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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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Spotlight

The National Park Service is Fighting a Solar Farm

A battle ostensibly over endangered shrimp in Kentucky

Mammoth Cave.
Heatmap Illustration/Library of Congress, Getty Images

A national park is fighting a large-scale solar farm over potential impacts to an endangered shrimp – what appears to be the first real instance of a federal entity fighting a solar project under the Trump administration.

At issue is Geenex Solar’s 100-megawatt Wood Duck solar project in Barren County, Kentucky, which would be sited in the watershed of Mammoth Cave National Park. In a letter sent to Kentucky power regulators in April, park superintendent Barclay Trimble claimed the National Park Service is opposing the project because Geenex did not sufficiently answer questions about “irreversible harm” it could potentially pose to an endangered shrimp that lives in “cave streams fed by surface water from this solar project.”

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Hotspots

Ben Carson vs. the Anti-Solar Movement

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

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Dukes County, Massachusetts – The Supreme Court for the second time declined to take up a legal challenge to the Vineyard Wind offshore project, indicating that anti-wind activists' efforts to go directly to the high court have run aground.

  • The more worthwhile case to follow now is the Democratic state-led challenge to Trump’s executive order against offshore wind, which was filed earlier this week.
  • That lawsuit argues, among other things, that the order violated the Administrative Procedures Act and was “contrary to and in excess of” existing environmental and coastal energy leasing laws. One can easily assume the administration and Democratic states may take this case all the way to the high court depending how the federal district court judge rules in the case.

2. Brooklyn/Staten Island, New York – The battery backlash in the NYC boroughs is getting louder – and stranger – by the day.

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Q&A

Meet the Avatar Fan Fighting for Offshore Wind

A conservation with George Povall of All Our Energy

The May 8 interviewee.
Heatmap Illustration

Today’s chat is with George Povall, director of the All Our Energy pro-offshore wind environmental group. Povall – who told me he was inspired to be an environmentalist by the film Avatar – has for more than a decade been a key organizer on the ground in the Long Island area for supporting offshore wind development. But these days he spends a lot more time fighting renewables disinformation, going so far as to travel the community trying to re-educate people about this technology in light of the loud activism against it.

After the news dropped that states are suing to undo the Trump executive order against offshore wind, I wanted to chat with Povell about what environmentalists should do to combat the anti-renewables movement and whether there’s still any path forward for the industry he’s spent nearly a decade working to build as an activist.

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