THE EAST HAMPTON PRESS Established 2007 —_ [-—— Hold Harmless Te problem with the planned South Fork Wind Farm is thi it's always seemed a foregone conclusion, some- thing that had already funneled down through higher powers long before it entered the public discourse locally. ‘The site for the proposed 15-windmill power plant, in the ocean 30 miles southeast of Montauk, was “selected based onamulti-year stakeholder engagement process led by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management,” the would- be wind farm developer, Deepwater Wind, explains on its website. Public hearings by the federal government on leasing the wind farm site were held in New England. That short- changed the stakeholders on the South Fork, who are meant to be the consumers of the energy the farm would create, and will in large part pay for it. Moreover, it’s the South Fork where the cable carrying the electricity will come ashore. Finally, the impact will be most severe on East End fishermen, and they seem largely to believe that the project will threaten their livelihood by changing the patterns of fish migration and otherwise pose a danger to marine life.fore long, the wind farm had the state’ stamp of ap- Pn oval aswell wih Gee, —_‘Adividuals, eror Andrew Cuomo touting . the project—he largest gener especially ator of power in the nation— as part of the states Reforming fishermen, cam the Energy Vision initiative. The Long Island Power Authority be excused. jor signed a contract to purchase the electricity it created over the feeling they were next two decades or more. East Hampton and Southampton invited alittle towns factored energy produced lu the by the wind farm—in a signif. party icant way—into their plans to teto . rely primarily on renewable en- ergy by, respectively, 2020 and 2025. Local environmental groups praised the project. ‘Deepwater representatives since then have made a com- mendable effort to reach out to people on the South Fork to hear what they think or what they are concerned about, holding conversations throughout both East Hampton and Southampton towns. But individuals, especially fish- ermen, can be excused for feeling they were invited a little late to the party. Clearly, barring some miracle, the project will move for- ‘ward at this point. And it may well be glorious—a pristine power plant on the other side of the horizon replacing dirty, land-based diesel generators, providing energy to an area whose consumption is expected to spike, as well as setting an example to rest of the nation. To critics, one is tempted to say: What else is going to satisfy our apparently insatiable appetite for power? Coal? Deepwater and local fishermen seem to be on the brink of negotiating some sort of financial deal should the proj- ect hurt the commercial fishing industry. But that’s not enough, not immediately nor in the long ‘erm. At the very least, the state, the federal government—someone—will need to ensure that impartial scientists are studying this project for many years to come to measure how it affects marine life and the environment, which belongs to all of us, as a whole. This for-profit company must be held ac- countable if there is injury, and it's important to glean the information that will be needed to make future projects of its kind, wherever they might be, asharmless as possible.