In 2013 East Hampton, a municipality of approximately 22,000 residents, committed to becoming “a leader in sustainable energy policies and practices by substantially reducing energy consumption through conservation and energy efficiency while significantly increasing the use of renewable energy technologies.” By 2015, they added an Energy Sustainability Committee with the task of advising the Town on reaching the renewable energy goals spelled out in a newly created Climate Action Plan.
By 2021, under the leadership of Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc, a number of the extraordinary actions have moved forward, often recommended by the committee, and passed by the town with much important support coming from the Town’s Natural Resource Department:
- The Accabonac Solar Farm, the first megawatt solar farm on the South Fork, was completed.
- A collaboration with the New York Power Authority resulted in the installation of solar energy systems at municipal buildings.
- A utility battery storage facility was completed in Montauk – the second such facility on Long Island.
- Legislation was authorized for Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) allowing the Town to explore the potential for procuring renewable power from an alternative supplier. FYI: LIPA is currently holding this up.
- Gas and diesel powered leaf blowers have been banned –from May 20 to September 20.
- Solar powered, off-grid lighting has been installed in the Amagansett Village parking lot.
- A Fleet Efficiency Policy was established to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles for the municipal fleet.
- Electric charging stations have been installed, from 12 fast chargers in Montauk (at no cost to the Town) to Level-2 stations at Town Hall and the Amagansett Village parking lot.
- A Climate Emergency Declaration was unanimously adopted in 2021 with the goal of viewing all Town decisions through the lens of climate change.
- Also in 2021, an easement agreement with the South Fork Wind Farm was signed and a resolution to approve the Host Community Agreement between the Town and the South Fork Wind Farm was passed, which, when the final approvals come through from the NYSPSC and BOEM, will yield $29 million in payments over 25 years to the Town and the Trustees.
BOEM's review of the South Fork Wind Farm, a 15-turbine, 132 MW project, with a cable landing in Wainscott, a hamlet within the Town of East Hampton, was complete and approved in January, 2022 and construction began immediately. Orsid operations are scheduled to begin at the end of 2023 powering 70,000 New York homes.
Francesca Rheannon, Host of Sustainable East End, opens this video on coastal erosion interviewing Kevin McAllister. It continues as Alec Baldwin and Cate Rogers join Kevin in the discussion. For more information, visit DefendH20.org
By Tom Gogola 01/26/23
Ongoing litigation in federal court between East Hampton Town and East Hampton Village over the use and storage of controversial firefighting foam at the town airport by the village’s Fire Department remains in limbo even…
By Tom Gogola 01/19/23
The East Hampton Town Board has selected a design for a new $25 million-plus senior citizens center in Amagansett. After debating the merits of two design concepts by R2 Architecture over the course of several…
12/22/22
Throughout 2022, The Express News Group has presented a monthly series on climate change, The Rising Tide, which concludes this week with a look back on the threats that have been identified and the mitigation…
By Tom Gogola 12/07/22
Is that Poseidon’s triton reaching from the littoral shallows, or are you just trying to build a 132-megawatt wind farm? The South Fork Wind project site at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott certainly…
By Christopher Walsh 11/17/22
The Jill, a 183-foot-long lift boat with jack-up legs of more than 300 feet, arrived at its position off the beach in Wainscott on Tuesday, where it is to remain for approximately three months and…
By Michael Wright 11/16/22
Engineering crews on Beach Lane in Amagansett have begun the process of drilling a 2,500-foot tunnel beneath Beach Lane, the ocean beach and the seafloor to make way for the... more
By Michelle Trauring 10/26/22
From the outside, the newest Ford F-150 Lighting looks like a standard pickup truck — with a spacious cargo bed, seating for up to five passengers and every luxury finish... more
By David E. Rattray 10/20/22
These are the weeks in the fall when we took down the screens on the Star building and put up the storm windows. But in recent years, we have become lax about the screens; there…
By Michael Wright 10/19/22
A state judge has ruled that East Hampton Town cannot close East Hampton Airport and reclassify it as a private airport — even though the FAA has already reclassified it... more
By Kelly Ann Smith 10/19/22
The surf is what first brought filmmaker Thomas Bena to Chilmark, on Martha’s Vineyard. He rented for years, relocating every year when rents rose with the temperatures, a right of... more
By Brendon J. O'Reilly 10/13/22
The spike in the cost of fossil fuels this summer is being felt in electricity bills. Coupled with an exceptionally hot, dry season that had South Fork residents running their ACs more often, bills are…
By Michelle Trauring 09/28/22
Line, space, texture, value, color, shape and form. These building blocks of architectural design are critical to the flow, balance and harmony of any given home — seven guiding principles for architects to consider and…
PLANS TO ACCELERATE RENEWABLES
10/01/15
Accelerating climate change continues to escalate the need for communities and municipalities to develop strategies combating current challenges to local infrastructure and the projected intensity of impacts on community assets, natural resources and public health. The…
10/01/13
Accelerating climate change continues to escalate the need for communities and municipalities to develop strategies combating current challenges to local infrastructure and the projected intensity of impacts on community assets, natural resources and public health. The…
05/09/22
HomeGovernmentTown ProjectsCoastal Assessment Resiliency Plan
04/21/22
A simple guide to what can and can't be recycled
05/17/21
Isaac Mizrahi Goes Organic: Kicks the Lawn Chemical Habit
02/15/21
BOEM has prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the South Fork Wind Farm and South Fork Export Cable Project. The following documents are available for your viewing.
