Cheers all around for Gov. Hochul and Mayor Adams and many others who successfully persuaded President Trump to have the federal government lift its stop-work order on Empire Wind 1, an offshore wind project which will create 1,500 good jobs and clean energy for a half million homes.
It was a team effort, with Hochul on the phone with the president repeatedly and Adams making the case face-to-face in the Oval Office. Everyone’s a winner, as the April 16 freeze order from the Interior Department has been rescinded and Trump agreed to let the fully-permitted and funded project go forward.
Empire Wind 1 is being built by Equinor, a Norwegian energy company and the Norwegian prime minister and finance minister helped get it back on track.
In the spirit of cooperation, Hochul also said that “New York will work with the administration and private entities on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements under New York law. In order to ensure reliability and affordability for consumers, we will be working in earnest to deliver on these objectives.” That is talking about potential natural gas pipelines that Trump had been seeking.
As we said, everyone’s a winner, as expanding natural gas capacity is also a good thing, despite the wrong-headed view of the anti-fracking types (note that a new pipeline would simply transport natural gas across the state).
Trump likes wins and he likes deals. So New York gets back Empire Wind 1 and Trump gets to see a possible future natural gas pipeline.
The same kind of happy-for-everyone outcome can be achieved with Amtrak’s East River Tunnel. Hochul and Adams and just about everyone else in New York, including major Republicans like Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Reps. Elise Stefanik and Mike Lawler (all possible gubernatorial contenders) want Amtrak to fix the vital tunnel nights and weekends.
The four-tube tunnel is used by 461 daily Long Island Rail Road trains to and from Penn Station and Amtrak’s plan to completely shut one of the tubes for at least three years will wreak havoc with the busiest railroad in the country. The pending closure has already caused the elimination of 25% of all Albany-Penn Amtrak trains and 10% of the LIRR’s a.m. peak into Penn.
The answer is to keep the all four tubes in normal service during the day and work on repairs during the off hours at nights and on weekends. That’s how the East River tubes used by the L train and the F train were repaired.
Just like the return of Empire Wind 1, it won’t cost Trump and the federal government a penny. The repairs are fully funded with $1.6 billion. The issue is how the repairs should be done. In fact, when the L train repair was switched from a full shutdown to nights and weekends, the project was completed good as new for 100 years under budget and ahead of schedule.
So what’s not to like? The canceled trains to Albany and points north get restored, as do the LIRR routes and the future disruptions are avoided and the East River Tunnel is made perfect for the next 100 years. Trump and everyone in New York wins and it doesn’t cost anything.
Amtrak only has weak objections, but they are all hollow, as we will very soon explain.
