South Hampton

SOUTH HAMPTON

CURRENT NEWS

Whales, from above

By Ellie Duke 09/15/23
Sutton Lynch rises most days before the sun, arriving at Atlantic Beach in Amagansett, N.Y., for the early-morning calm. It’s the same beach he’s been going to since he was a child, and where he…
Read more

Wind Farms Here Hit Milestones, While Others Hit Turbulence

By Michael Wright 08/02/23
The construction of the South Fork Wind Farm reached another milestone last week, while a second offshore wind farm that will send power to Long Island took its first concrete step toward construction — even…
Read more

Governor Convenes Working Group After Fires at Three BESS Facilities

By Tom Gogola 08/02/23
Just days after the Southampton Town Board’s recent decision to enact a six-month moratorium on battery energy storage systems proposed in the town, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the creation of... more
Read more

Outrage mounts over proposed lithium battery storage facility in Hampton Bays

By News 12 Staff 06/09/23
Outrage is mounting over a plan to build a lithium battery storage facility in Hampton Bays.
Read more

Proposed Calverton Air Cargo Facility May Impact South Fork

By Denise Civiletti 05/24/23
Jet planes carrying cargo for delivery across the Long Island region may be landing on the East End for the first time, if an application now pending in Riverhead Town...
Read more

In Southampton, New Options for Energy

By Christopher Walsh 05/04/23
With all hurdles overcome, Southampton Town is poised to become the first municipality on Long Island to implement a community choice aggregation program, a model that replaces the utility as the default sole supplier of…
Read more

Community Choice Aggregation, Potentially Bringing Electricity Cost Savings, Is on the Horizon

By Kitty Merrill 05/03/23
In its simplest terms, a community choice aggregation program for electricity means a municipality can gather together residents and small businesses and act as one customer purchasing electricity. Southampton Town is looking to do that.
Read more

Southampton Town Receives U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Award

By Taylor K. Vecsey 04/27/23
Southampton Town has received a prestigious award for modernizing the heating and ventilation system (HVAC) at the nearly 100-year-old Town Hall.
Read more

Bigbelly Solar-Powered Garbage Cans Hit the Streets in Southampton Village

By Cailin Riley 04/26/23
It was a long time coming, but 10 Bigbelly solar-powered trash compacting stations have finally been installed on Main Street in Southampton Village. The idea and impetus to install the... more
Read more

Climate Local Now: Keeping Our Riches in the Community

By Mary Morgan 04/26/23
I’ll admit it….I’m swayed by my home gardener friends, healthy-yard advocates and pollinator-pathway champions crowing about their compost bins.
Read more

Rising ocean, bay tides could eventually reshape Long Island — and will alter how we live, work and play, experts say

By Carl MacGowan 04/24/23
In 2080, the historic Montauk lighthouse and Orient Point may be on their own islands, cut off from the rest of Long Island by newly formed rivers.
Read more

Southampton Town Board Mulls Moratorium on Battery Storage Systems, May Set Hearing Later This Month

By Kitty Merrill 04/12/23
Two battery energy storage systems, both in Hampton Bays, have been proposed in Southampton Town. But if a proposed moratorium on the facilities mulled by the Town Board is adopted, they could be the only…
Read more

PLANS TO ACCELERATE RENEWABLES

Southampton Town Climate Action Plan

03/15/23
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions In Southampton

Southampton Town aims to be 100 percent green by 2025

02/15/18
Southampton Town will take several steps this year to move toward its goal of meeting all of the community’s energy consumption needs through renewable sources by 2025.

KEY RESOURCES

National Risk Index Data Lookup

09/25/23
Use the form below to look up the risk details for a specific county or Census tract. As you enter information into the form, the form will update and present you with additional input fields.…

What Can and Can’t Be Recycled?

