A new Manhattan Institute report on energy revealing that New Yorkers pay a whopping 66 percent more for electricity than the national average is a wake-up call for the city to start seriously moving toward alternative and renewable energy sources.

Staten Island is answering the call with a proposal for a wind farm at the former Fresh Kills landfill. We’re ready to put a shovel in the ground. All that remains is for the city to green-light this green-energy project.

The Manhattan Institute report, “NY Unplugged? Building Energy Capacity and Curbing Energy Rates in the Empire State,” concludes that action by Albany is urgently needed to expand energy capacity and reduce energy costs. I have sent a letter to the new governor, who formerly chaired the State's Renewable Energy Task Force, asking his support for New York City's first wind farm.

A study underwritten by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has determined that not only is a wind farm feasible at Fresh Kills, it is the only location in the city that could support wind energy.

Yet despite a looming energy crisis, the proposal languishes nearly a year after the successful study was completed.

My proposal calls for seven 400-foot turbines placed throughout the future Fresh Kills Park (nearly three times the size of Central Park) that could generate 17 megawatts of energy, enough to power 5,000 homes. It would take 4.3 million gallons of oil per year to achieve this electric production, at today's staggering cost of more than $100 a barrel.

The Fresh Kills wind farm is a common-sense solution that wouldn't cost the city a dime. A private operator would fund the $40 million cost to install the turbines in a lease agreement. The wind farm would also help achieve the “greener” city goal of Mayor Bloomberg's “PlaNYC,” which projects a 30 percent increase in the city's energy demand over the next 25 years.

Soaring energy costs and our growing dependence on foreign oil have caused hardship for families and businesses struggling to make ends meet in this economic downturn. To keep companies from relocating to less expensive areas, New York must lower costs by utilizing domestic energy alternatives to expensive foreign oil, which pollutes the environment and funds terrorism around the world. We're only dependent on foreign oil because we want to be. And there's no reason to be, except for the special interests that care only about themselves, the public be damned.

Wind farms are growing in popularity, from Atlantic City to upstate Lackawanna, because they produce renewable “green” energy that will not pollute or contribute to global warming. Today's structural and foundation engineering technology allows for wind turbines to be constructed on top of active and inactive landfills. Germany is already building such facilities. The Fresh Kills turbines, situated atop four landfill mounds, would be the most visible wind farm in the world.

But New York needs to begin the land-lease process now.

If New York City is going to meet Mayor Bloomberg's ambitious goals for 2030, clean energy projects like the Fresh Kills wind farm must be embraced and developed. Wind power can provide New Yorkers with the electricity they demand and transform one of the country's worst ecological nightmares into a free, limitless resource that will make a positive difference in the environment.
Otherwise, we're just tilting at windmills.