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Hotspots

Deathwatch for Atlantic Shores?

And more of the week’s top news in renewable energy fights.

Renewable energy fights across the country.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Atlantic County, New Jersey – The Atlantic Shores offshore wind project is on deathwatch.

     
  • Earlier today, Shell announced it would pull out of its 50-50 joint venture with EDF Renewables to develop the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project off the coast of New Jersey.
  • Atlantic Shores then sent us a statement unprompted, saying they’re “committed” to developing New Jersey’s first offshore wind site.
  • “Business plans, projects, portfolio projections and scopes evolve over time – and as expected for large, capital-intensive infrastructure projects like ours, our shareholders have always prepared long-term strategies that contemplate multiple scenarios that enable Atlantic Shores to reach its full potential,” the statement read.
  • It continued: “While we can’t comment on the views of shareholders, Atlantic Shores intends to continue progressing New Jersey’s first offshore wind project and our portfolio in compliance with our obligations to local, state and federal partners under existing leases and relevant permits.”
  • As we previously explained, we anticipate this project to face challenges to the legality of its permits and leases, as previewed by the Trump administration.

2. Waldo County, Maine – The Sears Island saga is moving to the state legislature, as a cadre of lawmakers push to block construction of a floating offshore wind turbine construction facility there before Trump leaves office.

  • As we previously explained, Sears Island – a bucolic recreation destination off the coast of Maine – is the state’s favored spot for building an assembly site for floating offshore wind turbines. Floating offshore wind is preferred by some Maine politicians, including Gov. Janet Mills, because it would reduce impacts to fisheries closer to the shoreline.
  • Despite Trump’s edict blocking offshore wind, Maine has a pathway to stay the course toward eventual development, because researchers have a lease to test more floating offshore wind turbines in the Gulf of Maine. There’s a world where development of a construction port on Sears Island happens in tandem with that research.
  • However, we’re watching this risk to that pathway: a group of Republicans in the state legislature – joined by a Democratic lawmaker and a non-voting representative of the Passamaquoddy Tribe – have introduced a bill to permanently turn Sears Island into a conservation site, taking the island off the table for wind development.
  • Hindering offshore wind development overall might be the goal of the bill, which was introduced the day after Trump restricted all new offshore development Its lead author is state Rep. Reagan Paul, who has also called on the governor to stop all state spending on offshore wind. Paul was in D.C. for Trump’s inauguration celebrations.
  • It’s unclear whether the legislation stands a chance at becoming law. But it is clear some state Republicans are going to do what they can to stop the Sears Island wind port, which will matter if the state tries to get project permits under Trump.

3. San Luis Obispo County, California – The Moss Landing battery fire has sparked a new push for the state to slow approvals for BESS development. Unlike Sears Island, the push is being led by a Democratic lawmaker who has supported rapid climate action.

  • State assemblywoman Dawn Addis – who represents Moss Landing and communities impacted by the disaster – just introduced legislation that would remove battery storage facilities from the California Energy Commission’s opt-in certification program, effectively giving cities and counties much more control over BESS siting.
  • “I absolutely have been a champion, believe that we live in a climate crisis and have to have solutions,” Addis said at a press conference announcing the bill. “Along with those solutions, we have to have safety.”
  • This bill would give locals more control because the opt-in program lets companies ask the state to override concerns at the municipal level. It would also likely stop a Vistra Energy battery project in Morro Bay, where the company has been stonewalled and decided to go to the Commission instead.
  • It’s too early to tell whether the bill stands a chance at becoming law, but it’s clear the state is trying to reassure residents that BESS is safe. Earlier this week state regulators proposed updating their emergency response guidance for responding to BESS fires.
  • This is all despite the Moss Landing fire being tied to very unique circumstances.

4. Greene County, New York – A solar farm fight is testing whether the state of New York’s climate law can be used to override local opposition to renewables projects.