04/21/22
A simple guide to what can and can't be recycled

Town of Southampton – Energy & Sustainability

07/10/19
The Office of Energy and Sustainability was created to work with the Sustainability Southampton Advisory Committee to advise the Town, and assist in implementing, environmentally sustainable practices. This is primarily achieved by formulating guidelines for…

Renewable Energy Long Island

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…

MORE NEWS

Climate Change Solutions: The Big Five

By Jenny Noble   04/12/23  
“We’re walking when we should be sprinting” — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chairman Hoesung Lee, describing how insufficient current plans are to tackle climate change.
Read more

Southampton creating local plan to combat climate change

By Joe Werkmeister   03/28/23  
An environmental planner for Southampton Town, Lieberman has spearheaded the town's effort to develop a climate action plan that is intended to ...
Read more

Decarbonizing Buildings to Prove Vital to Southampton’s Climate Future

03/23/23  
Decarbonizing the energy used in buildings will prove key to getting Southampton Town’s carbon footprint to zero in the years ahead, according to researchers working on the town’s Climate Action Plan.
Read more

With Another Project Planned on the Heels of County Road 39 Sidewalks, Lawmakers Lambaste Suffolk County Officials

By Kitty Merrill   03/22/23  
With at least three local lawmakers still aghast and irked by the news of an extensive, two-year Suffolk County project to install sidewalks on County Road 39 in Southampton, the... more
Read more

Southampton Town Hosts Climate Action Plan Public Engagement Session

By Lisa Finn   03/13/23  
The public is invited to join the Southampton Town planning department this week for a presentation on the progress of development of the Climate Action Plan.
Read more

Shinnecock Kelp Farmers to Expand Southampton Kelp Farm

03/01/23  
The Shinnecock Kelp Farmers, a multi-generational, women-led non-profit, is expanding their kelp hatchery and farm in Southampton, NY—the first Indigenous-owned and operated kelp farm on the East Coast. Leveraging knowledge drawn from a more than…
Read more

Southampton Village Secures Funding for Algae Harvesting in Lake Agawam, Other Water Quality Improvement Projects

By Cailin Riley   01/18/23  
Cleaning up Lake Agawam has been a challenge — one without a clear solution — for years. At a Southampton Village Board meeting on Thursday night, January 12, Mayor Jesse
Read more

Southampton Crafting Regulations For Commercial Solar

By Stephen J. Kotz   06/21/22  
Last Thursday, June 16, Janice Scherer, the town’s planning and development administrator, Michelangelo Lieberman, a senior planner, and Deputy Supervisor Frank Zappone discussed with the Town Board several draft regulations for commercial solar arrays, with…
Read more

Using Old Technology, Reel Quiet Mowing Was Ahead Of Its Time

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…
Read more

Sea’s Rising, The Ocean’s Coming In

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
Read more

Town Board Adopts Gas Leaf Blower Ban In Southampton

By Kitty Merrill   03/23/22  
The Southampton Town Board approved a summertime ban on gas-powered leaf blowers in a split vote on Tuesday, March 22. Supervisor Jay Schneiderman and Councilmen John Bouvier and Tommy John... more
Read more

Leaf Blower Debate Rages On During Hearing On Proposed Summertime Ban

By Kitty Merrill   02/23/22  
The cost — to landscapers, to quality of life, to the environment — was a theme woven through a two-hour public hearing on a proposed summertime gas leaf blower ban held by the Southampton Town…
Read more

McNamara, A Lawmaker And Landscaper, Offers Adamant Opposition To Gas Leaf Blower Regs

By Kitty Merrill   02/02/22  
Most businesses and homeowners realize “this is the way we’re going,” Southampton Town Councilman John Bouvier said last week, introducing the discussion of draft gas-powered leaf blower legislation that would... more
Read more

Slipping Away: Homeowners, Officials Buy Time As Escalating Effects Of Climate Change Threaten East End

By Michelle Trauring   01/25/22  
For centuries, the world has known one type of refugee: those who leave their homes behind due to war, violence, conflict or persecution, often risking their lives in the pursuit of safety. In recent years,…
Read more

