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Hotspots

Trump Cancels Key Meeting for Vineyard Wind Expansion

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

Renewable energy conflicts map.
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1. Dukes County, Massachusetts – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management canceled a key meeting required for the environmental review of Vineyard Offshore’s expansion into the New York bight, in what appears to be the first time the agency has publicly canceled offshore wind review meetings for projects in the Atlantic Ocean since Trump took office.

  • BOEM had previously canceled a meeting for offshore wind leases in the Pacific. But this new move, which was announced late Tuesday evening, indicates the administration is not only limiting final approvals for new offshore wind leases but also procedural steps historically done in the permitting process for individual projects.
  • BOEM published a notice it would start the environmental impact statement process for the Vineyard Mid-Atlantic project in the final days of the Biden administration. The project would generate more than 2 gigawatts of power, according to the agency.
  • In a brief public statement, the agency said it was canceling virtual meetings for the environmental impact statement that were scheduled today. BOEM cited Trump’s executive order targeting offshore wind that paused “new or renewed approvals, rights-of-way, permits, leases, or loans for offshore wind projects” – at least until the government does a purported review of the offshore wind industry.
  • What’s unclear still is why this executive order triggered canceled meetings. How is a gathering for comment considered an approval or a permit? Does this mean BOEM’s putting a stop to any and all staff activity related to offshore wind?
  • I asked BOEM these questions and I will let you know if I hear back. Based on what we’re hearing is going on at other agencies, this doesn’t bode well for wind developers.

2. San Luis Obispo County, California – The ballooning Moss Landing battery fire PR crisis is now impacting other battery projects in the surrounding area.

  • Origis Energy’s Caballero battery storage project in San Luis Obispo is now facing fierce local opposition citing the Moss Landing event, with residents calling for their own temporary battery storage moratoria.
  • The catch is, Caballero’s construction is near completion after being approved by county regulators three years ago. According to local TV station KEYT, county supervisors have declined to take up requests to block the project “particularly due to potential litigation the county could face if they were to try and reverse the approval.”
  • I’m watching the backlash to Moss Landing spread outside of California, too.
  • The town of Duanesburg, New York, last week banned battery storage facilities within its municipal limits, with officials referencing the battery fire on the West Coast to make the case these facilities are somehow a hazard to public health and the environment.

3. Marshall County, Indiana – We have what might be the wildest moratorium we’ve seen passed so far in Fight history: a ban on solar farms, carbon capture, battery storage, and data centers – all at once!

  • Marshall County commissioners enacted the 2-year moratorium on all these tech facilities earlier this week unanimously in a quick vote. It is the first time I have found decarb facilities banned by a county in tandem with data centers.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on…

In Alabama, a new Silicon Ranch solar proposal in Montgomery County is running into local ire (which is predictable at this point in this region).

In Louisiana, Ascension is getting grilled by residents near a carbon capture test well.

In Massachusetts, National Grid canceled a geothermal heating pilot project.

In Michigan, Ranger Power’s solar project in Tuscola County is facing some familiar “prime farmland” criticism.

In Nebraska, Midwest Electric Cooperative Corp. won a permit from Perkins County commissioners to build a solar project.

In North Carolina, NextEra Energy’s Muscov solar project is reportedly facing delays due to local opposition.

In Wisconsin, Invenergy’s solar project in Janesville is facing concerns from the local state representative – who is a Democrat.

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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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