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Hotspots

Renewables Developers Get Sweaty Palms Across America

Here are the week’s top conflicts around clean energy in the U.S.

Map of renewable energy conflicts.
Heatmap Illustration

1. Barnstable County, Massachusetts – The SouthCoast offshore wind project will now be delayed for at least four years, developer Ocean Winds said on Friday, confirming my previous reporting that projects Biden seemed to fully approve were still at risk from Trump.

  • Biden’s Interior Department had said in December the SouthCoast project was “approved.” But according to this federal permitting data clearinghouse, the project still needs clearances from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as well as the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers. We previously reported the Army Corps of Engineers had all but frozen wetlands permitting for wind projects. Jury’s out on whether that has changed.

2. Albany County, New York – A judge in this county has cast a cloud over tax abatement calculations for essentially all solar and wind projects in the state.

  • In a ruling this week, Albany Supreme Court judge Joshua Farrell ruled the implementation of a recent state law giving tax incentives to solar and wind developers was unconstitutional. In his opinion, Farrell wrote the state legislature had exceeded its powers and failed to sufficiently define how renewable energy credits, or RECs, and investment tax credits should be used.
  • This will create incredible uncertainty for developers across the state, according to an analysis of the ruling published yesterday by law firm Hodgkins Russ. Their takeaway? It’s likely New York Attorney General Letiticia James appeals the ruling and considers it stayed until the appeal can be processed, but this will hardly provide comfort to industry, which is already reeling from the Trump effect.
  • “On the merits,” the law firm stated, “the decision creates continued uncertainty over how to value and assess renewable energy projects. Now, there is increased risk and exposure to both renewable energy developers, who may have higher assessments and higher real property taxes for their projects, and local taxing jurisdictions who will be forced to expend legal fees defending assessment challenges.”

3. Greene County, North Carolina – No more new solar farms here, at least for now.

  • This county enacted a moratorium this week on new solar farm permits for two years pending the completion of a solar zoning ordinance. It’s a quick step-change from when county officials approved a special use permit for a NextEra last month. Then again, the backlash to that project was so loud it forced the county to issue a public statement telling residents it had no involvement itself in the project or solicit its construction.

4. Logan County, Ohio – Sayonara, Grange Solar.

  • Open Road Renewables has canceled the Grange Solar agrivoltaics project amid local opposition and a recent recommendation from staff on the Ohio Power Siting Board to reject crucial permits.

5. Fannin County, Texas – The battery backlash we’ve warned you is on the horizon has spread to the small town of Savoy, north of Dallas, where residents are protesting en masse against an Engie battery storage project under construction.

  • Like elsewhere in Texas, it’s unclear there’s any way for the project to be stopped by local opposition. But I anticipate that as more cases of Texas battery fights make headlines, it carries the risk of state legislation or other forms of policy response from Texas regulators.

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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.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

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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