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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.
Heatmap Illustration

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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Spotlight

Trump Has Paralyzed Renewables Permitting, Leaked Memo Reveals

The American Clean Power Association wrote to its members about federal guidance that has been “widely variable and changing quickly.”

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Chaos within the Trump administration has all but paralyzed environmental permitting decisions on solar and wind projects in crucial government offices, including sign-offs needed for projects on private lands.

According to an internal memo issued by the American Clean Power Association, the renewables trade association that represents the largest U.S. solar and wind developers, Trump’s Day One executive order putting a 60-day freeze on final decisions for renewable energy projects on federal lands has also ground key pre-decisional work in government offices responsible for wetlands and species protection to a halt. Renewables developers and their representatives in Washington have pressed the government for answers, yet received inconsistent information on its approach to renewables permitting that varies between lower level regional offices.

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Yellow
Q&A

How the Renewable Energy Industry Is Processing Trump 2.0

A conversation with Carl Fleming of McDermott Will & Emery

Carl Fleming
Heatmap illustration

This week we’re talking to Carl Fleming, a renewables attorney with McDermott Will & Emery who was an advisor to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo under the Biden administration. We chatted the morning after the Trump administration attempted to freeze large swathes of federal spending. My goal? To understand whether this chaos and uncertainty was trickling down into the transition as we spoke. But Fleming had a sober perspective and an important piece of wisdom: stay calm and remain on course.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Policy Watch

Chaos in the Climate Kingdom

This week’s top news in renewable energy policy.

turbines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Freeze, don’t move – The Trump administration this week attempted to freeze essentially all discretionary grant programs in the federal government. A list we obtained showed this would halt major energy programs and somehow also involve targeting work on IRA tax credits.

  • Despite a court ruling that was supposed to lift the freeze, key climate programs – like the EPA’s Solar For All effort – remain reportedly on ice.
  • Our guts here at Heatmap tell us there’ll be a lot more news to come on this front. Stay tuned.

2. Sorry, California – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management canceled public meetings on the environmental impact statement for offshore wind lease areas in California, indicating the Trump wind lease pause will also affect pre-approval activities.

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