Wind Turbines in Mass

I hope the BSEE approves resumption of power generation in the next month.
 
Well let's hope the new administration only focuses their efforts on new projects, not halting projects under construction...this might be it for awhile. There's a lot of nuance, but permitting is effectively under direct executive control, and despite clear legal precedent for permitted projects to proceed, I have no doubt that projects that haven't yet broken ground (water?) will be the focus of suits and executive orders. Not to mention avenues through the new DOJ/favorable courts. My guess is we're at peak wind for at least a decade.

www.nytimes.com

Trump Promises to End New Wind Farms

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing and cheapest forms of electricity in the United States. The president-elect calls it “garbage.”
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

If the government has already issued leases for wind farms, then legally, companies must be issued permits if they choose to move forward with projects.

(Color me skeptical)
 
themissinglink said:
commonwealthbeacon.org

Days before Trump takes office, Brayton Point loses $300 million offshore wind cable plant development project

The Italian company's decision to abandon the $300 million project is "a major blow" to Somerset and raises questions about Massachusetts’ efforts to make offshore wind the centerpiece of a climate change policy.
commonwealthbeacon.org commonwealthbeacon.org
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The actual gist of that story is that it took THREE YEARS to get the necessary permits and fight off the pointless legal battles. The factory could be spitting out cable right now, but instead Massachusetts gets nothing.
 
It is so, so incredibly frustrating (albeit generally unsurprising) to see so many capitulate to the angry orange before he even demands it of them. We're really regressing to an aristocratic system of administration; you kiss the king's ring or leave the court if you anticipate he's not going to like you. Nothing big is going to change for the better for a while.
 
aquaticko said:
It is so, so incredibly frustrating (albeit generally unsurprising) to see so many capitulate to the angry orange before he even demands it of them. We're really regressing to an aristocratic system of administration; you kiss the king's ring or leave the court if you anticipate he's not going to like you. Nothing big is going to change for the better for a while.
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If someone in the federal government needs to sign a single piece of paper to allow for an offshore wind project to happen, it's not going to happen until 2029 at the absolute earliest. If you're one of these offshore wind companies, is it really a good bet to invest in one of these projects, even if you already have the permits in hand? If you need a single additional clearance, permit, waiver, anything, for any reason, it's just not going to happen.
 
To be fair, its just a cable plant. a massively expensive and politically sensitive one to be sure, but still a cable plant - Prysmian has other facilities that can provide the same stuff- it'd just need shipping up here.

That said, offshore wind is admittedly a massively expensive form of clean energy - it's probably double the cost per watt compared to utility scale solar, and unlike those you can't really phase it - it's all upfront capital investment or nothing, meaning current interest rates and funding availability are doing a ton to stall development. We in the dense east coast states just don't have great solar opportunities, being land constrained, so we heavily lean on offshore for clean energy goals.
wind3.jpg
 
Don’t forget generators lobbying to kill grid infrastructure to import of power from elsewhere.
 
BSEE approved Vineyard Wind to resume assembly and generation with blades from Cherbourg. All the Gaspè blades will need to be swapped and returned to Canada.

Edit: the Updated COP document is available, which details all the remediation work.
 
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Jeremi said:
If someone in the federal government needs to sign a single piece of paper to allow for an offshore wind project to happen, it's not going to happen until 2029 at the absolute earliest. If you're one of these offshore wind companies, is it really a good bet to invest in one of these projects, even if you already have the permits in hand? If you need a single additional clearance, permit, waiver, anything, for any reason, it's just not going to happen.
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Sure, but if you give up what you've done already, you're going to have to start at zero again, anyway. Why not do the annoying-and-somewhat-disreputable thing of bowing down and maybe making it work, instead of shooting yourself in both feet preemptively?

Of course, in a civilized country, neither course of action is necessary, and these things can be determined and done on merit, but this is the U.S. in the 2020's, so we have to make the best of a bad and stupid situation, instead.
 
I don’t think bowing down or paying indulgences gets these over the line. Any form of non-carbon energy is now part of the culture war and will be targeted with cancellations where possible or delays/lawsuits where things are underway. For example there’s reporting that a day 1 executive order will be an environmental emergency declaration targeted specifically at wind projects. The claims are the same ones made by vineyard and Nantucket residents as well as concerns about grid vulnerabilities.

I really do worry vineyard wind gets stopped halfway and becomes an ancient artifact where in 50 years people say “those must’ve been terrible ideas if they got abandoned midway through!”
 
It’s not even about bowing down, it’s about dollars and cents. Investments occur in friendly, safe environments, not openly hostile ones.
 
Executive order just dropped. Indeed all new leases are halted and they are explicitly looking at amending or terminating existing leases (italics).

Nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas. With respect to such existing leases, the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Attorney General as needed, shall conduct a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.
www.whitehouse.gov

Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government's Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects – The White House

January 20, 2025 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY THE
www.whitehouse.gov
 
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