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POLITICS: A group of young conservative climate advocates say President-elect Trump’s return to office creates an opportunity for an “America-First” climate strategy to “win the clean energy arms race.” (Grist)
OVERSIGHT:
TRANSITION:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID:
ELECTRIFICATION: Massachusetts could have a hard time reaching its goals for heat pump adoption, as the state’s high electricity prices make operating the systems too costly for many households. (Boston Globe)
CLEAN ENERGY: Advocates say community benefits agreements are an effective way of garnering local residents’ support for proposed clean energy developments. (High Country News)
OFFSHORE WIND: Officials and climate advocates assess the likely impact of President Trump’s pause on new offshore wind leases and permits, with some expressing optimism that most ongoing developments will be unaffected and others worrying about stranded investments, job losses, and delayed progress toward climate goals. (WBUR, Boston Globe, Maine Morning Star)
ALSO: Days before the inauguration, federal regulators give a wind farm off Massachusetts the go-ahead to continue construction and energy production after the failure of a turbine blade in July halted the operation. (Vineyard Gazette)
EFFICIENCY:
CLEAN ENERGY:
UTILITIES: New Hampshire regulators instruct utilities to buy some electricity on day-to-day markets rather than acquiring it all in six-month advance contracts, a move the state’s consumer advocate says could make residents vulnerable to unexpected price spikes. (Concord Monitor)
TRANSPORTATION: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a longtime opponent of New York’s congestion pricing, asks Trump to take a “close look” at the program, saying it did not receive enough federal scrutiny before its launch earlier this year. (The Hill)
NATURAL GAS: In Maryland, Democratic state lawmakers contemplate turning to natural gas to help address tight power supplies and rising prices. (Fox Baltimore)
COAL: Maryland identifies nearly 100 coal ash dumps holding 200 million pounds of ash across the Chesapeake Bay region, many of which are unmonitored or poorly mitigated, allowing toxins to seep into the groundwater. (Bay Journal)
COMMENTARY: Connecticut should modify policies and increase program funding to unlock community solar’s benefits for disadvantaged communities, says a local college student studying urban planning. (CT Mirror)
WIND: President Trump issues an executive order halting work on the recently approved Lava Ridge wind project in southern Idaho, saying it “is allegedly contrary to the public interest and suffers legal deficiencies.” (Idaho Statesman)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: A California lawmaker introduces legislation that would extend state renewable energy tax incentives in an effort to preempt Trump administration cuts. (E&E News, subscription)
LITHIUM: The Biden administration finalized a nearly $1 billion loan for the contested proposed Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada. (Nevada Current)
COAL: PacifiCorp cancels scheduled coal plant retirements in Utah, citing state and federal regulatory changes. (Utah News Dispatch)
UTILITIES:
GRID: Urban Alaska utilities warn customers to prepare for rolling blackouts as a natural gas shortage intensifies. (Northern Journal)
OIL & GAS: Portland, Oregon’s city council begins considering issuing a permit to Zenith Energy’s contested oil storage facility and terminal. (KOIN)
BUILDINGS:
CLIMATE: New Mexico advocates rally at the state capitol and call on lawmakers to take immediate action to mitigate the climate crisis. (Source NM)
NUCLEAR:
BIOFUELS: Northern California advocates look to shut down a biomass power plant fueled by wood waste, saying it emits climate-warming carbon and other pollutants. (JPR)
EMISSIONS:
GRID: An analysis shows the vast majority of 2024’s largest clean energy projects were built in Texas, which leads the U.S. in installed utility-scale solar and wind capacity and is gaining on California for battery storage. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
WIND: Oklahoma lawmakers take aim at renewables with two dozen bills that restrict wind and solar development, including one bill to allow counties to block wind projects near crude oil hubs. (Tulsa World)
OIL & GAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Trump’s rollback of a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of electric vehicles could delay or halt South Carolina’s new and planned electric vehicle and battery plants, which it’s already spent millions to attract. (The State)
CARBON CAPTURE: Shell and Mitsubishi name a startup company to provide carbon capture technology at a direct air capture hub they want to build in Louisiana, although the project is contingent on clean energy funding the Trump administration might roll back. (E&E News, subscription)
NUCLEAR: The Tennessee Valley Authority selects contractors for the initial planning and design phases of a planned 300 MW small modular nuclear reactor in Tennessee. (Power)
COAL: A Virginia bank says it’s lost $65.1 million in interest income since placing debt owed by West Virginia U.S. Sen. Jim Justice’s family’s coal companies on nonaccrual status in mid-2023. (Cardinal News)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A Texas official calls on federal law enforcement to reject a federal housing agency’s claim the state mishandled flood mitigation funding from Hurricane Harvey by discriminating against Black and Hispanic residents. (Houston Chronicle)
CLIMATE: Researchers discuss the possible role of climate change in a recent polar vortex that brought cold temperatures and snow to the Gulf Coast. (WWNO)
UTILITIES:
COMMENTARY:
President Trump was sworn in Monday, and immediately got to work signing executive orders targeting climate action, wind power, electric vehicles and other priorities of the previous administration.
