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Hotspots

Offshore Wind Is Off the Table in Oregon

And more of the week’s biggest conflicts in renewable energy development.

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1. Coos County, Oregon – We can confirm that opposition and waning industry interest have effectively killed the Beaver State’s first offshore wind lease sale.

  • Late Friday, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management postponed an Oct. 15 lease sale for floating offshore wind citing “insufficient bidder interest” from only one of five companies identified as qualified to participate.
  • And we’ve learned there won’t be a retry any time soon: BOEM spokesman John Romero confirmed in an email that the agency “does not have a timeline for determining a future opportunity for a potential lease sale in Oregon.”
  • Shortly before the cancellation, Gov. Tina Kotek called for the lease sale to be nixed and pulled out of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s task force on Oregon’s offshore wind development after a chorus of concerns from coastal towns and tribes were echoed by the state’s two senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley. All these elected officials are Democrats, by the way.
  • Last week, Mainstream Renewable Power Inc. told Oregon Public Broadcasting they’d no longer bid. Four other companies were qualified to bid: Avangrid Renewables, BlueFloat Energy, OW North America Ventures, and South Coast Energy Waters, a company backed by the CEO of solar developer NewSun.

2. Atlantic County, New Jersey – Some good news for offshore wind as a counterbalance: the Atlantic Shores wind farm got its final federal approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management yesterday.

  • We expected this to happen, and we’ve previously explained that litigation will likely occur. But it’s still a major milestone. Even if Donald Trump wins, the project’s fate is now left for the courts to decide.
  • There’ll still be fights over the project. One of the potential host communities for the cables, Sea Girt, is seeing local opposition crop up and intervention from its congressman Chris Smith. But the matter has gotten safer for the developer.

3. Montgomery County, Alabama – In Alabama’s capital city of Montgomery, residents opposed to solar power are campaigning for Montgomery to enact a blanket ordinance banning permits and site development plans.

  • Their efforts have led the city council’s public works committee to study the matter. A study committee meeting on the proposal scheduled last week was derailed as Hurricane Helene began to make landfall without a new date.
  • Residents took to the Montgomery city council last night and again asked for the moratorium. Some council members seemed receptive to the concerns, but so far no dice for the activists.
  • Montgomery is home to several potential solar farms with promise for decarbonizing the Deep South, including projects being developed by Hecate Energy and Pinegate Renewables (not to be confused with Pine Gate Renewables, who we discuss below).

4. Litchfield County, Connecticut The small New England city of Torrington, Connecticut doesn’t want any more solar panels.

  • Torrington’s mayor Elinor Carbone wrote the state requesting they consider rejecting a proposed solar installation opposed by some residents in a neighboring condominium. Visuals and deforestation seem to be the big concerns.
  • This comes from a municipality that only recently accepted battery storage and follows in the long tradition of Connecticut residents going back and forth on NIMBY vibes. (A decade ago they had banned wind entirely.)
  • And Torrington’s solar projects overall seem to suffer from grumpy neighbors. See: this Verogy project dealing with complaints about overgrown grass.

Here’s what else we’re watching …

In Arizona, the city of Maricopa is opposing a roughly 1,100 acre solar farm proposed by Hidden Valley Ranch Partners.

In California, the city of San Marcos may soon formally oppose AES Corporation’s Seguro battery storage project.

In Illinois, officials in Clinton County have extended their wind moratorium through at least the end of this year.

In Kentucky, Lexington County’s planning commission has recommended against allowing large-scale solar farms.

In Michigan, the city of Detroit has filed eminent domain lawsuits to procure properties for community solar, a development backed by DTE.

In Minnesota, the city of Hugo is taking another stab at allowing some solar development after initially backing restrictions.

In Pennsylvania, Wilson Solar has offered to reduce the size of an 80 MW solar farm to assuage residents’ concerns. Jury’s still out on if it’ll work.

In Texas, a federal judge has halted work on Pine Gate Renewables’ Bandera solar farm amid a legal battle with landowners.

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Q&A

How the GOP Tax Bill Would Supercharge Renewable Energy NIMBYs

A conversation with Jillian Blanchard of Lawyers for Good Government about the heightened cost of permitting delays

The Fight's Q & A subject.
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This week I chatted with Jillian Blanchard, vice president of climate change and environmental justice with Lawyers for Good Government, an organization that has been supporting beneficiaries of the Inflation Reduction Act navigate the uncertainties surrounding tax credits and grant programs under the Trump administration. The reason I wanted to chat with Jillian is simple: the IRA is under threat for the first time under a Republican Congress. I wanted to understand how solar and wind projects could be impacted by the House Republican reconciliation bill and putting IRA tax credits in doubt. I learned a lot.

The following conversation was lightly edited for clarity.

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Hotspots

It’s Hard Out Here for a Tiny Solar Farm in Upstate New York

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

The United States.
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1. St. Lawrence County, New York – It’s hard out here for a 2-megawatt solar project in upstate New York.

  • A Delaware River Solar project proposed in the town of Madrid is sparking fire concerns, with county officials now supposedly seeking guidance from the state on the risk of a blaze occurring from any solar farms or energy storage sites attached to them. Madrid reportedly has a new solar moratorium in effect through October, though one can imagine it being extended or revised to apply to this project if officials can’t be brought on board.

2. McKean County, Pennsylvania – Swift Current Energy is now dealing with an insurgent opposition campaign against its Black Cherry wind project.

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Spotlight

Offshore Wind Opponents Zero in on Their Next Two Targets

Will Sunrise Wind and Revolution Wind get the Trump treatment?

Offshore wind and a whale.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The sharks of opposition are circling the American offshore wind industry, as they await the federal government’s next victims.

This week, we received news that Equinor – developer of the Empire Wind project – is inching towards potentially canceling development after a visit to Washington and the White House yielded little success. In addition, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox Business that the department is now reviewing all offshore wind permits issued under the Biden administration.

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