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Why It’s So Hard to Build Offshore Wind Power in the U.S.
For years, the mighty wind blowing off the Massachusetts coast has beckoned developers with visions of clean, emission-free electricity. The latest to be seduced, Vineyard Wind LLC, aims to install 84 Statute of Liberty-size turbines about 15 miles off the state’s shoreline, which would together generate enough electricity to power 400,000 homes as soon as 2022. The project hit a snag in August, when the U.S. Department of the Interior ordered additional analysis of how the wind farm—and potentially 14 others that have been granted leases across almost 1.7 million acres of Atlantic waters—would affect the $1.4 billion fishing industry along the Eastern seaboard. U.S. regulators had sought to fast-track Vineyard Wind and could still sign off on the project by their self-imposed deadline in March, but the additional review is a blow to the companies behind Vineyard Wind, Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, which had hoped to begin construction this year. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
Vineyard Wind, developers release offshore wind plans
Developers are unveiling proposals to build and generate power from Connecticut’s first offshore wind project, even as the industry awaits the Trump administration’s verdict on potential conflicts with fishing. Three joint ventures said yesterday they had submitted project ideas to the state’s energy authority in response to an August solicitation for up to 2,000 megawatts of offshore wind power, or about 30% of Connecticut’s electricity. [ read more … ]
Unlocking Northern California’s Offshore Wind Bounty
Wind speeds off the coast of Humboldt County in Northern California are some of the strongest in the U.S. The region’s steady gusts are so powerful, in fact, that the area was one of three potential offshore wind energy development zones in California included by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in a public pitch to developers last year.
With around 140,000 residents, Humboldt County lacks one thing offshore wind developers like to see: a big demand for power. But the San Francisco Bay Area is a five-hour drive south along Highway 101. [ read more … ]
FERC
Trump picks FERC general counsel for commission seat
President Trump last night nominated James Danly to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a widely expected move. If confirmed by the Senate, Danly would give the five-seat commission a 3-1 Republican majority. He is currently general counsel of the agency. Trump did not name a Democrat to fill FERC’s last remaining vacancy, throwing aside a Senate tradition of pairing nominees at the independent energy regulator with individuals of both political parties. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Coal States Urge Trump Administration to Tackle Plant Closures
Six coal states are pressing the Trump administration to wrap up an almost two-year inquiry into whether coal and nuclear plant retirements are threatening the electric grid. In letters to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which overseas U.S. power markets, utility commissioners from Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming warned that plant closures are accelerating and “bringing increased attention to grid resilience and fuel security.”
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Mass. tops efficiency ranking, but others are catching up
State efforts were hardly limited to the power sector, however. A growing number of states are adopting California’s zero-emission vehicle standards; New Mexico and Minnesota last week became the latest to follow the Golden State’s lead. Colorado, Hawaii and Washington were among the states to pass appliance standards. There were also notable cases like Nebraska, which, absent any climate legislation, overhauled a decade-old building code in favor of the most recent efficiency standards favored by the International Code Council. [ read more … ]
Trump’s conspiracy theories on Ukraine echo climate claims
President Trump’s embrace of a conspiracy theory asserting that Ukraine and Democrats hacked the 2016 election, instead of Russia, reflects the way he views climate change, according to researchers: Embrace the favorable false claims and reject the facts.
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As Paris deadline looms, Dems lay out their demands
Senate Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration justify its decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, just weeks before the U.S. can begin the process of withdrawing. In a letter sent Friday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and other Democrats asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to provide Congress with “comprehensive justification” for the decision to withdraw and to detail why the United States would be better served outside an agreement that nearly every country in the world has signed.
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Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.