02/03/21
South Fork Wind brings unparalleled experience to Long Island. This offshore wind farm will be the first to connect in New York State and help the Town of East Hampton meet its 100% renewable energy…
02/03/21
Drawdown East End is a grass roots, non-partisan organization that inspires and supports our communities to actively engage in solutions to reach drawdown.* Our vision is to achieve drawdown and reverse global warming by 2050…
11/10/20
We are private citizens of the South Fork of Long Island who believe that becoming the first communities in New York State to be powered by offshore wind is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity that should…
07/10/19
The Town of East Hampton’s 100% renewable energy goals require a diversified portfolio of energy technologies and approaches.
12/06/18
The men and women who work in the recycling industry describe it these days in bleak terms. From a business standpoint, recent market changes have made it much harder for recycling vendors or any entity…
12/04/18
It was the early 2000s, and single-stream recycling was the newest, hottest trend in the recycling market. Waste Management, the garbage disposal and recycling behemoth, was pushing the trend, touting the convenience of allowing a…
11/27/18
A steady parade of plastic water bottles, tin cans, empty yogurt containers and countless other “recyclable” items, either fully or partially obscured by the thick stew of garbage—and perhaps even still imprisoned inside unopened garbage…
10/02/19
Renewable Energy Long Island (reLI), established in 2003, is a membership-based, 501-c-3 not-for-profit organization promoting clean, sustainable energy use and generation on Long Island. reLI is committed to transitioning Long Island to a 100% renewable…
10/02/19
The Accabonac Solar Farm (ASF) in Springs is the first megawatt scale solar farm on Long Island’s South Fork.
10/02/19
Town of East Hampton is named a New York State Clean Energy Community for completing 4 high impact action items, becoming eligible for a $100,000 grant.
10/02/19
The Energy Sustainability Committee (ESC) was appointed in 2013 by the East Hampton Town Board to assist the Town in its participation in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Climate Smart Communities Program.
By Elizabeth Vespe 09/27/22
Currently, three offshore wind projects are slated to be constructed off the eastern end of Long Island. With that in mind, program managers and mentors from the Bridgehampton Child Care...
By Christopher Walsh 09/08/22
By a 4-to-0 vote, the East Hampton Town Board adopted the Coastal Assessment Resilience Plan, known as CARP, into the town’s comprehensive plan last Thursday. The town completed CARP “in recognition of the need for…
By Michael Wright 08/31/22
A state court has declined to hear an appeal by East Hampton Town to lift a temporary restraining order blocking the town from imposing planned flight restrictions at East Hampton...
