Offshore Wind Isn’t Swinging Votes

1. Offshore wind completion – The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management finished its environmental review for more offshore wind off the coast of New York and New Jersey – an area relevant to the recently-submitted Community Offshore Wind joint venture between RWE and National Grid.

• Five other projects have acreage within the lease area according to BOEM: Bluepoint Wind, Atlantic Shores, Invenergy Wind, and Vineyard Wind. BOEM's website also lists an area held by Attentive Energy; it is unclear how the company’s decision to pull out of the New York solicitation will impact those parcels.
• The lengthy programmatic environmental impact statement (viewed here) is a crucial step under the National Environmental Policy Act before selling leases to developers.

2. Offshore wind polling – On the heels of that decision comes a noteworthy poll of New Jersey residents finding many voters opposed to offshore wind don’t really care if politicians feel the same way.

• The Stockton University poll released Tuesday found only 17% of voters said a candidate’s views on offshore wind would influence their vote “a great deal.” Among coastal voters – a group deeply opposed to offshore wind in the poll – only about 30% of voters said a candidate’s view on the matter “would impact their vote greatly.”
  
• “No matter which side of the issue voters land on, they seem to agree that it’s not a top priority,” said Alyssa Maurice, research director at Stockton’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, in a statement. “The opposition to offshore wind is particularly vocal and well-organized in New Jersey, but the poll shows that for most voters this issue doesn’t move the needle much.”
• What does this mean? Well when it comes to this issue deciding elections, we’ll be holding our breath.

3. Geothermal permitting – The Bureau of Land Management has dropped a new proposal to streamline permitting for geothermal energy projects.

• The proposed rule, which is now up for public comment, would create a new “categorical exclusion” for geothermal resource confirmation plans – a crucial step in the exploration process for potent geothermal energy. It would allow drilling wells and core drilling to avoid a lengthy review under the National Environmental Policy Act.
  
• BLM also approved the Fervo Energy project in Utah, which will generate upwards of 2 gigawatts of power.

Here’s what else we’re watching…

• The Energy Department has offered a conditional loan commitment of up to $1.44 billion to a company producing “sustainable” aviation fuel in Montana.
• Michigan regulators have declared an anti-renewables group violated campaign finance law.
• Texas regulators are moving forward with a plan to build more transmission to serve growing power needs at oil fields in the Permian Basin.