GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

  State legislatures are now a crucial battleground for the future of renewable energy, as Republican lawmakers seek massive restrictions and punitive measures on new solar and wind projects. Once a hyperlocal affair, the campaign to curtail renewable energy development now includes state-wide setbacks, regulations, and taxes curtailing wind and solar power. As  we previously reported ,  Oklahoma  is one of those states – and may as soon as this year enact mandatory setback  requirements on wind power facilities , despite getting nearly half its electricity from wind farms. According to a  Heatmap Pro  analysis, these rules would affect 65 of Oklahoma’s 77 counties. Oklahoma is far from alone in potentially restricting land use.   In  Arizona , the State House last month passed legislation that according to one analysis would lock wind developers off more than 90% of all land in the state. Roughly half of the remaining available acreage would...

This document can be used as a template to allow any community to use it to petition the federal government -- "Please accept the attached Petition seeking to block the ___________in Western New York"- insert project name - wind or solar or battery energy storage system in your community.  ---------- Forwarded message --------- From:  Brenda Hanson  < thinkingaboutfreedom10@gmail.com > Date: Wed, Mar 5, 2025 at 7:33 PM Subject: Alle-Catt Wind Project - contacting Federal Agencies - sharing a document with them requesting they suspend, review, revoke federal authorizations To: Brenda Hanson < thinkingaboutfreedom10@gmail.com > Earlier today, I received an email from Gary Abraham - Attorney for the Coalition of Concerned Citizens.  Gary and the Coalition have stood for years in opposition to the Alle-Catt Wind Project.   From the beginning, when Alle-Catt's parent corporation - Invenergy - proposed the project, Gary and the group have wo...

  The Albany judge ruled state law governing property tax assessments for renewable energy projects violates New York’s constitution. By   Marie J. French | 03/05/2025 02:46 PM EST ALBANY, New York — A court ruling invalidating the state’s property tax assessment calculation for renewable energy could upend wind and solar development in New York. According to a  decision issued Monday  by Judge Joshua Farrell in Albany Supreme Court, state lawmakers failed to provide enough direction to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s tax agency on how to value wind and solar for tax assessment purposes under the 2023 state budget. Local governments first challenged the state methodology for assessing the value of wind and solar projects in 2022. In the latest case decided earlier this week, they argued they were losing out on tax revenue because the Department of Taxation and Finance didn’t include income from tax credits and state renewable contracts in their model. “ This is not a minor incon...

  2 March 2025   Donald Trump’s suspension of offshore wind development permits delivered the fatal blow to an industry struggling with high costs, jeopardising the US’s power supplies and decarbonisation plans, executives warn.   More than 90 per cent of the country’s planned offshore wind projects, totalling more than 60 gigawatts, are at “serious risk”, said consultancy Rystad Energy. While Britain, for instance, has offshore wind capacity of 14GW, the US has less than 0.2GW. And unlike other renewable energy sources, the American sector relies on the federal government for permit approvals.   “[Trump] accelerated the death of the industry,” said Artem Abramov, head of clean tech at Rystad.   On his first day in office, the president paused leases and permits for offshore wind and ordered reviews of approved projects.  His re-election has sent a chill across the industry , prompting leading developers to reduce or halt their US ventures. Last week, Viney...

  As discussed in a couple of recent posts   here   and   here ,   the so-called Endangerment Finding (EF) was an EPA regulatory action early in the Obama Administration (December 2009) that now provides the foundation for all government efforts to restrict and suppress the use of hydrocarbons in our economy . In one of his first day Executive Orders ( “Unleashing American Energy” ), President Trump directed the incoming EPA Administrator to submit, within 30 days, “ recommendations to the Director of OMB on the legality and continuing applicability of the Administrator’s findings.”   Lee Zeldin was then confirmed and sworn in as EPA Administrator on January 29; but the 30th day after the EO, February 19, passed without any public news about a recommendation on the EF. Today there is news . Apparently The Washington Post was the first outlet to break the story; but that piece is behind their paywall, so I won’t link to it. Fortunately, multiple outlets not ...

  Dive Brief: The Trump administration’s energy policy, and the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act as Congress proceeds with budget negotiations, were frequent topics during the Wednesday sessions of the American Council on Renewable Energy’s annual policy forum. During his opening keynote speech, ACORE CEO and President Ray Long affirmed the group’s desire to work with President Trump on issues of energy affordability, security and reliability, and did not overtly disagree with the president — a frequent critic of the clean energy industry and the IRA. Panelists in later sessions discussed the likely fate of the IRA as Congress weighs potential cuts to the legislation. On Tuesday, the House passed a budget bill that included $4.5 trillion in tax cuts,  which would require Congress to find “up to $2 trillion in offsets ,”   said moderator Robin Millican, head of strategic initiatives and integration at Breakthrough Energy. Dive Insight: Long said he’s often asked what Tr...

  Market distortion began after the federal government began pushing a “green energy” initiative by creating massive taxpayer subsidies through a Production Tax Credit to “qualified energy resources.” Congress created PTCs by amending Title 26 Subsection 45 of the U.S. tax code, which  outlines the terms   for “qualified energy resources” and the amount of federal tax credits they can receive. Qualified energy resources include wind, closed-loop biomass, open-loop biomass, geothermal energy, solar energy, small irrigation power, municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower production, and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy. It allows them to claim a tax credit for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity they generate of up to 30% for up to 10 years. The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act created additional subsidies. Wind companies, especially in Texas, were major benefactors. While often referred to as “renewable energy,” wind and solar provide intermittent energy t...

  Canada’s chattering classes claim that  climate change  is one of the country’s pre-eminent threats. This is extraordinary. Canada is experiencing a  productivity slowdown ,  the worst decline  in living standards in 40 years, and growth rates that  lag most developed economies . Geopolitical threats loom, the healthcare system is under stress and education is faltering. Yet the federal government has spent or committed  more than $160 billion  on climate initiatives since 2015, and is funnelling  $5.3 billion  to help  poor countries respond to climate change . Like most nations, Canada faces tough decisions in coming decades. Resources spent on climate will not be not available for health, education, security or boosting prosperity. Global warming  is a real problem. Science has shown quite clearly that  more CO₂ , mostly from fossil fuel use, increases global temperatures. Climate economics has shown ho...

  The  European Union  is about to walk back significant chunks of planned ESG regulations,   amid a barrage of complaints that such rules are becoming a dead weight   hampering EU efforts to compete with the US and Asia. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has proposed that regulations covering everything from ESG reporting requirements to supply-chain management be watered down to protect business interests in the bloc, according to documents seen by Bloomberg. The final proposal is set to be made public on Wednesday. The move follows  intense pressure both from within and outside Europe to rein in environmental, social and governance legislation . The development has major implications for the future of ESG globally, with Europe accounting for well over 80% of the world’s ESG fund assets. Germany and France, the EU’s two largest economies, have been lobbying hard for smaller and mid-sized companies to be excluded from the full scop...