Hochul on Friday vetoed the Planned Offshore Transmission Act (A.7764/S.6218A) that would have required the New York State Energy And Research Development Authority to establish a plan for improved transmission planning and coordinating systems for an offshore grid as well as requiring NYSERDA conduct a benefit-cost-analysis and ratepayer impact study to determine the overall costs of implementing planned transmission and coordinated systems for an offshore grid. Those weren’t Hochul’s sticking points, however.

Instead, the governor’s decision was a secondary condition in the bill to temporarily alienate parkland in Long Island that will allow the Empire Wind 2 project to be built 14 miles off of Jones Beach State Park. Hochul’s veto is the second piece of bad news in a couple of weeks for the Empire Wind 2 project after the Public Service Commission declined to give it and several other renewable energy projects additional state subsidies.

“It is incumbent on renewable energy developers to cultivate and maintain strong ties to their host communities,” Hochul wrote in her veto message. “Here, the City Council of Long Beach, the host community for the wind power project, has made clear that, while it supports the state’s efforts to transition from the use of fossil fuels, it would not support or authorize any alienation of parkland.”

Goodell found himself on the losing end of the legislative debate over the temporary alientation earlier this year. Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Corona and Assembly speaker pro tempore, ruled on the Assembly floor that a home rule request wasn’t necessary for the legislation to proceed to the floor for a vote while Goodell argued the home rule requirement is absolute and should have been required before the Assembly vote.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is pictured with federal Department of Energy officials and others during a news conference announcing the finalization of contracts between the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority and Empire Wind Offshore LLC and Beacon Wind LLC, each a 50-50 partnership between Equinor and bp, for the Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind offshore wind projects. The Empire 2 project received its second recent piece of bad news on Friday when Hochul vetoed a parkland alienation in Long Island needed for the project.

“As I said previous to that there are issues that are not just minor issues,” said Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Corona and Assembly speaker pro tempore. “There are longer, bigger issues impacting the whole state and it’s under those circumstances the home rule request is not required in this instance.”

According to a Long Island Herald report earlier this year, the Long Beach City Council’s home rule resolution was a request to maintain control over the portion of Ocean Beach Park after concerns were raised Equinor, the energy company building the Empire 2 offshore wind project, planned to construct underground power lines from the shore to the turbines. The Long Beach City Council approved the home rule request to maintain control of the parkland unanimously.

“There is no quantification as to whether it has larger implications,” Goodell said. “So how is it we can take the position that it’s a larger implication that somehow the constitutional requirement no longer applies?”