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Hotspots

Ocean City Floats an Offshore Lawsuit, Federal Preservationists Quit Lava Ridge, and More

Here are the most notable renewable energy conflicts over the past week.

Map of US.
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1. Worcester County, Maryland Ocean City is preparing to go to court “if necessary” to undo the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s approval last week of U.S. Wind’s Maryland Offshore Wind Project, town mayor Rick Meehan told me in a statement this week.

  • Meehan listed off a litany of requests before the town apparently will be comfortable with the project, including a review of Ocean City property values, an economic study on impacts to the local economy, and safety measures to address blade failures like what happened at Vineyard Wind. Ultimately the town wants the project relocated “further to the east, as we have been asking for the past seven and a half years.”
  • A lawsuit is definitely on the table but not guaranteed: “We will be meeting with our consultants and attorneys to discuss our next course of action. The last thing we want to do is go to court but we are prepared to do so if necessary to make sure that all environmental protection laws are complied with and that the safety and well-being of all our citizens [is] protected.”

2. Magic Valley, Idaho – The Lava Ridge Wind Project would be Idaho’s biggest wind farm. But it’s facing public outcry over the impacts it could have on a historic site for remembering the impact of World War II on Japanese residents in the United States.

  • If constructed, it would surround internment camps where Japanese people were forcibly detained by the American government during the war. Activists opposed to Lava Ridge say that constructing the project would impact the solace of the space, killing the somber vibe. GOP politicians have also seized on the public relations morass.
  • On Friday, the federal advisory council overseeing historic preservation law ended its consultation with regulators on the wind project, which is proposed by a subsidiary of LS Power.
  • The council cited a number of factors, including the inability to mitigate impacts to the site as well as the unwillingness of Idaho state historic site regulators to go along with consultation.
  • This has no apparent effect on project approval – at least not yet. Whether it’ll mean much will be up to the Bureau of Land Management, which takes into consideration the views of the advisory council in its decisions.

3. Kossuth County, Iowa – Iowa’s largest county – Kossuth – is in the process of approving a nine-month moratorium on large-scale solar development.

  • Kossuth is already home to considerable renewable energy, including large wind farms operated by Invenergy and EDF Renewables.
  • Anxiety generally is bubbling in Kossuth over an outgrowth of various energy projects aimed at decarbonization and the county is also involved in opposing the Summit Carbon Pipeline.
  • County officials recently met with a researcher at Iowa State conducting federally-funded research of how solar could be deployed at the local level, per media reports.

Here’s a few more hotspots I’m watching…

  • In Indiana, Aypa Power’s attempts to build a solar farm in Madison, Indiana have hit a snag with the city council voting against the project.
  • Also in Iowa, opposition to an Apex Clean Energy wind farm could lead to a new county ordinance against wind.
  • In New York, the town of Springfield is scheduled to meet Monday on a proposed temporary wind moratorium spurred by New Leaf Energy wind project.
  • In Ohio, Whirlpool Corp. is hitting local snags as it tries to build three wind turbines.
  • In Oregon, an 11-acre solar farm from Shoestring Solar LLC was greenlit by the small town of Riddle in spite of local dissent from its would-be neighbors.

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Hotspots

Tough Times for Renewable Energy Projects

A look at the week’s biggest fights over wind and solar farms.

Map of renewable energy fights.
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1. McIntosh County, Oklahoma – Say goodbye to the Canadian River wind project, we hardly knew thee.

  • The TransAlta utility-scale wind facility was canceled mere days after we were first to report on the uprising in favor of a ban on new renewables in the state.
  • Local residents had banded together against the project due to its close proximity to Lake Eufaula, a large reservoir. Opposition included representatives of the native Muscogee Tribe.
  • TransAlta confirmed the project was dead in a statement to me last week after state politicians were first to declare its demise. On Monday, the company provided a statement in lieu of making someone available to speak with me: “The unfortunate decision to terminate the project was due to two primary reasons – challenges with land acquisition as well as ongoing uncertainty regarding grid interconnection.”

2. Allen County, Ohio – A utility-scale project caught in the crossfires over solar on farmland and local-vs-state conflicts now appears deceased, too.

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Q&A

How to Find Consensus to Build More Transmission

A conversation with Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam of DNV Energy Systems

Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam
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Today we’re speaking with Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam from DNV Energy Systems, who helped craft a must-read report out this week on community relations in transmission with Americans for Clean Energy Grid (ACEG). Their report compiles findings of a roundtable with environmentalists, Indigenous rights activists, developers, and individual land owners, and finds transmission can fare better than solar and wind in this current political climate – and that community benefit agreements can be helpful for getting projects across the finish line. But some issues divided the roundtable, including how to structure labor benefits to ensure lots of people get job opportunities from transmission.

The following is a lightly edited and abridged version of our conversation:

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Policy Watch

Hearings Galore, Youngkin’s Slow Bore

This week’s top news around renewable energy policy.

Glenn Youngkin and solar farms.
Heatmap Illustration / Getty Images

1. Youngkin sides with locals – Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week said at his State of the State address that he would oppose efforts to “end local control of solar project siting” – indicating he will fiercely challenge efforts by some state policymakers to resolve challenges posed by town and county restrictions on renewables by overriding them.

  • “Local communities must be able to exercise their rights with regards to land use,” Youngkin said, adding a comparison that tied solar’s growth to the data center boom in the state. “Different communities will make different decisions on data centers but these must be their decisions.”
  • As we previously explained, solar developers are seeking changes to state policy in order to overrule local restrictions and draft recommendations from a Virginia commission on electricity called for the creation of an independent body to adjudicate these objections.

2. More like Hearing Watch – We’re starting to learn how Trump’s most significant nominees may run federal energy and climate agencies. Thank you, senatorial advise and consent process!

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