One of Trump’s biggest moves was to declare a national emergency on energy, noting that power demand is growing and that the country needs to move quickly to meet it. The move unlocks strong executive powers that Trump said he’d use to encourage fossil fuel production — and could open him up to legal challenges if he can’t prove there’s a true energy emergency.
To address the declared emergency, Trump ordered federal agencies to review policies that “burden the development of domestic energy resources” and dismantle them as soon as possible.
But the growing need for energy at home didn’t stop Trump from ending a freeze on permitting for liquefied natural gas exports. And at the same time, Trump also halted federal permitting for new wind projects, even though the industry added 5 GW of new power capacity to the grid last year.
Trump also froze unspent federal subsidies for EV purchases and for automakers to build EV and battery factories, taking away a big incentive for manufacturers and consumers to move away from gas-powered cars.
All of these day-one orders have a clear beneficiary: the fossil fuel industry. But as pollution continues to drive climate change, communities on the front lines of worsening winter storms, hurricanes and wildlifes won’t be sharing in the win.
🔋 Clean energy first: A group of young conservative climate advocates say President-elect Trump’s return to office creates an opportunity for an “America-First” climate strategy to “win the clean energy arms race.” (Grist)
🇺🇲 Getting nonpolitical: Experts say focusing on “nonpolitical” benefits like grid resilience and energy security will help expand virtual power plants during the upcoming Trump administration. (Utility Dive)
🚗 Tesla’s paradox: Although Tesla CEO Elon Musk is leading Trump’s charge to slash government programs, his company has received $10.7 billion from federal climate credits over the last decade, according to securities filings. (E&E News)
🐑 A wooly good pairing: A 900 MW Texas solar farm uses roughly 3,000 sheep to maintain vegetation at its 4,000-acre site, illustrating a broader trend pairing livestock with solar energy development across the U.S. (Associated Press)
💸 Last loans: In what could be a final Inflation Reduction Act disbursement, the Department of Energy announced $22.4 billion in conditional loans for utilities to help cut emissions and bolster the grid. (Canary Media)
🐄 Cleaning up co-ops: A $6 billion round of funding announced by the USDA last week will help rural electric co-ops around the country develop new clean energy resources. (Canary Media)
Plus, some confirmation hearing updates
CLIMATE: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an oil and gas industry bid to block Honolulu’s lawsuit accusing fossil fuel companies of covering up climate change’s effects and clearing the way for other states’ similar challenges to proceed. (ArsTechnica, Los Angeles Times)
ALSO: California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls on lawmakers to extend the state’s carbon cap-and-trade program beyond its 2030 expiration, saying it’s needed to reach climate goals. (RTO Insider, subscription)
HYDROGEN: The Biden administration awards a northern New Mexico rural electric cooperative $231 million to produce green hydrogen fuel using solar power and a defunct mine’s wastewater. (Albuquerque Journal)
UTILITIES:
GRID:
SOLAR: Nevada residents criticize a utility-scale solar developer for bulldozing Joshua trees to clear the way for a 185 MW facility. (KLAS)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration awards California $55.9 million to install electric vehicle fast-chargers and a hydrogen fueling station for medium- and heavy-duty trucks. (RTO Insider, subscription)
PUBLIC LANDS: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear Utah’s lawsuit seeking to gain control of “unappropriated” federal lands within its boundaries and loosen restrictions on oil and gas and coal development. (WyoFile)
COAL:
ELECTRIFICATION: California environmental justice advocates look to expand low-income residents’ access to building decarbonization and home electrification. (Inside Climate News)
WIND:
COMMENTARY: A Colorado columnist calls on state regulators to stand up to industry and adopt stringent regulations to rein in ozone pollution, which has exceeded federal standards for years. (Colorado Newsline)
INDUSTRY: Low-carbon solar components, zinc batteries, and refurbished, cleaner diesel engines are among the products coming out of southwestern Pennsylvania as the region experiences a manufacturing resurgence driven by federal stimulus money. (WESA)
OFFSHORE WIND: Federal regulators announce the start of the environmental review process for a new offshore wind development, less than a week before President-elect Trump takes office. (Maritime Executive)
CLIMATE:
TRANSMISSION: A proposed transmission line in Maryland may be widely opposed, but is necessary to avoid rolling blackouts that could be a possibility as soon as 2027, experts say. (Baltimore Banner)
