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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

Trump Administration to ‘Reconsider’ Approval for MarWin

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

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Sussex County, Delaware – The Trump administration has confirmed it will revisit permitting decisions for the MarWin offshore wind project off the coast of Maryland, potentially putting the proposal in jeopardy unless blue states and the courts intervene.

  • Justice Department officials admitted the plans in a paragraph tucked inside a filing submitted to a federal court in Delaware this week in litigation brought by a beach house owner opposed to the offshore wind project.
  • DOJ stated in the filing that more time was “necessary as Interior intends to reconsider its [construction and operations plan] approval” for MarWin, and that it plans to “move” for “voluntary remand of that agency action” in a separate case filed by Ocean City, Maryland against the project.
  • “The outcome of Interior’s reconsideration has the potential to affect the Plaintiff’s claims in this case,” the filing stated. “Continuing to litigate this case before any decision is made in the [Ocean City case] would potentially waste considerable time and resources for both the parties and the Court.” As of today, no new filings have been made in the Ocean City case.

2. Northwest Iowa – Locals fighting a wind project spanning multiple counties in northern Iowa are opposing legislation that purports to make renewable development easier in the state.

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Q&A

Should Renewable Energy Companies Sue Trump?

They don’t have much to lose, Heiko Burow, an attorney at Baker & Mackenzie, tells me.

Heiko Burow.
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This week, since this edition of The Fight was so heavy, I tried something a little different: I interviewed one of my readers, Heiko Burow, an attorney with Baker & Mackenzie based in Dallas, Texas. Burow doesn’t work in energy specifically – he’s an intellectual property lawyer – but he’s read many of my scoops over the past few weeks about attacks on renewable energy and had legitimate criticism! Namely, as a lawyer who is passionate about the rule of law, he wanted to send a message to any developers and energy wonks reading me to use the legal system more often as a tool against attacks on their field.

The following conversation has been abridged for clarity. Let’s dive in.

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Spotlight

Interior’s Renewables Attacks Snag Power Lines

Nevada's Greenlink North is hit with a short, but ominous delay.

Solar panels and pylons.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

I can now confirm the Trump administration’s recent attacks on renewables permitting appear to be impacting transmission projects, too.

Over the past two weeks, the Interior Department has laid forth secretarial orders implementing a new regime for renewables permitting on federal lands. This has appeared to essentially kill the odds of utility-scale solar or wind projects on federal land getting approved any time soon. Public timetables for large solar projects across the American West have suddenly slipped back by years-long intervals, and other mega-projects – like Esmeralda 7 – appear now to be trapped in limbo.

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