  • A mid-level appellate judge ruled this week that the state’s 2019 Climate Act provides a legal basis for the state to conclude construction of some new solar and wind projects are in the overall public interest.
  • The case surrounds a Freeport Solar project in the town of Athens, where the local zoning board rejected the project claiming it was not a “public necessity.” Athens has said they will now take the case to the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court.

5. Fairfield County, Ohio – The Ohio Public Siting Board held a hearing on Tuesday to consider the environmental certificate for EDF Renewables’ Eastern Cottontail solar project.

6. Multnomah County, Oregon – A transmission line proposal known as the Harborton Reliability Project is facing hurdles in the city of Portland, where city planners are recommending the city reject plans to cut down forest to build it.

  • The recommendations pit the city’s permitting staff against utility Portland General Electric as well as the area’s member of Congress, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, who endorsed the project.
  • A decision on whether city regulators will reject the project based on the recommendations is expected in early March, according to Axios Portland, who reports the decision may be appealed to the city council.

Here’s what else we’re watching ...

In Idaho, Ada County is drafting up a new restrictive ordinance related to renewables on farmland.

In Virginia, a Savion solar project in Nelson County is facing an uphill climb for local approvals.

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Q&A

Will Blue States Open Up Their Wallets for Renewables?

A conversation with Heather O’Neill of Advanced Energy United.

The Fight Q&A subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s conversation is with Heather O’Neill, CEO of renewables advocacy group Advanced Energy United. I wanted to chat with O’Neill in light of the recent effective repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean electricity tax credits and the action at the Interior Department clamping down on development. I’m quite glad she was game to talk hot topics, including the future of wind energy and whether we’ll see blue states step into the vacuum left by the federal government.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Spotlight

The Anti-Renewables Movement is Coming for Your Wires

The Grain Belt Express was just the beginning.

Oklahoma.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The anti-renewables movement is now coming for transmission lines as the Trump administration signals a willingness to cut off support for wires that connect to renewable energy sources.

Last week, Trump’s Energy Department with a brief letter rescinded a nearly $5 billion loan guarantee to Invenergy for the Grain Belt Express line that would, if completed, connect wind projects in Kansas to areas of Illinois and Indiana. This decision followed a groundswell of public opposition over concerns about land use and agricultural impacts – factors that ring familiar to readers of The Fight – which culminated in Republican Senator Josh Hawley reportedly asking Donald Trump in a meeting to order the loan’s cancellation. It’s unclear whether questions around the legality of this loan cancellation will be resolved in the courts, meaning Invenergy may just try to trudge ahead and not pick a fight with the Trump administration.

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Hotspots

Vineyard Wind Is Besieged Again

And more of the week’s most important conflicts around renewable energy.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – The fight over Vineyard Wind is back with a vengeance. But can an aggrieved vacation town team up with conservative legal activists to take down an operating offshore wind project?

  • The offshore wind project, which is under construction and currently provides power to Massachusetts, was threatened this week when Nantucket signaled it may sue Vineyard Wind over a laundry list of demands related to the facility and last year’s blade breakage. Then less than 24 hours later, the Texas Public Policy Foundation – a conservative legal advocacy group – filed a petition to the Interior Department requesting it not only reconsider previous permits issued for Vineyard Wind but also halt operations at the site.
  • It’s hard to ignore the timing here: before this flurry of activity, the Interior Department released a new secretarial order that laid out many ways it would potentially go after wind facilities. One method would be potentially settling lawsuits filed against both offshore and onshore wind projects in favor of plaintiffs.
  • We are still waiting to see if Interior will take up the Vineyard Wind petition. But this activity suggests that opponents of offshore wind feel increasingly emboldened by the anti-renewables direction that Trump has taken in recent weeks, and we may soon find out if their aspirations for killing operating projects are well-founded.

2. Henry County, Virginia – A fresh fiasco around a solar farm is renewing animus against solar projects in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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