SOLAR: Vermont plans, in late 2025, to launch a $62 million program to provide solar power to low-income households using funds from the federal Solar for All program. (Burlington Free Press)
NATURAL GAS: Developers and real estate interests file a lawsuit challenging a Maryland regulation aimed at phasing out the use of natural gas appliances in large buildings. (Baltimore Banner)
NUCLEAR: Constellation Energy has New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s support as it applies for federal funding to assess the potential for building a small modular reactor in the state. (Syracuse.com)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Maine town plans to put four electric school buses on the road this month, working with a different supplier than the company that provided problem-plagued buses to other Maine districts. (Portland Press Herald, subscription)
GRID: Grid operator PJM proposes changes making it easier to take advantage of underused interconnection capacity, potentially unlocking as much as 26 GW of new capacity, supporters say. (Utility Dive)
TRANSPORTATION: As New York and New Jersey start to assess the impact of congestion pricing in Manhattan, London’s experience with a similar program suggests the controversy will subside but the traffic might return. (NJ Spotlight News)
AFFORDABILITY: A Maine legislative committee approves Gov. Janet Mills’ nominee for the role of public advocate for utility ratepayers, who says she will “zealously represent” the interests of low-income residents. (Maine Morning Star)
This article was originally published by Spotlight Delaware.
In early December, a new website appeared online urging Sussex County residents to contact their councilmembers and tell them to deny a permit required for a proposed offshore wind farm.
The website – StopOffshoreWind.com – materialized days before the Sussex County Council would vote on the permit, which would allow for construction of an electrical substation needed by US Wind Inc. to build its massive ocean-based power plant.
StopOffshoreWind.com included the names and contact information for Sussex County Council members, as well as an online message form that sat underneath the phrase, “Write a Letter to your Sussex County Councilmembers.”
“Tell the Sussex County Council to DENY this permit,” the website stated.
What it did not show were the names of the people or companies that had created and funded it.
Spotlight Delaware has since learned that the website was the creation of a coalition of Maryland wind farm opponents, funded and led by the government of Worcester County, Md.
Sitting just south of Sussex County along the Atlantic coastline and within Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Worcester County is home to Ocean City, Md., a summer beach hotspot that is the primary driver of the county’s tourism-centered economy.
And, many of the local business owners there believe the sight of wind turbines 15 miles offshore would make the beaches less attractive to tourists.
Zach Bankert, executive director of the Ocean City Development Corporation, said his group had led local opposition to offshore wind development in past years. But, with a staff of just two employees, he said the operation was too small to be effective, which is why the county’s Office of Tourism and Economic Development recently took it over.
“When the county came in and said, ‘Hey, you know, we might have some funds for this, we’d like to kind of take this over’ … It was a no-brainer for us,” he said.
US Wind Inc.’s proposal is to build a wind farm with more than 100 turbines off the Delmarva coastline – just south of the Delaware, Maryland state line. It would send electricity ashore in Delaware with cables buried near the mouth of the Indian River.
When announcing a federal approval in September, the Biden Administration said the wind farm could produce up to 2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 700,000 homes.
But coastal opponents say that electricity comes at too high a price, claiming wind turbines will drive tourists away, damage coastal environments and devastate fisheries.
StopOffshoreWind.com also claims that the windfarm will allow “foreign investors” to collect federal subsidies – references to U.S. government incentives provided to wind energy projects, and to US Wind’s ownership.
In emailed responses to questions from Spotlight Delaware, Worcester County Tourism Director Melanie Pursel said the local government authorized up to $100,000 in public money to fund what she called a coalition of local offshore wind opponents.
According to county records, the money specifically is for a contract with a Washington, D.C.-area public relations firm called Bedrock Advocacy Communications.
Pursel also noted in her early January email that Ocean City’s municipal government intended to match the county’s contribution. Last week, the Ocean City Council approved during a regular meeting a measure to distribute up to $100,000 to an “offshore wind opposition public relations campaign.”
During the meeting, City Manager Terry McGean said the campaign would target state lawmakers in Maryland and “other issues” that may arise in Delaware.
