The Public Service Commission approved a transmission line that will deliver electricity from the Sunrise Wind Farm, a proposed wind farm off the coast of Long Island, to the existing electrical grid in New York State. The 25-mile offshore/onshore transmission line will carry electricity from the wind farm to an existing substation in Brookhaven, Suffolk County.

At 924 megawatts (MW), the proposed Sunrise Wind farm located in federal waters is the largest offshore wind farm yet that would be connected to New York’s electric grid. The wind farm project, which has the potential capacity to power nearly 600,000 homes, is being developed as a partnership between Ørsted and Eversource, with support from Con Edison Transmission and the New York Power Authority, who will assist the development of the transmission facilities needed to deliver the offshore wind energy to the electric transmission grid.

Public Service Commission Chair Rory M. Christian said:

Senate Democrats Retain Supermajority

With absentee ballot counting completed, State Senate Democrats appear to have retained their supermajority. With all ballots counted, Democrat Iwen Chu expanded her lead in the Southern Brooklyn district. Chu formerly served as Chief of Staff to Assemblymember Peter Abbate. Additionally, incumbent Democratic Senator John Mannion pulled ahead of his opponent by 27 votes after absentee ballot were counted. The close race will trigger an automatic recount. Pending the manual recount, Mannion’s victory would give Senate Democrats 42 seats in the 63-member chamber, enough to override a veto by the Governor.

State Budget Director Announces Departure

Robert Mujica has announced his departure from his role in Governor Hochul’s administration. Mujica, the longest-serving Budget Director in New York history, announced he is taking a position beginning in January as executive director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico. The U.S. Congress created the board in 2016, a year after Puerto Rico announced that it was unable to pay more than $70 billion of public debt. Mujica, who replaces Natalie Jaresko, will be in charge of a board that is overseeing the bankruptcy-like process and will remain in place until Puerto Rico’s government approves four consecutive balanced budgets. It is speculated that longtime deputy Sandra Beattie will replace Mujica in the interim.

Governor Hochul said:

Comptroller Issues Audit of State Unemployment Insurance System

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released an audit this week that found that New York’s unemployment insurance system was defrauded of an estimated $11 billion during the pandemic. The audit examined the period between January 2020 and March 2022 and determined that during the pandemic, the improper payment rate in New York ballooned to more than 28% and fraud rate reached more than 17%. The Comptroller said labor officials would not provide auditors with information that could have enabled them to determine how many improper payments were made and the total amount. The agency was also slow to provide information that delayed the audit from being completed.

Comptroller DiNapoli said: