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Policy Watch

Good Week for Power Lines, Bad Week for Offshore Wind

The most important renewable energy policies and decisions from the last few days.

Transmission and wind.
Fré Sonneveld / NOAA / Heatmap

Greenlink’s good day – The Interior Department has approved NV Energy’s Greenlink West power line in Nevada, a massive step forward for the Biden administration’s pursuit of more transmission.

  • The project will be linked to Arevia Power’s Libra Solar Project, which the BLM finished reviewing last month.
  • Interior also released a draft environmental review for the Greenlink North transmission project, a companion to Greenlink West.
  • While these approvals might lift the weight off some YIMBY chests, I wouldn’t be too sure this fight is over, judging by recent Fight interviewee Patrick Donnelly’s claim to the press that this decision could lead to listing the sage grouse as an endangered species. Do I smell litigation?

States’ offshore muddle – We saw a lot of state-level offshore wind movement this past week… and it wasn’t entirely positive. All of this bodes poorly for odds of a kumbaya political moment to the industry’s benefit any time soon.

Chumash loophole – Offshore wind did notch one win in northern California by securing an industry exception in a large marine sanctuary, providing for farms to be built in a corridor of the coastline.

  • The final Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary arrives with both an opening for offshore wind projects currently being planned and the blessing of the North Chumash Tribal Council – what appears to be a win-win.
  • Regulators say they’ll consider a potential expansion of the sanctuary in the “coming years” after transmission cables have been approved.

Here’s what else I’m watching …

  • The Supreme Court is apparently swamped with emergency requests from the energy industry and Republican states to intervene in anti-pollution regulation.
  • In Maine, activists are pushing the state to get more aggressive with its climate plans.
  • In Washington state, a ballot initiative threatens to repeal the state’s “cap and invest” climate law.

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Spotlight

Birds Could Be the Anti-Wind Trump Card

How the Migratory Bird Treaty Act could become the administration’s ultimate weapon against wind farms.

A golden eagle and wind turbines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Trump administration has quietly opened the door to strictly enforcing a migratory bird protection law in a way that could cast a legal cloud over wind farms across the country.

As I’ve chronicled for Heatmap, the Interior Department over the past month expanded its ongoing investigation of the wind industry’s wildlife impacts to go after turbines for killing imperiled bald and golden eagles, sending voluminous records requests to developers. We’ve discussed here how avian conservation activists and even some former government wildlife staff are reporting spikes in golden eagle mortality in areas with operating wind projects. Whether these eagle deaths were allowable under the law – the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act – is going to wind up being a question for regulators and courts if Interior progresses further against specific facilities. Irrespective of what one thinks about the merits of wind energy, it’s extremely likely that a federal government already hostile to wind power will use the law to apply even more pressure on developers.

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Hotspots

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

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

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

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.

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Q&A

Trump’s Take on Environmental Review Has Some Silver Linings

Talking NEPA implementation and permitting reform with Pamela Goodwin, an environmental lawyer at Saul Ewing LLP.

Pamela Goodwin.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

This week’s conversation is with Pamela Goodwin, an environmental lawyer with Saul Ewing LLP. I reached out to her to chat about permitting because, well, when is that not on all of our minds these days. I was curious, though, whether Trump’s reforms to National Environmental Policy Act regulations and recent court rulings on the law’s implementation would help renewables in any way, given how much attention has been paid to “permitting reform” over the years. To my surprise, there are some silver linings here – though you’ll have to squint to see them.

The following chat was lightly edited for clarity.

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