Ocean City Mayor Richard “Rick” Meehan said Bedrock Advocacy had already done a “really good job,” noting his belief that the group “played a significant role” in the Delaware county’s denial of US Wind’s substation permit.
“We’re all in,” Meehan said about the $100,000 appropriation. “And I’d hate to miss an opportunity to really capitalize, which might be the right timing to really get our messaging out.”
US Wind is a subsidiary of Renexia SpA, an Italian energy infrastructure company. The American investment giant, Apollo Global Management, also owns a stake in the company.
In response to critics, US Wind spokeswoman Nancy Sopko said in an emailed statement that the opposition’s campaign is filled with “blatant misinformation designed to frighten people.”
Asked for details to support the claims, Sopko pointed to what she called doctored photos from a website called SaveOceanCity.org, which is run by Bankert’s Ocean City Development Corporation.
“The complete disregard for facts, accuracy, and settled science is irresponsible and dangerous,” Sopko said.
She also asserted that state leaders in Maryland and Delaware have been “full-throated” in their support for the wind project in a region that “needs more electricity to keep the lights on, grow the economy, and support local jobs.”
The opposition to the US Wind project is nominally being led by a political nonprofit, called Stop Offshore Wind Inc.
It was formed in Delaware on Dec. 5, around the time that StopOffshoreWind.com appeared. State business records show that Florida attorney Andrew L. Asher created the company.
Asher, a solo practitioner, previously served as general counsel for the BGR Group, a powerful lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. Its biggest clients in recent years include Qualcomm Inc. and the governments of Bahrain and India.
He continues to work for BGR Group in an “of counsel” capacity, according to his website. Asher did not respond to requests for comment. Pursel said Asher’s role in Stop Offshore Wind was limited to the creation of the entity, describing it as strictly administrative.
She further said that while “several county staff members” are working with the nonprofit, the entity “is not controlled” by Worcester County.
“Stop Offshore Wind Inc. is a 501(c)4 organization formed by a coalition of concerned citizens, community-based organizations, business organizations and local governments to raise awareness about the potential negative impacts of the US Wind proposed project,” said Pursel, who also calls herself a spokeswoman for the Stop Offshore Wind Coalition.
As a 501(c)4, Stop Offshore Wind Inc. is not required to disclose its donors.
Pursel said it had raised $11,000 from private donors as of late December, with much of the money donated during a Dec. 4 fundraiser.
A flyer for the fundraiser, which charged $150 a head, said the money raised would pay for “a bold, multi-channel media blitz” opposing industrial wind farms in Ocean City.
Prior to the Sussex County vote, Stop Offshore Wind did not list any governmental funding ties. Following inquiries from Spotlight Delaware, the website now has an “about us” page that lists its affiliation with Ocean City and Worcester County.
On Dec. 17, days after StopOffshoreWind.com appeared, the Sussex County Council voted to reject the windfarm’s substation building permit application.
The 4-to-1 vote in opposition came after the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that the county approve the permit. Three of the voting council members are leaving office in early 2025. Of those, two voted against the permit.
It is not clear if the StopOffshoreWind.com website influenced the council’s vote. Members of the county council would not comment on this story due to a pending appeal against the decision.
Still, the vote followed mounting public opposition in Sussex County to offshore wind. On the day of the vote, dozens of residents appeared at the county council meeting, with many asking to speak in opposition to the project.
The council did not allow comments, stating the public record had closed following a July meeting when they discussed, then tabled, the permit application.
Following the vote, US Wind CEO Jeff Grybowski said his company’s plan to build the offshore wind farm is “unchanged.”
“We know that the law is on our side and are confident that today’s decision will not stand,” Grybowski said.
On Dec. 26, US Wind’s subsidiary Renewable Development LLC appealed Sussex County’s permit denial through a petition asking a Delaware Superior Court judge to review the matter.
In the petition, the company’s attorneys called the council’s decision “irregular, arbitrary, capricious,” and “not supported by substantial evidence.”
On the heels of Sussex County’s rejection, Worcester County announced its own move to hinder US Wind’s plans: it would use eminent domain to buy two West Ocean City properties targeted as US Wind’s operations and maintenance facilities.
“If there ever was a worthy use of eminent domain, this is it,” Worcester County Chief Administrative Officer Weston Young said in a press release.
Also in the press release, Worcester County linked to two websites that it said provided more information “about efforts to protect Maryland’s Coast from ocean industrialization.” Those sites are StopOffshoreWind.com and SaveOceanCity.org. The latter represents the Ocean City Development Corporation’s opposition to offshore wind farms.
