Climate Change: New York's Metro-North Threatens an Economic Mudslide - Bloomberg
Climate Change: New York’s Metro-North Threatens an Economic Mudslide - Bloomberg
New York’s Metro-North Is an Economic Mudslide Waiting to Happen
Between damage from falling debris, storm surges and rising seas, it’s time to climate proof the commuter lines that tie the lower Hudson Valley and its workforce to the city.
Storms can make the commute in and out of New York City frustrating. Photographer: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images North America
The village of Briarcliff Manor is quintessential Westchester County, New York: Leafy, wealthy and named like a sequel to Downton Abbey. It recently suffered a mudslide, a ghastly intrusion, to be sure, but also a portent of climate change snapping the links that hold together the bustling neighborhoods and sleepy suburbs that make New York City work.
On Oct. 21, a Saturday, I saw crowds stranded at Tarrytown’s Metro-North Railroad station, a few miles south of where a retaining wall behind a house in Briarcliff had given way, spilling tons of rocks and earth down onto the tracks. The Hudson Line, carrying 10 million riders annually, is one of three commuter lines east of the river that tie the lower Hudson Valley, and its workforce, to the city. The line runs along the eastern bank of the river for most of its 74 miles between Grand Central Terminal and Poughkeepsie.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.