On Monday, however, the company announced that the taking had been lifted and that the construction would resume. But as for taking itself, the reasons for its end remain mysterious. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of the Project page was only updated with a new letter on Tuesday. This letter indicates that an examination of his approval is underway, but the construction can resume during the exam.
The Ministry of the Interior did not address the change and did not respond to a request for comments. A position by interior secretary Burgum does not mention Empire Wind but suggests that the governor of New York will approve a pipeline: “I am encouraged by the comments of Governor Hochul on his desire to move forward on the critical capacity of the pipeline.”
This suggests that there was an agreement that allowed Empire Wind to resume construction in exchange for a pipeline for fossil fuels. The New York Times suggests that this is a reference to the proposed constitution pipeline, which was planned to move the natural gas from Pennsylvania to the east of New York, but was canceled in 2020 due to the opposition of the State.
However, Governor Kathy Hochul did not comment on a desire to move forward with pipelines. Instead, Hochul’s declaration on Empire Wind is very vague, saying that it “reaffirmed that New York will work with the administration and private entities on new energy projects that meet legal requirements under the New York law”.
So, even if the construction of the Wind Empire has restarted, the entire process was problematic, motivated by apparently arbitrary decisions that the government refused to justify.
