Bruce Blakeman’s solar phase

DAYS THE BUDGET IS LATE: 44 TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN: Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has made questioning the state’s commitment to green energy a key plank of his gubernatorial platform. Not so long ago, he had an entirely different focus. Back in 2017, the Republican served as a green energy company executive who was seeking a multibillion dollar federal contract to build a border wall comprised of solar panels. “The best thing about it is we could sell the energy to Mexico,” Blakeman said at the time during an appearance on Fox News. “So in fact, they would be paying for the wall. It’s a win, win, win.” Blakeman created Sustainable Technology LLC soon after President Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration and quickly began promoting the idea of having the government pay a private company to build the promised wall along the Mexican border. His pitch? The months-old company would be the perfect vehicle to manage the massive construction project thanks to its unique steel mesh design: “You can see through it,” Blakeman said of his 30-foot tall wall. “There’s no graffiti that can be put on it.” The plan also involved the feds guaranteeing the bonds needed to fund Blakeman’s barrier building. The company, his thinking went, would then sell around $120 million of energy annually and that would cover “between a third and a half of the price.” Trump wound up briefly flirting with the idea of a solar wall. “The rumor is, he saw us on [Fox News] and he saw our design and he started talking about it as a viable idea. I don’t know that to be a fact, but that is the rumor,” Blakeman said on Fox Business. “Solar wall, panels, beautiful,” Trump said at a rally 10 days later. “Pretty good imagination, right? My idea,” he said while pointing to himself. These days, Blakeman is a much less aggressive proponent of solar power — at least in the state he’s hoping to govern. “Our carbon footprint is miniscule compared to the rest of the world, here in New York state,” he said in Al