New Mexico’s NIMBYs Vow to Fight Again in Santa Fe

1. Santa Fe County, New Mexico – County commissioners approved the controversial AES Rancho Viejo solar project after months of local debate, which was rendered more intense by battery fire concerns.

• Opposition to the nearly 100-megawatt solar project in the Santa Fe area was entirely predictable, per Heatmap Pro data, which shows overwhelming support for renewable energy in theory, yet an above average chance of NIMBYism arising. That genuine NIMBY quotient appears resilient, prompting even climate activist Bill McKibben to weigh in on the loud volume of the opposition.
• The commission approved the project’s necessary permit on Tuesday after local fire officials cleared it on safety grounds. Opponents, however, led by an organization named Clean Energy Coalition for Santa Fe County, reportedly plan to sue over the approval, anyway.

2. Nantucket, Massachusetts – The latest episode of the Vineyard Wind debacle has dropped, and it appears the offshore wind project’s team is now playing ball with the vacation town.

• As we discussed earlier this month, Nantucket’s been sounding quite litigious lately over last year’s blade breakage. But after a closed-door meeting with Vineyard Wind CEO Klau Moeller, the town’s leadership has announced they’ve reached “preliminary consensus” on their demands, including improved communication, new emergency response plans, and an exchange of information about the effectiveness of aircraft lighting. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is also getting involved, per the town.
• I remain convinced it is important to watch these deliberations closely, as any failures in these talks could be weaponized by anti-wind forces in the Trump administration. It’s worth noting that the town also cheered the Trump team’s move to reconsider positions on previously permitted offshore wind projects.

3. Klickitat County, Washington – Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson is pausing permitting on Cypress Creek Renewables’ Carriger solar project despite a recommendation from his own permitting council, citing concerns from tribes that have dogged other renewables projects in the state.

• In a letter to Washington’s Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, Ferguson said he agreed with the importance of the project and that “construction of the Carriger Solar Project would have to begin quickly because of the impending expiration of federal tax credits for clean energy.”
• But in Ferguson’s view, the Yakama Nation – a primary hurdle for the project – needs to have more time to weigh in on how EFSEC's consultation with the tribe was implemented in the council’s recommendations, including whether the property setbacks it recommended actually address their concerns.
• This is certainly a political capitulation, but it’s unclear if giving the Nation more time will ultimately make the tribe happy. This comes after the chairman of the Yakama Nation Tribal Council wrote the governor saying the tribe’s talks with EFSEC did not actually produce meaningful government-to-government consultation or avoid undue harm to their cultural resources.
• The council will now have to submit a new site certification agreement within 60 days.

4. Tippecanoe County, Indiana – The county rejected what is believed to have been its first utility-scale solar project, flying in the face of its zoning staff.

• Proposed by Geenex and RWE, the Rainbow Trout project was recommended for approval by county staff on the area planning commission, which dismissed future worries about solar overcrowding and asserted that “if climate science is to be believed, the time to invest in renewable energy was more than a decade ago.”
• This didn’t matter at all. A sea of red shirts flooded the county zoning board’s meeting on a special permit for the project Wednesday night, which had been grandfathered in after enactment of a one-year moratorium. In a narrow split vote, the board rejected the permit, which will delay consideration of the project for at least a year.
• It’s unclear what comes next for the project, which has been in progress since at least 2020.

5. Morrow County, Oregon – This county is opting into a new state program that purports to allow counties more input in how they review utility-scale solar projects.

• Ordinarily, projects larger than about 300 acres would qualify for state-level permitting through Oregon’s version of what states like Washington and New York have – an overarching permitting agency that reviews large-scale energy projects with potential benefit to the state due to the volume of energy they’d produce. Oregon has struggled with intensifying local conflicts over large-scale solar, however, especially over the issue of farmland loss in the eastern portion of the state.
• Enter a new set of regulations established earlier this summer targeting the conflicts in eastern Oregon. New areas would be designated specifically for solar, while localities and counties would still be able to review and vet projects in areas totaling almost 2,000 acres.
• Morrow County initiated the process to opt in to this new system last week, making it one of the testing grounds for these regulations. Counties have until the end of the year to volunteer for the program.

6. Ocean County, New Jersey – The Jersey shoreline might not get a wind farm any time soon, but now that angst is spreading to battery storage.

• Concerns over battery fires have apparently prompted Atlantic City Electric to pause starting up its first large energy storage facility in the shore community of Beach Haven. The company claims it’s going to do extra “testing” to make residents confident that they’ll be safe.
• It’s worth noting that this members of this community were crucial to opposition against the now-defunct Atlantic Shores offshore wind project.

7. Fairfield County, Ohio – Hey, at least another solar farm is getting permitted in Ohio.

• EDF’s Eastern Cottontail project has been approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board despite bubbling local unrest over the project. The board said EDF properly mitigated environmental impacts and that at least one opponent – the host community of Walnut – “offers little to no record evidence to support its arguments.”
• This is a big deal as it demonstrates that the board more intensely scrutinizing local opposition in its determinations of public necessity for solar projects.