SOURCE:
https://www.liherald.com/stories/alliance-for-clean-energy-ny-future,222332
By Herald Content Studio - May 14, 2026
New York’s energy debate is often framed as a question of transition. But for many experts, environmental advocates, labor leaders and utility officials, the more immediate issue is one of necessity.
Electric demand is rising. Infrastructure is aging. Customers are grappling with utility costs. The need to combat climate change has long been discussed. And the state must determine how to add new power while reducing pollution and preparing for future growth.
The fastest way to add more power to the grid is through renewable energy, paired with battery storage. This will diversify the grid, provide stable sources of energy, and is the best option for the environment. That is why offshore wind, solar power and battery energy storage are central parts of the conversation.
A growing need for power
The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has predicted that energy demand is going to increase by 65% by 2040. This is straining our current grid and electric system. NYS is burning more fossil fuels to meet this demand, using aging infrastructure that should have been retired years ago. The product of these two major factors leads to increased reliability issues and negative environmental impacts.
Doug Schmid, an environmental science professor at Nassau Community College and executive committee member of the Sierra Club Long Island Group said:
“Our electricity needs are increasing. The New York State plan for our energy future is counting on 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy. We need it.”
That demand challenge is one reason clean energy has become less theoretical and more practical.
While offshore wind comes with a lot of promise, it is part of a larger partnership that includes solar and storage that will complement each other—while providing reliability and predictability.
Health, air quality and climate
Investing in renewable energy doesn’t just help meet the demand that is coming, it betters the environment that we rely on.
Adrienne Esposito, executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said renewable energy offers a direct contrast to fossil-fuel generation because it avoids combustion emissions.
“The wind blows, the turbines turn, and energy is produced,” Esposito said. “The air quality is not impacted.”
She also said communities are already experiencing the costs of climate change through rising seas, heavier rainfall and coastal damage.
“We have rising sea levels. We have more torrential rain events,” Esposito said. “Long Islanders really are connected to our beaches, bays and our ocean. And yet climate change is changing all that.”
Though Long Island is only one region, similar concerns are being felt across the state and the country.
Protecting the Long Island economy
Long Island’s environment is not separate from its economy. Tourism tied to beaches, parks, boating, vineyards and waterfront communities supports jobs across Nassau and Suffolk.
Damage to coastlines and recurring flooding can carry direct costs, and Adrienne Esposito said climate impacts are already visible.
She highlighted how businesses are facing added costs, including shoreline infrastructure needing upgrades because of sea-level rise.
Insurance is another growing concern, particularly in vulnerable flood-prone areas where premiums can rise and coverage may become harder to secure.
“There is a direct correlation between climate change, living on the coast and our insurance rates for both our homes and our cars,” Esposito highlighted. “Homeowners insurance here on Long Island, especially if you live south of Montauk Highway, is very difficult to get.”
“Insurance companies have run the numbers, they've run the risk, they understand the dangers of climate change, and they don't want to insure homeowners anymore,” she added.
This is being stymied by opponents
Renewable energy sources are not without their opponents. Brown University put out a report in 2023 mapping the network that has been built to stymie the industry.
They do this through funneling false narratives to trusted sources, creating doubt around the effectiveness or even environmental benefits of offshore wind.
This network claimed that marine life was negatively affected or that the infrastructure caused health issues for residents. This was an effort to make the projects too costly, whether in actual funding or political capital, to make them viable for the communities they serve.
“The misinformation campaign started with the fossil fuel industry,” Doug Schmid, executive committee member of the Sierra Club Long Island group and Environmental Science professor at Nassau Community College. “You can go to the NOAA website. It says there's absolutely no evidence that offshore wind activity is causing any problems with marine mammals.”
Instead, Schmid, who regularly performs post-mortem examinations on whales, said around 85% of the critically-endangered North Atlantic Right Whale are deaths related to gear entanglement from humans.
He also highlighted ways that offshore wind actually benefits the environment in some ways, creating hard spaces and rock beds for benthic animals to attach to.
“They’re worried about the very little effects on birds or other disruptions, in comparison to an oil spill that kills hundreds of marine mammals and oil drilling that is 1,000 times greater intensity of sound,” Schmid added.
These efforts were funded by fossil fuel interest groups and think tanks that were connected to the fossil fuel industry. This misinformation campaign continues today and has expanded to all renewable technologies because of the competition they are creating with energy generators that use fossil fuels.
Until recently, the energy market was dominated by fossil fuels in America. A transition to clean energy generation has threatened that reliance and the transition has been proven to be a viable path.
The road ahead
No single technology is expected to power New York’s future alone.
But offshore wind can provide large-scale generation. Solar can reduce daytime demand. Battery storage can help stabilize the system and optimize the electric grid when energy is needed most.
Together, experts say, these technologies represent a practical path toward meeting growth, improving affordability and creating jobs while cutting emissions.
As demand rises, the question may no longer be whether New York needs these resources, but how quickly it can deploy them.