The Governor of the State of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, has formally requested an exclusion from the new five-year National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
According to Cuomo, New York strongly opposes the Department of the Interior’s oil & gas program as it poses an unacceptable threat to the state’s ocean resources and economy.
As the third ocean economy in the nation, New York stands to lose nearly 320,000 jobs and billions of dollars generated through tourism and fishing industries should the exclusion not be granted, Cuomo said, emphasizing that offshore drilling also endangers the state’s progressive efforts to move toward cleaner, smarter energy solutions.
“Instead of protecting our waters from another oil spill, like the one that devastated the Gulf, this new federal plan only increases the chances of another disaster taking place,” Cuomo said.
“This is a total disregard for science, reality, and history, and their actions defy everything we know. We believe the future is a clean energy economy and New York is going to lead a counter-movement to what this administration is doing to the environment and illuminate the path forward.”
To remind, earlier this year Cuomo called for a procurement of at least 800MW of offshore wind power between two solicitations to be issued in 2018 and 2019.
The solicitations are part of the state’s goal to reach the 2030 target of 2.4GW of commissioned offshore wind capacity set last year .