LIPA

Clean Energy October 12, 2020

Wind warriors earn support in Wainscott beach battle

By GREGORY ZELLER // With local opposition still pushing against the tide, Long Island wind-power backers are applauding new state support for a plan to land an undersea transmission cable on a Wainscott beach. Five New York State agencies – including the NYS Department of Public Service, the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and the NYS Department of Transportation – have signed a “joint proposal,” already supported by local governments and regional environmental groups, calling…

Accounting August 3, 2020

Well-paid, well-respected CFO takes over LIPA’s books

By GREGORY ZELLER // The Long Island Power Authority’s new CFO is no stranger to major-league utility operations – or to LIPA. The power authority’s Board of Trustees has named Tamela Monroe as LIPA’s new chief financial officer, an official coronation that solidifies the veteran administrator’s already-in-progress role as the regional utility’s primary accountant. Monroe – who boasts 35 years of public-power experience, including senior-level positions at two of the nation’s largest utilities – has…

Newsletters May 22, 2020

No. 503: In which we risk re-opening, plan retirements and map the world, with nowhere to go

A Memorial Day to forget: It’s the unofficial start of summer, dear readers, and maybe the unofficial end of sanity, as another homebound workweek wraps up with Long Island on lockdown. It’s May 22 out there, marking the start of the three-day Memorial Day weekend – another pandemic bummer for the tourism trade, though still an opportunity for innovation. Calendar item: Innovate LI is clearing the baffles this holiday weekend, so no calendar newsletter…

Energy May 20, 2020

LIPA weighs ‘retirement’ at ‘vintage’ Northport plant

By GREGORY ZELLER // Drawing direct parallels to several critical issues – including the COVID-19 pandemic – the Long Island Power Authority is pushing hard to push the Island’s steam-driven power plants into retirement. Accompanying the Northport Power Station’s annual Property Tax Report, LIPA on Wednesday released a Repowering Feasibility Study that shows “accelerating the retirement” of the Northport station could contribute to hundreds of millions of saved consumer dollars, while bolstering Albany’s overall environmental…

Newsletters February 7, 2020

No. 473: Featuring Laura Ingalls, Flash Gordon, well-seasoned scallops and our first Innovators of the Year

Never ceases to amaze: Don’t know how you do it, dear reader, but here you are again – another workweek winding down and another hard-earned weekend coming up. Well done! Numerical order: It’s Friday, Feb. 7 – notable to mathematicians, who of course know the date best as E Day, which celebrates the mathematical constant e (a.k.a. Euler’s number), which needless to say has a value of 2.7182818… (it goes on for quite a…

Economic Development September 10, 2019

The ‘underserved’ aim high, via Ascend Long Island

By GREGORY ZELLER // The rubber meets the roads Thursday at Hofstra University, when the innovative Ascend Long Island program holds its first-ever “procurement conference.” Combining small Nassau County businesses and buyers from bigger regional corporations and government agencies, the conference is built to bolster Ascend Long Island’s primary mission: to provide essential business resources, primarily capital, to early stage enterprises in underserved Nassau communities. Specifically, what Hofstra calls “The Corridor:” the villages of Hempstead…

Voices April 5, 2019

Diverse opinions fuel C3E Women in Energy event

By ROSALIE DRAGO // In any industry, “diversity” means intentionally incorporating views and perspectives different from our own – an essential practice for both personal and professional innovation and advancement. We all know it’s easier and faster to move something forward with someone who agrees with us. It doesn’t mean you get the best outcome, though. It can be uncomfortable, to have your voice heard and to listen to that “other” voice, and difficult to…

Newsletters March 22, 2019

No. 391: Kirk lives, rockets blast, lasers fire – and it’s a water world after all

Welcome to Friday: You’ve done it, dear reader – the end of another busy workweek is upon us, and the first weekend of spring has sprung. Well played. It’s March 22 out there, marking the United Nation’s annual World Water Day, which reminds us that clean, potable water is “a human right.” (They take this to heart at Adelphi University, as you’ll see below.) More Power to you: With Saturday’s national Powerball jackpot soaring…

Economic Development October 17, 2018

Nassau IDA backs new rentals on Sandy-ravaged site

By GREGORY ZELLER // An Oceanside site ravaged by Superstorm Sandy will soon be remade into a new rental-apartment complex, with the help of the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency. The Nassau IDA has approved a tax-reducing economic-incentives package that will help The Feil Organization, a New York City-based development-management firm, rebuild the dilapidated site into a 230-unit, transit-oriented rental complex. The development agency first approved the tax-abatement deal in September and issued its final…

Energy January 25, 2017

LIPA approves nation’s largest offshore wind farm

By GREGORY ZELLER // Thar she blows. The Long Island Power Authority Board of Trustees has voted to approve the nation’s largest offshore wind farm in Long Island waters. As proposed by Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind, the 90-megawatt South Fork Wind Farm – also New York State’s first offshore wind energy-harvesting operation – will be located 30 miles southeast of Montauk. The farm, which officials have repeatedly asserted will be out of sight of Long…

Energy January 12, 2017

Island winds blowing in Deepwater’s direction

By GREGORY ZELLER // Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s call for wind-energy harvesting in Long Island waters has earned rave reviews from environmental activists. A who’s-who of regional rainmakers from the energy and ecology sectors are cheering Cuomo’s call for the Long Island Power Authority to approve what would be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm, proposed for the Atlantic Ocean about 30 miles southeast of Montauk. The governor implored the LIPA Board of Trustees in a…

Clean Energy July 20, 2016

LIPA trustees postpone wind-farm vote

By GREGORY ZELLER // The Long Island Power Authority has delayed a vote on a proposed turbine farm that would set a new high-water mark for U.S. offshore wind-energy projects. LIPA trustees were expected to approve Wednesday the utility’s plans for a 90-megawatt, 15-turbine wind farm and to award the project to offshore developer Deepwater Wind, which is planning to flip the switch on a 30-megawatt, five-turbine farm off the coast of Rhode Island later this year….

Clean Energy April 10, 2015

State’s $160M renewables program sidesteps LI

BY GREGORY ZELLER New York State’s new $160 million clean-energy initiative is an environmental and economic-development boon of the highest order. But not for Long Island. In fact, the funding program announced April 7 by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo – designed specifically to grow large-scale clean-energy projects – could deliver a staggering blow to the Island’s innovation economy by luring clean-gen projects elsewhere. The program is funded by the New York State Energy Research and…