Congressman Asks Trump to Shut Down the Empire Wind Project

1. Long Island, New York – We begin today with a crucial stand-off for the future of energy off the coast of New York City: Rep. Chris Smith – one of the loudest anti-wind voices in Congress – is asking the Trump administration to shut down active work on the Empire Wind project.

• Few in Congress have frustrated offshore wind developers more than Smith, a New Jersey Republican who used legislative maneuvers to get a Government Accountability Office study greenlit about the impacts of offshore wind on whale species.
  
• In a letter Friday, which has not been previously reported, Smith requested the project be forcibly paused until the Trump administration can complete its purported government-wide review of the wind industry.
  
• Smith also asked a host of additional mitigation requirements be placed on Empire Wind before it can proceed, including new specific requirements on impacts to air travel. The letter claims – without specifics – that the project could impact radar interference “in the shadow of three major airports.”
• “Empire Wind cannot safely proceed until much needed further review [can] be done to protect the public and our eastern seaboard. I ask that you do everything in your power to halt Equinor’s underhanded rush to begin piledriving and block construction until the critical assessment can be completed,” Smith wrote.
• I’ve asked Equinor to comment on this letter, as a stop-work order would be a massive escalation in the war on offshore wind. Alyse Sharpe, a public affairs specialist with the Interior Department, told me in an email the agency does "not comment on congressional correspondence" but said it "takes all correspondence from Congress seriously and reviews each matter" and should there be "any updates on this topic, we will provide further information at the appropriate time."

2. Gulf of Maine – American floating offshore wind is now taking one more step backwards, as Mitsubishi pulls out of the test arrays it was working on under Biden with researchers at the University of Maine.

• Mitsubishi subsidiary Pine Tree Offshore Wind in late March requested Maine regulators cancel their bid to sell power to the state from the turbines, which I explained last year was supposed to be the beginning of a bright future for floating offshore wind in Maine. But conflicts over where to site an assembly and construction facility bedeviled progress in the state. And then came Trump.

3. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – Speaking of bad wind news, the town of Nantucket has sued to block the SouthCoast offshore wind project.

• The lawsuit alleges SouthCoast’s environmental review was flawed. It is such a transparent “sue-and-settle” maneuver that conservative website Daily Caller said Nantucket was using the “Green Left’s Favorite Legal Strategy.”

4. Washington County, Rhode Island – If you want a small piece of good news for offshore wind, the primary lawsuit against Revolution Wind’s environmental review suffered a major setback this week.

• District Judge Royce Lamberth on Tuesday knocked down many of the claims raised in the initial lawsuit on the grounds plaintiffs lacked standing, siding with project developer Orsted. Lamberth is a conservative judge who was first appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan.
  
• The case will still proceed on multiple grounds, including the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. But advocacy organizations backing the lawsuit – including the pro-fishing Responsible Offshore Development Alliance – no longer have valid claims under the suit. It’ll now proceed with only the individual fishermen and property owners who were on the case.

5. Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania – In another piece of good news, Scranton, Pennsylvania, approved the city’s first solar project, despite nearby residents speaking in opposition to it.

• The Bear Peak Power 3.2 megawatt project will power 400 to 500 homes in the local community. This project might not be that large, but it’s still an accomplishment.

6. Carroll County, Arkansas – Less positive solar news: they’re banning solar and wind in the Ozarks.

• Carroll County’s ban was enacted in late March as a response to the Nimbus Wind project by Scout Clean Energy. Anti-solar sentiments appear to have hitched a ride on the moratorium. The Nimbus project itself is not impacted by this ban.

7. Noble County, Indiana – Landowners opposed to plans for a Geenex solar farm are escalating their war on the project to a lawsuit against their board of supervisors, alleging conflicts of interest around solar decisionmaking.

• The lawsuit alleges a member of the board of supervisors executed a lease agreement with Geenex for the Southern Pike Solar project, a development still incredibly early in the works. Geenex has yet to submit its formal application to the county, but that hasn’t stopped a small but loud band of organizers from forming a Facebook group opposing all solar on farmland in Noble.

8. Olmstead County, Minnesota – It seems local control won’t win the day over a Ranger Power utility-scale solar project in the Gopher State.

• Residents in this southeastern rural part of Minnesota are opposing the Lemon Hill Solar project citing impacts to farmland. But a board member for one of the townships with disgruntled locals told TV station KTTC the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will ultimately have the final say on whether it gets built: “In the end, we have to tell them our hands are tied.”

9. Van Zandt County, Texas – A Texas County is issuing a stop work order on a Taaleri Energia battery project alleging it is violating the local fire safety code.

• According to one local media account, Van Zandt is ordering Taaleri Energia to provide additional documentation about fire planning for the Amador battery storage project by April 7 or the company must cease construction, and officials are threatening misdemeanor charges if the order is defied.

10. Sacramento County, California – A D.E. Shaw Renewables utility-scale project is taking one step forward after a local planning council recommended county officials give it the green light.

• The Coyote Creek agrivoltaics facility would be situated on unincorporated land in Sacramento County and, according to the Sacramento Bee, would be one of the largest solar projects in the state if completed. Its primary opponent has been environmentalists at the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife, who’ve criticized its potential impacts to state-listed endangered species.

11. Shasta County, California – Elsewhere in California, ecological concerns about renewables are winning out over the pace of decarbonization.

• Staff for the California Energy Commission have recommended the state reject the ConnectGen Fountain Wind project in Shasta County, on the grounds it would create “significant and unavoidable environmental impacts and conflicts with local land use laws.”

12. Ada County, Idaho – We conclude today’s hotspots with, as Jon Stewart likes to say, a ‘Moment of Zen’: the city of Boise is rejecting a challenge to battery storage development.

• City officials responded to concerns at a packed town hall this week by saying their public permitting presentations answered questions raised by residents and that the complaints raised did not equate to legal flaws in their decisions.