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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.
Heatmap Illustration

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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Spotlight

How a Giant Solar Farm Flopped in Rural Texas

Amarillo-area residents successfully beat back a $600 million project from Xcel Energy that would have provided useful tax revenue.

Texas and solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Power giant Xcel Energy just suffered a major public relations flap in the Texas Panhandle, scrubbing plans for a solar project amidst harsh backlash from local residents.

On Friday, Xcel Energy withdrew plans to build a $600 million solar project right outside of Rolling Hills, a small, relatively isolated residential neighborhood just north of the city of Amarillo, Texas. The project was part of several solar farms it had proposed to the Texas Public Utilities Commission to meet the load growth created by the state’s AI data center boom. As we’ve covered in The Fight, Texas should’ve been an easier place to do this, and there were few if any legal obstacles standing in the way of the project, dubbed Oneida 2. It was sited on private lands, and Texas counties lack the sort of authority to veto projects you’re used to seeing in, say, Ohio or California.

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Hotspots

A Data Center Is Dead, Long Live a Solar Farm

And more of the most important news about renewable projects fighting it out this week.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Racine County, Wisconsin – Microsoft is scrapping plans for a data center after fierce opposition from a host community in Wisconsin.

  • The town of Caledonia was teed up to approve land rezoning for the facility, which would’ve been Microsoft’s third data center in the state. Dubbed “Project Nova,” the data center would have sat near an existing We Energies natural gas power plant.
  • After considerable pushback at community meetings, the tech giant announced Friday that it would either give up on the project or relocate it elsewhere to avoid more fervent opposition.
  • “While we have decided not to proceed with this particular site, we remain fully committed to investing in Southeast Wisconsin. We view this as a healthy step toward building a project that aligns with community priorities and supports shared goals,” Microsoft said in a statement published to its website, adding that it will attempt to “identify a site that supports both community priorities and our long-term development objectives.”
  • A review of the project opponents’ PR materials shows their campaign centered on three key themes: the risk of higher electricity bills, environmental impacts of construction and traffic, and a lack of clarity around how data centers could be a public good. Activists also frequently compared Project Nova to a now-infamous failed project in Wisconsin from the Chinese tech manufacturer Foxconn.

2. Rockingham County, Virginia – Another day, another chokepoint in Dominion Energy’s effort to build more solar energy to power surging load growth in the state, this time in the quaint town of Timberville.

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Q&A

How the AI Boom Could Come Back Around for Natural Gas

A conversation with Enchanted Rock’s Joel Yu.

The Fight Q & A subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s chat was with Joel Yu, senior vice president for policy and external affairs at the data center micro-grid services company Enchanted Rock. Now, Enchanted Rock does work I usually don’t elevate in The Fight – gas-power tracking – but I wanted to talk to him about how conflicts over renewable energy are affecting his business, too. You see, when you talk to solar or wind developers about the potential downsides in this difficult economic environment, they’re willing to be candid … but only to a certain extent. As I expected, someone like Yu who is separated enough from the heartburn that is the Trump administration’s anti-renewables agenda was able to give me a sober truth: Land use and conflicts over siting are going to advantage fossil fuels in at least some cases.

The following conversation was lightly edited for clarity.

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