Governor Hochul announced the completion of the South Fork Wind Farm off Montauk Point

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced the official completion of the South Fork Wind Farm, the nation's first large-scale offshore wind array in federal waters. She called the LIPA project “a victory for New York's ambition,” while Long Island Native tribes and fishermen said the achievement falls short of their concerns.

Hochul, who visited Southampton to pull the ceremonial key for a set of 12 turbines worth $2.01 billion, said it represented an “amazing milestone of progress for New York” and “for all of America,” with enough energy to power 70,000 homes.

“This is how you get things done,” she said of the project, built off the New England coast 35 miles from Montauk Point and contracted by LIPA in 2017. The event included US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Suffolk County Executive Ed Romine. , a Republican supporter of offshore wind.

Completing the South Fork project “will give me a lead for the next project,” Sunrise Wind, through a cable project he helped negotiate through the city of Brookhaven, Romaine said. “We are all in this together,” he said.

South Fork Wind was developed for the Long Island Power Authority through a joint venture partnership between Denmark-based Orsted and New England utility Eversource. Eversource has since sold its stake in the project.

Hochul said in an interview that greater setbacks to the emerging U.S. offshore wind industry would not slow the state's progress on producing 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. The 130-megawatt South Fork project is the only offshore project in the state, and Federal level. water, but two other government projects are scheduled to be completed by 2026.

Hochul noted that Sunrise Wind, which has a capacity of 924 megawatts, is “on the way forward.” The state last month approved a new tentative contract that gives Sunrise, as well as Empire Wind 1 scheduled 12 miles from Long Beach, more money for its power.

“Supply chain issues, cost of capital — a lot of things have come into play since we started” on a bold offshore wind plan, Hochul noted. “And we've had to make some adjustments. But we're leaning heavily on the energy of the future, which I think for this region is offshore wind.”

Outside the event, Becky Genia, a member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and president of the Shinnecock Graves Protective Warrior Association, held a sign proposing to build turbines on golf courses, not in the ocean.

“It's not about green energy or green energy or clean energy, it's about who's going to make the most money in the least amount of time,” she said, adding that tribal nations received only “token inclusion” in the federal review. And project benefits. “There is nothing fair or just about the way they treat indigenous people, especially the Shinnecock tribe,” Genia said.

Other tribal members criticized the governor for not inviting them to the event. Harry Wallace, chief of the Onkichogue Indian Tribe of Mastic, said he called the governor's office Wednesday night to ask to attend, but was told “there's no room.”

“The alleged good faith in the consultation is not there with it,” said Wallace, who expressed concerns about Sunrise Wind, the cable that passes through several sites considered sacred by the tribe.

“My understanding is that actors were invited here,” Hochul said in a question-and-answer session, noting that Shinnecock members did attend the event.

One attendee, Brian Bullitt, outgoing chief of the Shinnecock Nation, said the federally approved project did not include Native members in benefits. Shinnecock members have had no training or jobs in offshore wind energy, and attempts to include the tribe in the regulatory review process have been unsuccessful, he said.

“We don’t have the resources to review the voluminous documents,” he said, adding that the tribe could hire a team of outside experts to assist in the review. While there have been “talks about jobs,” there has been “nothing specific to train anyone from Shinnecock. We'd love to be involved.”

Sandy Brewster Walker, executive director of the Montauket Nation, said she also was not invited to Thursday's event. Tribal leaders criticized the governor for twice vetoing bills that would restore state recognition of the tribe. Asked whether her administration would approve such a measure, Hochul said Thursday that recognizing Montauket is “something we have addressed before and continue to work with the Legislature on.”

Another group that expressed dissatisfaction with the completion of the South Fork Wind Project and the promised benefits of the project was the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association. The group's executive director, Bonnie Brady, noted that the South Fork and other projects in New York have not yet provided a mechanism to compensate for lost fishing grounds and income from those who fish the waters that host the turbines and cables.

Commercial fishermen in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have access to programs that compensate them for those losses, but fishermen in New York can only get compensation for lost fishing gear if they can prove it, through an application process run by Ørsted, Brady said.