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Company proposes new wind turbines in Lewis County, local officials have no say

By Seth Appleby Published: Jul. 16, 2026 at 5:42   TOWN OF LEWIS, New York (WWNY) - In Lewis County, windmills dot the skyline. “We’ve been very open. We have a large number of windmills in Lewis County,” said County Manager Tim Hunt. A company wants to add another 50 wind turbines in the southern part of the county, but local officials say they have little control over the project and don’t expect a significant tax benefit. WPD Group, an energy company based in Germany with offices in California and South Carolina, is proposing a new wind project in the towns of Leyden, West Turin, and Lewis, as well as across the border in Oneida County. 7 News reached out to WPD for more details and has not heard back, but according to documentation, 50 turbines could be added. ‘No local control over this project’ Hunt said the local towns and the county have no say in the project - their power stripped away by the state. “They’ve moved the citing to ORES, the Office of Renewable Energy so ther...
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Hochul’s Silly War on Data Centers

  By The Editors   July 16, 2026   T he governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, has issued an executive order that places a one-year moratorium on the construction of data centers that use more than 50 megawatts of power to operate. Signing the instrument — which is the first of its kind in the United States — Hochul said that it was her “responsibility to take action and lead.” Indeed, it is. But this, alas, is not leadership. Two elements of Governor Hochul’s approach are defensible. She has requested legislation that would repeal New York’s generous sales and use tax exemption for internet data centers, a subsidy from the early 2000s that is unfair to taxpayers and that has no place in a competitive free market. And she has demanded that the owners of new facilities contribute to a state fund that will be used to improve the electrical grid — an ask that, depending on the details, may be necessary to offset the increase in prices that can result from a sudden spike in dem...
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New York Court Refuses To Block State's Plan For A "Renewables" Program

July 15, 2026   Francis Menton   For a couple of years now, I have been collaborating with a small group of friends here in New York to see if we can introduce some rationality into the State’s completely insane energy plans. The other three members of our little cabal (Roger Caiazza, Richard Ellenbogen and Constantine Kontogiannis) are a scientist (Caiazza) and two engineers who are knowledgeable about how the electrical grid works. Our efforts have included things like submitting comments on various regulatory proposals, intervening in Public Service Commission proceedings, and even bringing court proceedings to try to block crazy and impossible schemes from taking effect. So far we have scored exactly zero public successes, although we do occasionally receive communications (always confidential and never in writing) from various bureaucrats who say things like “I know you’re right, but I can’t speak up or I will lose my job.” On Monday (July 13) we achieved our latest defea...
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Trump cuts to clean energy linked to $83 billion in delayed or canceled projects

July 14 (Reuters) - Trump administration policies that scaled back federal support for clean energy have led to the cancellation ​or delay of $83 billion in investment across hundreds of projects, according to a report ‌released on Tuesday by labor and environmental coalition BlueGreen Alliance.   The report was unveiled as labor leaders met with Senate Democrats on Tuesday to discuss the clean energy workforce.   The analysis found that 223 manufacturing and clean energy projects representing $82.9 ​billion in investment and 111,765 jobs have stalled or been cancelled during President Donald Trump's ​second presidency.   "Every time another infrastructure project is delayed, canceled, or made the subject ⁠ of political fights, no matter the party, it's working people who pay the price," Brent Booker, ​general president of the Laborers' International Union of North America, told senators during the meeting. "These decisions are ​not just about energy policy; ...
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Battery Storage For Grid Backup: Better Keep Working On It

July 08, 2026   Francis Menton   Advocates of generating electricity mostly with intermittent wind and sun, when challenged on how they would deal with a calm night, are always ready with the obvious answer: energy storage. Just get some batteries, store up excess power from the windy mid-days, discharge as needed, and everything will work out. Unfortunately, the advocates never acknowledge that the problem of making an electrical grid work 24/7/365 with mostly wind and solar generation is much more difficult than just storing power from the day to discharge that night . Both wind and sun are subject to regular “droughts,” just like rain. There can be many consecutive days, or even weeks, of combined low wind and sun; let alone the entire winter has a lack of sun, and both summer and winter have less wind than spring and fall. Calculating how much energy storage will suffice to get through even a year of average wind/sun variability is a straightforward exercise, yielding an a...
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Report: Trump administration stopping four Minnesota wind power developments --- Minnesota Reformer

  The Trump administration’s de facto freeze on wind energy puts 1,200 construction jobs, 4,400 “indirect and induced” jobs and more than $168 million in economic impact at risk for Minnesota, according to a new report from a St. Paul-based progressive think tank. The U.S. Department of Defense has stopped completing the mandated — and once-routine — national security review process for proposed wind farms. As a result, Minnesota could lose four wind energy projects that could generate enough power for several hundred thousand homes, North Star Policy Action says.  The apparent Pentagon work stoppage is stalling more than 250 wind projects nationwide. If the Minnesota projects don’t move forward, the state stands to lose around $1.6 billion in direct investment. Aaron Rosenthal, research director for North Star Policy Action, said the freeze usurps local control of energy permitting and threatens an industry that provides significant benefits to rural Minnesota communities. T...
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News10NBC Investigates: Feds demand answers from Gov. Hochul over solar development on “prime” farmland

  OAKFIELD, N.Y. — Country music star John Rich is leading a federal challenge against New York’s approval process for large-scale solar projects, claiming the state is bypassing U.S. Department of Agriculture standards to fast-track development on prime farmland. Rich is working with the Trump administration in what’s shaping up as a showdown with Gov. Kathy Hochul over solar expansion in upstate New York. Some of the largest solar projects in the state are in Genesee County, where the Cider Solar Project spans 4,600 acres leased from more than 30 landowners in Oakfield and Elba. Federal officials are questioning whether the state violated USDA standards by allowing projects on prime farmland. A letter to Hochul demanding answers was signed by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and Rich, who serves as special envoy for American landowners. “Upstate New York is virtually all prime farmland. It’s some of the best farmland in the United States,” Rich...
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