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Hotspots

Empire Wind in the Crosshairs

And more of the week’s biggest renewable energy fights.

Renewable energy conflicts across the country.
Heatmap Illustration

1. Bristol County, Massachusetts – The state of Massachusetts is abandoning plans to build an offshore wind research center in New Bedford, a fishing town that has also hosted protests against Vineyard Wind.

  • According to media reports, a local attorney gathered more than 260 signatures against the project’s proposed location in New Bedford and municipal elected leaders spoke out against it.
  • This led the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, a state entity planning the facility, to fold its plans and vote to reallocate all of the money to an “initiative” instead that will use existing buildings in the area. It’s unclear as of now what that will look like.

2. Long Island, New York – Speaking of offshore wind woes, the anti-wind activist movement is now circling Empire Wind and asking President Donald Trump to rescind the EPA air permit to the Equinor offshore project.

  • Two prominent anti-offshore wind organizations – Save the East Coast and Protect our Coast-Long Island – announced yesterday in a press release posted to Facebook that they were petitioning the EPA to take the permit away, just like it did earlier this month with the Atlantic Shores project off the coast of New Jersey.
  • Activists have also asked EPA to get rid of air permits for New England Wind and Vineyard Wind, by the way. We’ll be watching their documents closely.

3. Fayette County, Pennsylvania – This sought-after county for solar development appears to be on the precipice of enacting a sweeping 500-foot property setback requirement.

  • The ordinance would apply to all towns in the county that do not already have a zoning ordinance for solar energy, which is the vast majority. Bear Peak Power, a developer operating in the county, is reportedly opposing the ordinance over a shortened permitting timeline.

4. Tippecanoe County, Indiana – Solar developer Geenex is beginning what’ll likely be a tense battle to win special zoning approval for a large utility-scale solar project in an area that already is subject to a restrictive setback ordinance.

5. Jefferson County, Wisconsin – We’re about to get a glimpse of whether Wisconsin can be as difficult a battleground for large-scale solar in rural areas as Ohio.

  • The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin recently found a state environmental impact statement for Ranger Power’s 180-megawatt Whitewater Solar project in Jefferson and Walworth County was “not required.” If the commission does not reconsider its decision, state permits are all but guaranteed.
  • This has sent opponents of the project into a tizzy. “Friends please help,” reads a new page on the website for Stop Whitewater Solar, a local organization led by disgruntled residents nearby the project area. The group is seeking comments to request an EIS.
  • I’m not convinced Stop Whitewater Solar will achieve what its name states though. A Change.org petition against the project created by someone involved in the group has received less than two dozen signatures.

6. Routt County, Colorado – We have our first-ever entry of Hotspots from Colorado, thanks to a zoning snafu.

  • Trapper Solar, an RWE subsidiary, has seen its proposal to build the largest solar project in the county stalled after Routt officials passed a new zoning code apparently days after the developer’s application was filed. The zoning code isn’t renewables-specific, but included a litany of new environmental mitigation requirements for development generally.
  • This wasn't entirely unexpected. Despite Routt’s overwhelmingly Democratic politics, Heatmap Pro gives it an above-average risk profile, thanks to its affluence, wealth of protected lands, and a workforce centered around skiing and tourism.

7. Fannin County, Texas – County commissioners here are now forming a joint planning committee with the city of Savoy, where we told you residents fearful after the Moss Landing battery fire are trying to stop an Engie storage facility from being built.

  • The decision was prompted by the battery storage fight. It’s unclear if the committee’s formation can lead to new impediments to development here, because Texas municipalities have far less control over development than towns and cities in other states.

8. Fresno County, California – The Moss Landing fire isn’t stopping Gov. Gavin Newsom from expediting new battery storage project permits.

  • Newsom last week issued a legal certification protecting against judicial challenges for a 300-megawatt storage facility in the city of Fresno proposed by Cornucopia Hybrid.
  • The certification specifically means any court challenge will need to be decided within 270 days “to the extent feasible,” according to the governor’s office. This makes me wonder – are they predicting legal action?

