GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

There's a lot riding on the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry: the ability to tap into a huge source of clean energy and reduce carbon emissions, the opportunity to create thousands of jobs, the unique chance to jumpstart a new domestic manufacturing industry. For these reasons, President Biden has made the success of the industry a pillar of his climate agenda. His administration has set an  ambitious target  of getting 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind power flowing into the grid by 2030, which is enough electricity to power 10 million homes.     Why offshore wind is facing headwinds   That goal is a long way off, and given the tumultuous year the industry just had, the future is anything but certain. 2023 has been marked by  "headwinds" and "tailwinds,"  for the young industry. While some of the first large-scale projects in the Northeast started offshore construction and began sending power to the electric grid, the industry as a whole has been hit hard by

  ALBANY — Offshore wind turbine component manufacturing at the Port of Albany’s Bethlehem site and at the Port of Coeymans is expected to generate $1 billion in wages and 3,200 new manufacturing jobs, a new study found.   The manufacturing sites — which are contingent on several new offshore wind farms being built off the coast of Long Island — would also support 10,000 construction jobs, according to the study, done by Karp Strategies, a New York City urban planning and consulting firm.   The study was commissioned by the Center for Economic Growth, the Advance Albany County Alliance, the Port of Albany and Carver Cos., which owns the Port of Coeymans.   New York state has been encouraging offshore wind developers from across the world to bid on offshore wind farms that would be located off Long Island and provide carbon emissions-free electricity to the state to help it meet the requirements of its 2019 climate change law, one of the most stringent in the nation. The law requires Ne

  As the dust settles on the COP28 climate summit that concluded last week in Dubai, a sobering reality is looming. After the legalistic niceties of environmental diplomacy, the dirtier business of political maneuvering is going to consume the world’s democracies over the next 12 months. In 2024, climate will be on the ballot in a way we’ve rarely seen.   Voters in countries representing more than 40% of the world’s population — and roughly the same share of emissions — will go to the polls between now and the end of next year. In places, that offers the prospect to break gridlocks on climate and energy policies. In others, it may offer an opportunity for a climate-denying backlash. Far too few places show a decent chance of accelerating the transition to clean energy in the way advocated by the COP28 agreement. Here’s a review of some of the key events.   Coal and the Polls Two of the world’s three biggest democracies face elections in the first half of 2024, but neither offers a stro

  N.Y.'s carbon-free economy: A closer look at the emissions cap Cap will require businesses to purchase carbon credits, but there are unanswered questions   By  Rick Karlin   Dec 25, 2023   ALBANY — Draft regulations for how New York will  enact a sweeping  emissions cap  on business and industry , known as Cap and Invest, were originally supposed to be released by the end of the year.   That  turned out to be more complicated and difficult than expected , so the state Department of Environmental Conservation last week issued a “Pre-Proposal,” which outlined their progress on the cap. And they are still seeking input.   Envisioned as a way to help enforce and pay for the state’s shift to a carbon-free economy, the plan requires some of the state’s largest emitters of carbon or greenhouse gases to purchase emission allowances that would be auctioned off on a quarterly basis.   The overall cap on emissions would be lowered each year with the goal of having a  70 percent carbon-free

  Climate Change proponents and real Science are often at odds JOHN DROZ JR. DEC 26   READ IN APP   Periodically I’ll republish something I wrote prior to my Substack starting, that is currently relevant, In this case, a few years ago I was asked to write a commentary about the appropriateness of industrial wind energy for the  Adirondack Park  in upstate NY (the largest protected geographic area in continental US).  Here  it is… That quickly resulted in a well-known local college professor’s (a climate alarmist)  attack … My public response to him is below. (FYI, I never heard back from him again.)… I was rather surprised to see the  Adirondack Almanac   piece  by  Professor Curt Stager , for several reasons. For example:  a)  I have had multiple polite exchanges with Curt in the past, and he never said any of these things directly to me,  b)  his commentary included multiple misdirections,  and   c)  that he would so openly disavow real Science. I find item “c” the most surprising an