By Christopher Walsh 08/25/22
The subcontractor that will perform the onshore cable installation for the South Fork Wind farm plans to use an approximately one-acre area at the end of an abandoned East Hampton Airport runway, adjacent to Industrial…
By Christopher Gangemi 08/25/22
While much of the South Fork of Long Island is now in a severe drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, many East End residents have not changed their watering habits despite warnings from the…
By Christopher Walsh 08/17/22
A coalition has formed to stop the proposed redevelopment of the former Wainscott sand and gravel pit into a 50-lot commercial and industrial subdivision and to advocate instead for East Hampton Town to purchase the…
By Christopher Walsh 08/11/22
The East Hampton Town Board held a public hearing last Thursday on the adoption of the Coastal Assessment Resiliency Plan, which highlights a spate of ominous predictions as to how climate change will impact the…
By Michael Wright 07/27/22
The growth in popularity of electric bikes — bicycles with electric motors that can propel them at speeds up to 30 mph — has presented police agencies around the country,... more
By Christopher Walsh 07/21/22
In a charge amplified in a New York City tabloid on Friday, attorneys for plaintiffs who have so far thwarted the East Hampton Town Board’s plan to privatize East Hampton Airport have claimed that the…
By Michael Wright 07/20/22
One of the groups of plaintiffs in the gaggle of lawsuits challenging East Hampton Town’s attempts to impose new restrictions on flights into East Hampton Airport has asked a judge to kick the town’s two…
By Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly 07/11/22
Demonstrators demanding higher taxes for wealthy Hampton residents, who they claim are responsible for increasing inequality and climate emissions, blocked entrance to the East Hampton airport this morning. No flights were delayed.
07/07/22
East Hampton Town may get a lot greener if a proposal to phase out fossil fuel stoves, heating, and cooling systems is adopted. The change anticipates one recommendation to the State Legislature that would prohibit…
By Christopher Walsh 07/07/22
East Hampton Town’s Energy and Sustainability Advisory Committee has recommended to the town board that all building permits for new residential and commercial construction issued after Dec. 31 require that all appliances, including heating and…
By Michael Wright 06/28/22
The developers of South Fork Wind announced on Monday that they have signed a new agreement with three national environmental protection groups to bolster protections for endangered North Atlantic right... more
By Biddle Duke 06/09/22
I often imagine what I’ll say to my grandchildren 20 years from now, when we can no longer eat shellfish from our harbors because of lawn and garden chemical runoff and septic contamination (some shellfish…
By Christopher Walsh 06/08/22
What was once unthinkable now looks increasingly possible, as the airport that many residents say has vastly exceeded its historical function and is destroying their quality of life may finally be grounded, perhaps permanently.
By Christopher Gangemi 06/01/22
Citing the threat of erosion, the Devon Yacht Club, a private club and marina founded in 1908 on a 13-acre parcel of land along Gardiner’s Bay in Amagansett, is seeking to move to higher ground.
By Michael Wright 06/01/22
East Hampton Town had hoped that Memorial Day weekend 2022 would be the first sliver of a summer season in which it was able to tamp down the din of aircraft traveling to and from…
By Christopher Walsh 06/01/22
Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center predict an above-normal Atlantic hurricane season, which started yesterday and extends through November.
By Christopher Walsh 06/01/22
Air traffic to and from East Hampton Airport was typically brisk over the Memorial Day weekend, the temporary restraining order granted by a New York State Supreme Court Justice having halted the town board’s plan…
By Michael Wright 05/25/22
East Hampton Airport has continued to operate largely as always this past week — but attorneys for East Hampton Town and the plaintiffs in three lawsuits seeking to block the... more
By Brendon J. O' Reilly 05/19/22
In recent years, one village after another on the South Fork has restricted or seasonally banned the use of gas-powered leaf blowers as residents fed up with the noise, dust and fumes that leaf blowers…
By Christopher Walsh 05/19/22
After a months-long effort to craft a plan to address an explosion in quality-of-life complaints regarding air traffic to and from East Hampton Airport, the airport's planned deactivation on Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. did not…
By Christopher Walsh 05/19/22
An environmental analyst in the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department and the president of Concerned Citizens of Montauk urged the town on Tuesday to adopt the Coastal Assessment and Resiliency Plan, released in draft…
By Michael Wright 05/18/22
A state judge on Monday afternoon issued a temporary restraining order blocking East Hampton Town’s plans to temporarily close East Hampton Airport at midnight on May 17. State Supreme Court... more
By Sarah Maslin Nir 05/13/22
With the serene beaches of the Hamptons soon 3,500 feet below his box-fresh white sneakers, Rob Wiesenthal, the chief executive of Blade, a by-the-seat helicopter charter company, boasted how the service could slice above the…