9. Alaska – How do you kill a battery project if no one’s around to protest? Take away its money… and that’s why my mind is on the Kodiak State.

  • Today, the climate news outlet Heated reported a secret “hit list” inside of the Trump administration calls to rescind $50 million promised to Westinghouse for a pumped thermal energy storage project intended to help the small community of Healy rely entirely on wind energy generation. It’s one of the emptiest regions of the country.

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Hotspots

Judge, Siding With Trump, Saves Solar From NEPA

And more on the week’s biggest conflicts around renewable energy projects.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Jackson County, Kansas – A judge has rejected a Hail Mary lawsuit to kill a single solar farm over it benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act, siding with arguments from a somewhat unexpected source — the Trump administration’s Justice Department — which argued that projects qualifying for tax credits do not require federal environmental reviews.

  • We previously reported that this lawsuit filed by frustrated Kansans targeted implementation of the IRA when it first was filed in February. That was true then, but afterwards an amended complaint was filed that focused entirely on the solar farm at the heart of the case: NextEra’s Jeffrey Solar. The case focuses now on whether Jeffrey benefiting from IRA credits means it should’ve gotten reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act.
  • Perhaps surprisingly to some, the Trump Justice Department argued against these NEPA reviews – a posture that jibes with the administration’s approach to streamlining the overall environmental analysis process but works in favor of companies using IRA credits.
  • In a ruling that came down on Tuesday, District Judge Holly Teeter ruled the landowners lacked standing to sue because “there is a mismatch between their environmental concerns tied to construction of the Jeffrey Solar Project and the tax credits and regulations,” and they did not “plausibly allege the substantial federal control and responsibility necessary to trigger NEPA review.”
  • “Plaintiffs’ claims, arguments, and requested relief have been difficult to analyze,” Teeter wrote in her opinion. “They are trying to use the procedural requirements of NEPA as a roadblock because they do not like what Congress has chosen to incentivize and what regulations Jackson County is considering. But those challenges must be made to the legislative branch, not to the judiciary.”

2. Portage County, Wisconsin – The largest solar project in the Badger State is now one step closer to construction after settling with environmentalists concerned about impacts to the Greater Prairie Chicken, an imperiled bird species beloved in wildlife conservation circles.

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Spotlight

Renewables Swept Up in Data Center Backlash

Just look at Virginia.

A data center.
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Solar and wind projects are getting swept up in the blowback to data center construction, presenting a risk to renewable energy companies who are hoping to ride the rise of AI in an otherwise difficult moment for the industry.

The American data center boom is going to demand an enormous amount of electricity and renewables developers believe much of it will come from solar and wind. But while these types of energy generation may be more easily constructed than, say, a fossil power plant, it doesn’t necessarily mean a connection to a data center will make a renewable project more popular. Not to mention data centers in rural areas face complaints that overlap with prominent arguments against solar and wind – like noise and impacts to water and farmland – which is leading to unfavorable outcomes for renewable energy developers more broadly when a community turns against a data center.

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Q&A

How the Wind Industry Can Fight Back

A conversation with Chris Moyer of Echo Communications

The Q&A subject.
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Today’s conversation is with Chris Moyer of Echo Communications, a D.C.-based communications firm that focuses on defending zero- and low-carbon energy and federal investments in climate action. Moyer, a veteran communications adviser who previously worked on Capitol Hill, has some hot takes as of late about how he believes industry and political leaders have in his view failed to properly rebut attacks on solar and wind energy, in addition to the Inflation Reduction Act. On Tuesday he sent an email blast out to his listserv – which I am on – that boldly declared: “The Wind Industry’s Strategy is Failing.”

Of course after getting that email, it shouldn’t surprise readers of The Fight to hear I had to understand what he meant by that, and share it with all of you. So here goes. The following conversation has been abridged and lightly edited for clarity.

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