Climate Local Now: A Festival of Solutions

By Mary Morgan and Mark Haubner   01/05/22  
Drawdown Festival – Tools for Regeneration: Forums! Fun! Films! blankets the weekend from January 21-23, 2022 with talks, workshops and films on “actions we can all take to regenerate our earth and reverse climate devastation.”
Read more

South Fork Towns Adopt NYStretch Energy Code

By Staff   12/21/21  
On the South Fork, where large homes abound, energy codes are getting more stringent. Both East Hampton and Southampton Towns have adopted the NYStretch Energy Code-2020, a supplement to the New York State Energy Code,…
Read more

Heavy rains help to expand ‘dead zones’ in Long Island Sound, scientists say

By Joan Gralla   10/08/21  
Too much rain and still way too much nitrogen were the twin causes of this summer’s overly abundant algae blooms and critically low-oxygen dead zones in Long Island’s fresh and saltwater bodies, an annual report…
Read more

Feds Declare Peconic Bay Scallops A Disaster

By Michael Wright   07/21/21  
The U.S. Department of Commerce has declared the Peconic Bay scallop a fishery disaster, making baymen who rely on the harvest of the scallops for income and the efforts to
Read more

New Yorkers fled to the Hamptons in 2020 – and sparked a major sewage crisis

By Alexandra Talty   06/25/21  
A water quality crisis has been hiding in the ritzy Hamptons, but the pandemic pushed it over the edge. Will clean-up efforts be too little too late?
Read more

Kelp Could Be Environmental Elixir, And Economic Opportunity

By Michael Wright   06/02/21  
Scientists from Stony Brook University say that a species of seaweed native to the East End coastline may prove to be an important weapon in the fight to overcome pollution problems from decades of overdevelopment…
Read more

State Court Overturns Sand Land’s Mining Permit

By Stephen J. Kotz   05/28/21  
A five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court has overturned the sandmining permit issued in 2019 by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to Sand Land, which owns a…
Read more

Southampton Town Plans Large Solar Array

By Christopher Walsh   04/28/21  
Southampton Town has issued a request for proposals for what would be Long Island's first community distributed generation solar array, a project made available through the town's community choice aggregation program.
Read more

Bill Would Preserve 30% Of Land In N.Y.; Eastern L.I. Might Be Used As A Model

By J.D. Allen   01/04/21  
New legislation proposed in New York would set a state goal of conserving at least 30% of land by 2030.
Read more

Getting Closer to Green Power

By Beth Young   01/04/21  
Southampton Town has been leading the charge for the past three years to allow East End municipalities to demand their electricity comes from renewable sources, and has had some success in 2020.
Read more

Southampton Seeks Support for Renewable Power Program

By Beth Young   05/11/20  
Southampton Town is seeking support from its residents for a new program called Choice Community Power, which would allow the town to issue a competitive bid to choose renewable energy for its residents, at what…
Read more

Local Residents Rallied For Climate Action On Southampton Town Hall Lawn

By The Southampton Press   05/28/19  
Drawdown East End, a newly formed environmental activism group, held a “climate action rally” in front of Southampton Town Hall on Friday, joining a global climate strike event organized in more than 100 countries that…
Read more

What Happens To Our Recycling, Part Three: The Way Forward

By Cailin Riley   12/11/18  
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…
Read more

What Happens To Our Recycling, Part Two: The Work Of Recycling

By Cailin Riley   12/04/18  
Mike Vitale saw the writing on the wall, even when no one else did. It was the early 2000s, and single-stream recycling was the newest, hottest trend in the recycling market. Waste Management, the garbage…
Read more

Governor Cuomo Recognizes Town of Southampton as Model for Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Build Climate Resiliency

11/09/17  
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that the town of Southampton as the 16th Certified Climate Smart Community in New York State. With this designation, Southampton is recognized for its actions to strengthen resiliency and…
Read more