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Hotspots

Trump Administration to ‘Reconsider’ Approval for MarWin

And more of the week’s most important conflicts around renewable energy.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Sussex County, Delaware – The Trump administration has confirmed it will revisit permitting decisions for the MarWin offshore wind project off the coast of Maryland, potentially putting the proposal in jeopardy unless blue states and the courts intervene.

  • Justice Department officials admitted the plans in a paragraph tucked inside a filing submitted to a federal court in Delaware this week in litigation brought by a beach house owner opposed to the offshore wind project.
  • DOJ stated in the filing that more time was “necessary as Interior intends to reconsider its [construction and operations plan] approval” for MarWin, and that it plans to “move” for “voluntary remand of that agency action” in a separate case filed by Ocean City, Maryland against the project.
  • “The outcome of Interior’s reconsideration has the potential to affect the Plaintiff’s claims in this case,” the filing stated. “Continuing to litigate this case before any decision is made in the [Ocean City case] would potentially waste considerable time and resources for both the parties and the Court.” As of today, no new filings have been made in the Ocean City case.

2. Northwest Iowa – Locals fighting a wind project spanning multiple counties in northern Iowa are opposing legislation that purports to make renewable development easier in the state.

  • Both chambers of the Iowa legislature appear to be advancing an effort to streamline renewable permitting at the state and local level. Both versions of the bill – HSB 317 in the House and SF 376 in the Senate – would among other things create restrictions on local setback distances and standards on what guidelines municipalities can put in place against renewables projects.
  • Subcommittees in both chambers have recommended passage of the bills. It is unclear at the moment whether either of them stand a chance at becoming law soon, though it is altogether notable to see this effort gain traction in the Midwest.
  • Despite this uncertainty, the bills are reportedly becoming an issue in areas like Dickinson County, where some residents are fighting Invenergy’s Red Rock Wind Energy Center. I first learned about this effort because landowners against Red Rock now claim the setback restrictions in the bills would be insufficient to preserve their “property rights.”

3. Pima County, Arizona – Down goes another solar-powered data center, this time in Arizona.

  • Residents in Tuscon successfully defeated an Amazon proposal to build “Project Blue,” a hulking data center project. Tucson’s city council unanimously directed its staff to halt work on the project citing concerns about water use and energy demand.
  • According to public documents, Project Blue was itself proposed in Tuscon because it would get access to the region’s mix of renewable energy generation. The project would purportedly also include the construction of new solar-and-storage facilities to help power operations.

4. San Diego County, California – A battery storage developer has withdrawn plans to build in the southern California city of La Mesa amidst a broadening post-Moss Landing backlash over fire concerns.

  • EnerSmart, the developer of the project, told local media it rescinded the plans last week because of concerns about a transmission bottleneck. However, some of those fighting battery storage across the state have publicly taken credit for the decision and claim it was the product of community meetings with La Mesa.
  • “It was right next to homes, in close proximity to a school and conveniently positioned directly across the street from a substation,” wrote Kendra Correia, an activist who has fought other battery projects north of San Diego, in a Facebook post. “This community rallied together, met with local government leaders, gained media attention and campaigned against the placement of this facility, that would endanger their community. Congratulations!”

5. Logan and McIntosh Counties, North Dakota – These days, it’s worth noting when a wind project even gets approved.

  • North Dakota’s Public Service Commission approved Orsted’s Badger wind farm, which will span two counties in a southernmost stretch of the state. It did so despite the Federal Aviation Administration apparently denying the use of advanced lighting alerts for about half of the turbines.
  • The project will apparently complete construction before the end of 2025, which means it may ultimately still be able to qualify for tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act.

6. Hamilton County, Indiana – This county is now denying an Aypa battery storage facility north of Indianapolis despite growing power concerns in the region.

  • Apparently, like many other places in the U.S., concerns about battery fires won out. Chemical worries also abounded, with at least one resident reportedly saying in the public hearing on the project that they’re worried about tornadoes picking up batteries.
  • Hamilton has an incredibly high renewable energy support score – but its opposition risk is just as high in the Heatmap Pro database. The reasoning? A powerful mixture of political resentment and a high population density.
Yellow

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Q&A

How Developers Should Think of the New IRA Credit Rules

A conversation with Scott Cockerham of Latham and Watkins.

How Developers Should Think of the New IRA Credit Rules
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s conversation is with Scott Cockerham, a partner with the law firm Latham and Watkins whose expertise I sought to help me best understand the Treasury Department’s recent guidance on the federal solar and wind tax credits. We focused on something you’ve probably been thinking about a lot: how to qualify for the “start construction” part of the new tax regime, which is the primary hurdle for anyone still in the thicket of a fight with local opposition.

The following is our chat lightly edited for clarity. Enjoy.

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Hotspots

An Influential Anti-ESG Activist Targets A Wind Farm

And more of the week’s most important news around renewable energy conflicts.

Map of renewable energy fights.
Heatmap Illustration

1. Carroll County, Arkansas – The head of an influential national right-wing advocacy group is now targeting a wind project in Arkansas, seeking federal intervention to block something that looked like it would be built.

  • Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, recently called on the Trump administration to intervene against the development of Scout Clean Energy’s Nimbus wind project in Arkansas. Consumers’ Research is known as one of the leading anti-ESG advocacy organizations, playing a key role in the “anti-woke” opposition against the climate- and socially-conscious behavior of everyone from utilities to Anheuser-Busch.
  • In a lengthy rant posted to X earlier this month, Hild pointed to Carroll County’s local moratorium on wind projects and claimed Nimbus being built would be “a massive win for ESG radicals – and a slap in the face for local democracy.”
  • As I told you in April, the Nimbus project prompted Carroll County to enact the moratorium but it was grandfathered in because of contracts signed prior to the ban’s enactment.
  • However, even though Nimbus is not sited on federal land, there is a significant weak point for the project: its potential impacts on endangered birds and bats.
  • Scout Clean Energy has been working with the Fish and Wildlife Service since at least 2018 under Trump 1.0. However, the project’s habitat conservation plan was not completed before the start of the current Trump term and Scout did not submit an application for Nimbus to receive an incidental take permit from the Service until May of this year.
  • Enter the Trump administration’s bird-centric wind power crackdown and the impact of Hild’s commentary comes into fuller focus. What will happen to all the years of work that Scout and the Service did? It’s unclear how the project reckons with this heightened scrutiny and risk of undue federal attention.

2. Suffolk County, New York – EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin this week endorsed efforts by activists on Long Island to oppose energy storage in their neighborhoods.

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Spotlight

Trump’s Permit Freeze Prompts Some Solar to Eye Exits

Is there going to be a flight out of Nevada?

Solar in Nevada.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s renewables permitting freeze is prompting solar companies to find an escape hatch from Nevada.

As I previously reported, the Interior Department has all but halted new approvals for solar and wind projects on federal lands. It was entirely unclear how that would affect transmission out west, including in the solar-friendly Nevada desert where major lines were in progress to help power both communities and a growing number of data centers. Shortly after the pause, I took notice of the fact that regulators quietly delayed the timetable by at least two weeks for a key line – the northern portion of NV Energy’s Greenlink project – that had been expected to connect to a litany of solar facilities. Interior told me it still planned to complete the project in September, but it also confirmed that projects specifically necessary for connecting solar onto the grid would face “enhanced” reviews.

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