When New York legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, there were big promises. Shops everywhere for throngs of people to buy safe cannabis legally and big tax revenues from that sale. The rollout of that plan was slow and complicated. Many people who got licenses to grow the weed got stuck with harvest and no market. Things are smoothing out. We visit one grower in the Champlain Valley to learn the day-to-day of growing weed on today's Story of the Day.
Hey, I'm David Summerstein. It's Monday, May 5th. First up. New York's Letitia James is among 17 attorneys general around the country, suing against President Donald Trump's attempt to stop the development of wind energy. Trump signed the executive order on his first day in office. It paused approvals, permits, and loans for all onshore and offshore wind energy projects.
The AGs say Trump doesn't have the authority to unilaterally shut down the permitting process, and he's jeopardizing development of a critical power source. The lawsuit filed today asks a judge to stop federal agencies from implementing Trump's order. The White House says Democratic attorneys general are trying to stop the president's popular energy agenda instead of working with him to restore America's energy dominance.
New York ranks 17th in the nation in wind energy, according to the reporting website Choose Energy. Wind turbines here generate more than 600,000 megawatt hours of carbon-free electricity. Many of those turbines are located here in the North Country. The deadline is finally here. After years of planning and delays, all passengers traveling on airlines in the U.S. are required to have a Real ID document starting on Wednesday.
In St. Lawrence County, DMV clerks report lines out the door some days as people scramble to upgrade their IDs. News intern Noah Dinellen-Doser reports on how to check your documents. In 2005, the federal government implemented the Real ID Act. It created minimum security standards to obtain identification in the U.S. Without a Real ID, you cannot access certain federal buildings, nuclear power plants, and federally regulated commercial aircraft.
States were slow to enforce the act. The Department of Homeland Security extended the deadline for almost two decades. Check your driver's license now to see if you have one. Real ID licenses have a star in the top right corner. St. Lawrence County DMV Supervisor Bobby Jean McCarthy.
explains the specific documents you will need to apply for a real ID. All documents have to be originals. Certified documents, they have to be, if it's a birth certificate, it has to be issued by a government office. It can't be on your phone. It has to be printed out. You have to have two proofs of residency. You have to have your social security card, and then you have to have your proof of lawful status.
But there's another type of ID that works for New York residents. It's an enhanced ID which has a flag in the corner instead of a star. It's only available to U.S. citizens while anyone lawfully living in the U.S. can apply for a real ID. McCarthy says the enhanced license offers the same security clearances as the real ID. If you have a passport or an enhanced document, you are real IB compliant. If you're unsure, check with the local DMV or check the TSA website.
Applications are still accepted after the May 7th deadline. Anyone living in the US should apply if they plan on flying in the future. The Homeland Security website says that flying without a Real ID after this date may result in extra security screenings or being turned away entirely. On Friday, Governor Kathy Hochul urged the Department of Homeland Security to increase personnel at TSA checkpoints in New York's airports to prevent long lines and safety concerns.
For North Country Public Radio, this is Noah Dinell and Doser in Canton. After a couple years of delays, there are now cannabis stores in many, many north country towns and cities. And that means growers finally have a reliable home for their product. Today we visit a couple in the Champlain Valley whose first growing season was last year. Anna Williams Bergen has this North Country at Work story.
I'm walking along rows of high tunnels at a small farm in Essex. Yeah, this is the original tunnel. We had this one up a couple years ago for veggies and whatever. But then once we got the license... We're like, well, we can put some pot in here. Corey Weidenbach and Healy Mayett run Sticky's Weed Farm, a licensed cannabis microbusiness. Through the summer and into the fall, their plants will grow and flower, stretching up to reach the trellis over our heads.
I get super green, super lush in here throughout the summer. They grow like wildfire. Harvest is a pretty involved process come October. The plants don't go in the ground outside until June. So right now, the action's indoors. You want to see the propagation trailer? Sure! A neighbor's old tractor trailer box is home base for packaging, processing, and starting their plants.
bright grow lights reflect off the foam board insulation that lines the walls. And as you can see we've got all this year starts going so you know there's probably there's already a few hundred plants in here going that we've started This farm has been a long time coming. Mayette is from Plattsburgh. She had worked on a couple of the small farms that are so plentiful in this region.
Weidenbach first moved here to work on Essex Farm and loved it so much he stayed. The per capita awesomeness of the people around here and the per capita like organic farm scene around here is very unique and very cool. However, we're the first ones to grow weed, so that's fun. Weidenbach learned to grow cannabis in California about a decade ago, and he'd been doing it under the radar here in New York for a while.
But working in this industry wasn't really an option until New York legalized weed, at least not in an above-board W-2 kind of way. In the meantime, like so many people in the North Country, they'd been piecing it together. Here's Helimea. A lot of people, too, they do a hodgepodge of things and they're wearing a lot of hats until they kind of figure it out, too.
At least I did that. We both have. We both have various things. I've been a builder. I've been a poker player. I've been a property manager, a farmer, and that's just in the last decade. In 2023, they started working on their cannabis micro-business application. Weidenbach says it was over 80 pages long. They submitted everything from the deed to their land down to their fingerprints.
It feels weird because weed's been illegal for so, so long, and all of a sudden we're in cahoots with the government. Weidenbach and Mayett were lucky. They got their license faster than many. It let them squeeze in a full growing season and start bringing in money soon after it was approved last spring. This was just a field when we got this license last March.
Quickly buried water lines, ran electric, wired them in, got fans going. We didn't have too long to think about anything last year. It was just like, go, go, go, go, go. But Weidenbach says the road was a lot bumpier for other growers. We have a thumbs up. Good success story about getting our license. There's many people in the application window who are probably super frustrated right now.
New York's cannabis industry has generated over a billion dollars in revenue since legalization, but a lot of its farmers are struggling financially. Weidenbach still sees a lot of opportunity. I feel like being on the forefront of this kind of push, this revolution, there is opportunity to succeed with a ceiling that's
Higher than a lot of different fields. And we know we're lifelong cannabis users. I've been a cannabis grower for 10, 12 years. And with the first commercial growing season under their belts, they're feeling good. These big high tunnels here are 30 by 72. We can have five of those and as you can see we only have like two and a half of those. So our canopy can increase. and we can grow more pot. And so if things keep going pretty well, which they are so far, we'd love to grow a little bit.
As the spring warms, the couple will tend to their starts and get their farm ready for a second growing season. For North Country Public Radio's North Country at Work Project, I'm Anna Williams-Bergen in Essex. This story is part of North Country at Work's Next Generation project, which highlights stories from the region's young workers. If you have a story in mind, we want to hear it. We would love to profile these young people. Just text the word next.
to 315-978-6277 again text the word next to 315-978-6277 You can also email us at work at ncpr.org We have more news all the time on our website, ncpr.org. Music today by Evan Veenstra of Gananoque, Ontario, and Dennis Gallagher of Keene. I'm David Somerstein, North Country Public Radio.