The Fight

Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Hotspots

Southcoast Wind’s Last Dash

And more of this week’s top fights around renewable energy.

Map of renewable energy fights.
Heatmap Illustration

1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – The Biden administration is rushing to finish permitting Ocean Winds’ Southcoast Wind project, a joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie, before Donald Trump returns to the White House. Questions remain as to whether it can be done.

  • Since Election Day, Southcoast Wind has received full environmental review and received a draft EPA air permit last week. We’re still waiting on a record of decision though and until then, all bets are off.
  • Complicating matters is the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, which is now fighting the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to get more money and benefits in the event the project is fully permitted. They’re worried about blade failures.
  • Legal counsel for the town wrote BOEM on Oct. 30 objecting to the agency’s plans for mitigating potential impacts to the town’s historic properties, arguing the Vineyard Wind blade collapse must be fully investigated before any final approvals are granted.
  • Given how Southcoast Wind is close to the finish line at the federal level, I’m watching to see if this dispute with Nantucket becomes a basis for a permitting reversal in the event it can’t make its way through the process before Trump comes into office.

2. Pittsburg County, Oklahoma – Momentum is building for an anti-wind moratorium in this Oklahoma county home to multiple proposed wind projects.

  • The push for a moratorium is a response to a wind farm proposed by Red Earth Energy, according to the popular anti-wind blog National Wind Watch.
  • Activists this week packed a small meeting room with county officials to pressure them into action after they refused to develop an ordinance blocking wind. You can watch the chaos unfold on this cellphone video posted to Facebook.
  • Reports indicate activists are taking this fight anywhere they can – including county Republican Party meetings – in advance of potential litigation and lobbying state regulators.

3. Benton County, Washington – Remember when we told you advocates were going to sue over Washington state approving the Horse Heaven wind farm project? It’s happening.

  • Tri-Cities CARES was able to get enough money on its own to start the litigation process, although it has not released how much money it was able to fundraise, per local media. It estimates needing at least $200,000 on hand, which is a lot for a grassroots nonprofit.
  • As we previously told you, Tri-Cities CARES is not the group with the strongest standing to win a lawsuit against the state’s approval – that’s the Yakima Nation. The jury’s out as to whether they’ll be joining the activists here.

4. Branch County, Michigan – When a solar farm and a transmission project are the ones fighting, who wins? In the Mitten State, we’re about to find out.

  • NorthStar Clean Energy’s Branch Solar farm in south central Michigan is directly in the path of a proposed transmission line. NorthStar was just granted permission to intervene in the state regulator planning process, allowing them to weigh in on the line’s paths.
  • Plans for the transmission line are expected to be completed by mid-2025.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

In Ohio, a wind farm got a local approval for once: NextEra’s Swan Lake project.

In New Mexico, a county has approved the tax agreement for Orsted’s Blackwater solar project.

In Pennsylvania, a local newspaper’s editorial board has come out against activists that have “put the kibosh to more than a dozen proposed solar farm projects throughout the region.”

In West Virginia, state regulators have approved a Nedpower Mount Storm wind farm after the company reduced its size by more than 40 percent.

In Virginia, local officials are bracing for Virginia Beach traffic jams over constructing the Dominion Energy Coastal Virginia offshore wind project.

This article is exclusively
for Heatmap Plus subscribers.

Go deeper inside the politics, projects, and personalities
shaping the energy transition.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Q&A

How Are Renewable Energy Developers Reacting to IRA Cuts?

A conversation with Mike Hall of Anza.

The Fight's Q&A subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s conversation is with Mike Hall, CEO of the solar and battery storage data company Anza. I rang him because, in my book, the more insights into the ways renewables companies are responding to the war on the Inflation Reduction Act, the better.

The following chat was lightly edited for clarity. Let’s jump in!

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Hotspots

A Solar Flare-Up in New York, Battery Aftershocks in California

And more of the week’s top news in renewable energy conflicts.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Columbia County, New York – A Hecate Energy solar project in upstate New York blessed by Governor Kathy Hochul is now getting local blowback.

  • Last week, the Hochul administration granted many solar projects their renewable energy certificates, including Hecate’s Shepherd’s Run solar project in the town of Copake. Shepherd’s Run has struggled for years with its application process and was previously rejected by state land use regulators.
  • This certificate award has now inflamed longstanding local criticism of the project, which has persisted due to its proximity to schools and concerns about fire risk.
  • We’ll find out whether this flare-up will cause more headaches when the state’s Renewable Energy Siting office completes reviewing Hecate’s application in 60 days.

2. Sussex County, Delaware – The battle between a Bethany Beach landowner and a major offshore wind project came to a head earlier this week after Delaware regulators decided to comply with a massive government records request.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Spotlight

Trump Targets Solar on Farmland

Anti-solar activists in agricultural areas get a powerful new ally.

Sheep and solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Trump administration is joining the war against solar projects on farmland, offering anti-solar activists on the ground a powerful ally against developers across the country.

In a report released last week, President Trump’s Agriculture Department took aim at solar and stated competition with “solar development on productive farmland” was creating a “considerable barrier” for farmers trying to acquire land. The USDA also stated it would disincentivize “the use of federal funding” for solar “through prioritization points and regulatory action,” which a spokesperson – Emily Cannon – later clarified in an email to me this week will include reconfiguring the agency’s Rural Energy for America loan and grant program. Cannon declined to give a time-table for the new regulation, stating that the agency “will have more information when the updates are ready to be published.”

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow