”

Edlich said she has “never heard the hearsay complaint … and I think that’s because it’s simply not true.”

The Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott has pushed for the cable to land at Hither Hills State Park, which the developers behind the wind project listed as an alternative landing site in its application pending before the state energy regulator. But that route would be far more disruptive to locals in neighboring Montauk, requiring a main traffic corridor to be dug up and 20 months of construction, the Southampton Press reported. The Beach Lane site would involve burying the cable beneath two miles of local roadways and less than one year of construction time. All construction would occur during the “off season” to avoid disrupting the summer tourism trade.

Beach Lane remains the preferred landing site for the cable, said a spokesperson for Orsted and Eversource.

In addition to the state Public Service Commission, there are two local town bodies that must approve the cable landing.

The East Hampton Trustees is a historic governing body that has had authority over the town’s “common lands,” including Wainscott Beach, since the 17th century. The body is currently engaged in settlement proceedings with the wind developers over a proposed $8.5 million community benefits package the developer has offered the town.

The East Hampton Town Board will also have to vote to grant the easement, but board supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc has indicated the body likely won’t move forward until the state finishes its review and comes to a decision, the Sag Harbor Express reported. Van Scoyoc didn’t return multiple calls requesting comment.

A spokesperson for the Department of Public Service said the cable landing remains under review and a decision date has not yet been determined.

Meanwhile, the Citizens for the Preservation of Wainscott plan to keep pressure on local and state officials.

“We intend to fight this fight for as long as we must because we believe Orsted, while claiming to be green, has been guided by greed in this instance,” Edlich said.

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