FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Dave Martin
646-483-5898
dave.goodgovpodcast@gmail.com
New York, NY — January 2, 2026
Wind at Their Backs The Good Government Show sits down with the woman fighting to keep New York’s clean energy future alive.
The turbines are out of sight, beyond the horizon. They run 99% of days. They create artificial reefs that boost fish populations. And in New York, offshore wind is already as efficient as a gas plant. So why has the federal government been working so hard to shut them down? On this episode of The Good Government Show, host Dave Martin gets answers from Marguerite Wells, Executive Director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York and overseer of the New York Offshore Wind Alliance — one of the most compelling and clear-eyed voices in the clean energy fight.
Wells doesn’t mince words about the opposition. The talking points — bird deaths, whale impacts, ugly skylines, national security threats — are, in her view, a smokescreen for fossil fuel interests protecting market share. She walks through each claim with precision: turbines kill fewer birds than buildings and communication towers; whales are unaffected; most offshore projects sit well past the visible horizon; and the “national security” stop-work orders issued against five major offshore projects — including Empire Wind and Sunrise Wind — have never been substantiated with any actual evidence, even to the governors of affected states.
What’s at stake goes well beyond clean energy ideology. Wells makes a clear-eyed economic and public health case: renewable energy money circulates in-state through jobs and tax revenue, unlike fossil fuel spending that exits the region. Communities downwind of fossil fuel plants bore the worst health outcomes during COVID. And with New York City’s grid still over 90% fossil-fuel dependent, every offshore megawatt is a direct displacement of pollution in one of the most densely populated places on earth. The U.S., she notes, is already behind Europe and Asia in offshore wind deployment — and current federal obstruction is accelerating that gap by making the country a less attractive investment destination.
But the story Wells tells isn’t just one of resistance — it’s one of persistence. Seventeen state attorneys general sued the federal government to reopen wind permitting, and won. The five halted projects are back on track. In Lewis County, a wind revenue fund she helped establish rebuilt a beloved local restaurant — Jeb’s — after an unprecedented flood wiped it out. “The best thing in life,” she says, quoting Teddy Roosevelt, her hero, “is having work worth doing.” For Marguerite Wells, that work is keeping the wind blowing.
PULL QUOTES
- “Folks with fossil fuel interests are not interested in clean energy taking market share from them.”
- “Offshore wind off New York is as efficient as a gas plant.”
- “If you can make power at home from anything else, you are in a better condition.”
- “It’s economic, it’s reliable, and it’s homegrown.”
BOILERPLATE (updated with your requested addition)
The Good Government Show is produced by the Good Government Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to civic engagement and civic education. Every episode — including this one — extends the Institute’s core mission: demonstrating that government works, that public servants are doing meaningful things, and that civic participation matters. All donations support that mission. You can donate at goodgovinstitute.org.