By Christopher Walsh 05/05/22
The currently projected range of sea level rise “will transform East Hampton into a series of islands with permanent submergence of low-lying areas as early as 2070.” That is the ominous conclusion that leads a…
By Staff Writer 05/04/22
It shows what town researchers who developed CARP have found to be the expected condition of the eastern half of East Hampton Town in 2070, less than 50 years from now, if efforts to combat…
By Michael Wright 05/02/22
Among the many vexing issues facing town planners and elected officials as they try to gameplan “managed retreat” in Montauk away from the sea is where, exactly, to retreat to. In a hamlet study, consultants…
By Michael Wright 05/02/22
The future of Montauk’s downtown and the long shadow of rising sea levels was the focus of a panel discussion with experts in coastal dynamics and community leaders at the... more
By Christopher Walsh 04/29/22
Like helicopters and jets, leaf blowers have long been the bane of many a South Fork resident’s existence, each one a portable spewer of pollutants and source of ear-splitting noise. But in towns and villages…
By Michele Trauring 04/28/22
A century ago, a smattering of about 50 wooden shacks dotted the water’s edge in Montauk. They were home to 300 people, mostly commercial fishermen from Nova Scotia and their families, who transformed the alcove…
By Michael Wright 04/20/22
The Express News Group’s Express Sessions series will return to Montauk on April 28 for a conversation with community leaders, business owners, town officials and environmental experts about how the hamlet should plan to guard…
By Michael Wright 04/20/22
South Fork Wind has applied to use a vacant industrial property between Three Mile Harbor Road and Springs-Fireplace Road as a temporary storage site for soil and water removed from the ground during the digging…
By Michael Wright 04/13/22
Stony Brook University researchers who have been monitoring the tidal waters and ponds around East Hampton for a decade said that the summer of 2021 saw some of the highest... more
By Michelle Trauring 04/06/22
Almost 400 years ago, settlers discovered an idyllic peninsula along the coast of the Eastern Seaboard, its countryside cared for by five Native American tribes. They acquired land, built modest... more
By Michael Wright 03/23/22
Aviation industry advocates this week said that they do not believe that East Hampton Town’s proposal to close East Hampton Airport for 33 hours in mid-May and re-open it as a legally “new” airport will…
By Christopher Walsh 03/17/22
As construction of the onshore portion of the South Fork Wind farm proceeds in Wainscott, a lawsuit filed in United States District Court last week seeks to halt that work, claiming its potential to spread…
By Christopher Walsh 03/17/22
Friday at 4 p.m. is the deadline for public comment on the scope of a draft environmental impact statement associated with the May 17 deactivation of East Hampton Airport and the opening, 33 hours later,…
By Michael Wright 03/02/22
Ørsted contractors last week took the first major work on the installation of the conduit that will eventually conceal the South Fork Wind power cable beneath Wainscott roadways — the same day a judge dismissed…
02/16/22
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…
By Christopher Walsh 02/12/22
Gov. Kathy Hochul and federal Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland were among the dignitaries on hand at LTV Studios in Wainscott on Friday for the ceremonial groundbreaking on the South Fork Wind farm, New…
By Carolyn Gusoff 02/11/22
There was a milestone Friday in New York’s move toward clean energy. A groundbreaking was held in East Hampton for a major offshore wind project. It’ll be only the second in the nation.
By Christopher Walsh 02/10/22
A new, online portal through which East Hampton Town residents could interface with town staff in departments like planning, code enforcement, animal control, and the town clerk is among the projects in a first draft…
By Christopher Walsh 02/10/22
The contractor for the developers of the South Fork Wind farm is continuing to remove some vegetation within the Long Island Rail Road right of way this week, in advance of the onshore construction that…
By Christopher Walsh 02/10/22
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced a virtual public information session next Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. about a new water quality study of Long Island Sound embayments.
By Kitty Merrill 02/09/22
Environmental consultant Aram Terchunian of the firm First Coastal Corporation asked the question during a work session discussion of erosion control districts in Bridgehampton and Sagaponack. Answering his own question, he said the project performed…
By Michael Wright 02/09/22
The wind farm developer Ørsted plans to break ground this week on the first steps in the trenching that will eventually conceal the power cable from the South Fork Wind, the first offshore wind farm…
By Christopher Walsh 02/05/22
The East Hampton Town Board has hit turbulence on its plan to briefly close East Hampton Airport and reopen it four days later as a private-use facility with restrictions on flight activity, after receiving a…
By Michael Wright 02/04/22
A Federal Aviation Administration official last week tried to throw a speed bump in East Hampton Town’s path for re-classifying East Hampton Airport at the end of this month by closing it down for three…