With a pending appeal and a Trump administration that opposes offshore wind, uncertainty looms over the US Wind project – as well as other wind farms proposed for the Delmarva peninsula.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Danish wind farm developer Ørsted intends to build up to 72 wind turbines 16 miles off the coast of Rehoboth Beach.
In early June, the company submitted its plans to the federal government, and they currently are under review.
This month, then-Delaware Gov. John Carney and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control announced a 25-year agreement with US Wind. As part of the agreement, US Wind must give Delaware utilities $76 million worth of renewable energy credits throughout the life of the project to help the state meet its renewable energy goals.
Through the agreement, US Wind also commits to investing $200 million to upgrade Delaware’s electricity wires and other transmission infrastructure.
In a press statement touting the agreement, state officials claim that energy from the US Wind offshore site will produce enough power to lower electric rates in Delaware by $253 million over 20 years.
“We are ready to reap the environmental, health, workforce, energy cost and community benefits from this needed transition to renewable energy,” Carney said in the statement.
Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center released a survey finding that support for expanding renewable energy had fallen dramatically among conservatives since Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 election:
Meanwhile, local opponents have been increasingly successful in fighting clean energy, sometimes with help from the fossil fuel industry as well as pervasive misinformation spreading through social media and other channels.
None of this bodes well for clean energy development in conservative, rural areas.
But in Minnesota’s southwest corner, in counties that Trump carried by 30 to 40 percentage points in the 2024 election, energy projects are still moving forward with minimal controversy, and local governments are reaping the benefits.
The secret, as ENN correspondent Frank Jossi reported last week, is collaboration. Since the 1990s, a coalition of counties now known as the Rural Minnesota Energy Board have been working together — creating consistent policy and providing accurate information locally, and lobbying at the state level to ensure they share in the profits.
The group is even credited for helping to get Republican former Gov. Tim Pawlenty to approve Minnesota’s 2008 renewable energy standard.
“The rural energy board has been a critical, important body and one of the major reasons why renewable energy has been successful in southwestern Minnesota,” Adam Sokolski, director of regulatory and legislative affairs at EDF Renewables North America, told Jossi. “Their policies have encouraged good decision-making over the years and led to a stable and productive region for energy development.”
Jossi also spoke with Chad Metz, a commissioner in Traverse County, which has a moratorium on wind and solar projects. Metz feels his county is missing out and wants it to join the rural energy board.
“The benefits [of clean energy] outweigh the negatives,” he said, “and it will just become part of life.”
🤝 A … different kind of collaboration: A Maryland county government is revealed to be behind an anti-wind website that appeared last month shortly before a Delaware county held a key vote rejecting an offshore wind substation. (Spotlight Delaware)
📈 Work to do: U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell just 0.2% in 2024 as surging electricity demand spurred more natural gas generation, putting the country further off track from its climate goals. (New York Times)
💻 Land rush? President Biden issues an executive order allowing data centers to lease public land, on the condition their facilities are powered with new clean energy resources. (E&E News)
❤️ Another fan of the IRA: Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson quietly urged the EPA to award an environmental justice grant to a city in his district, just a week after President-elect Trump won the election and promised to undo the climate law behind the grant. (E&E News)
🚗 Wheels up: Analysts expect electric vehicle sales to jump 30% this year, even though the incoming Trump administration and its threat of tariffs and rolling back the EV tax credit and other incentives could slow the industry’s growth. (Associated Press)
⏱️ Photo(voltaic) finish: Solar customers and installers are rushing to complete projects before Trump’s inauguration, citing uncertainty about tariffs and federal incentives. (NPR)
FOSSIL FUELS: President Biden bans the sale of new federal drilling leases off much of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but experts say the order is unlikely to slow production as it leaves out the western Gulf, where production is at an all-time high. (E&E News)
ALSO:
HYDROGEN:
POLITICS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TRANSPORTATION: The first congestion pricing plan in the United States goes into effect in Manhattan after a judge declines New Jersey’s request to halt the program at the last minute. (New York Times)
EFFICIENCY: Republican-led states challenge new federal energy efficiency standards for residential construction, saying they would increase homebuilder costs and exceed Congress’ authority. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
BIOFUELS: Advocates urge Massachusetts policymakers not to lean too heavily on biofuels in their plans to decarbonize the state’s heating systems, saying there are too many questions about the possible impacts. (Energy News Network)
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