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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)
OFFSHORE WIND: Delaware officials and the developer of an offshore wind project sign agreements to ensure the developer will provide the state with renewable energy credits and other community benefits worth more than $128 million. (Renews)
ALSO:
EFFICIENCY:
STORAGE: A planned 325-MW battery storage project in Connecticut faces obstacles from state regulators, as well as area residents worried about possible fires. (Energy News Network)
TRANSPORTATION: New York’s newly implemented, first-in-the-nation congestion pricing plan faces challenges from both the incoming Trump administration and local opponents. (E&E News, subscription)
CLIMATE:
SOLAR: A solar farm operated by a group of municipal utilities in Massachusetts receives $2.3 million from a clean energy tax provision in the Inflation Reduction Act, one of the first public power agencies in the country to benefit from the new rule. (MassLive, subscription)
RELIABILITY: Electric utilities serving the Northeast ask federal regulators to enact gas pipeline reliability requirements to ensure power plants have enough fuel to keep the lights on. (Utility Dive)
UTILITIES: A Connecticut electric utility says regulatory decisions are the reason the state has some of the highest power prices in the country. (CT Insider)
COMMENTARY: A Massachusetts task force’s plan to use revenue from the state’s millionaire tax to stabilize the transportation system is too timid an approach for such a long-term challenge, says a transportation journalist. (CommonWealth Beacon)
MANUFACTURING: U.S. clean energy manufacturing rapidly expanded over the past four years as factories emerged to produce solar panels, batteries and electric cars, though the growth trajectory is less certain going forward under President-elect Trump. (Canary Media)
BUILDINGS: Major U.S. cities are leading the way on decarbonizing large buildings by instituting performance standards that require owners to submit energy usage data and gradually improve their performance. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Pentagon announces plans to blacklist Chinese company CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker and a key partner of Tesla and Ford. (Washington Post)
GRID:
NUCLEAR: Nuclear power has suffered in the face of high-profile disasters but has a chance to make a comeback as leaders recognize its ability to generate clean, reliable energy, an environmental journalist says. (Grist)
SOLAR:
OFFSHORE WIND: The fishing industry has been a consistent opponent of offshore wind, but developers in Massachusetts have paid $8 million to local fishermen to do safety and security work for the Vineyard Wind project. (New Bedford Light)
COMMENTARY: Big tech companies should be required to shoulder the costs of new generation to power their data centers so that costs aren’t shifted on to utility ratepayers, an economist and author writes. (Utility Dive)
FINANCE: The U.S. Treasury Department releases rules governing “technology-neutral” tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal and other clean energy projects, drawing praise from renewables advocates and criticism from the fuel cell and hydrogen industry. (New York Times, Axios)
ALSO: Six major U.S.-headquartered banks have so far quit an international net-zero alliance, with some observers blaming the exodus on incoming federal Republican leadership. (The Guardian)
COAL: An analysis finds owners and operators of coal plants in 30 states are considering or have decided to delay the facilities’ planned retirements to keep up with escalating power demand, driven largely by data centers. (Floodlight)
WIND:
ELECTRIFICATION:
OIL & GAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
POLITICS: A U.S. Senate committee is expected to next week consider Trump’s interior secretary nominee Doug Burgum, who championed carbon capture and storage while governor of North Dakota. (Washington Post)
RENEWABLES: Texas is the top state for development of renewable energy generation and battery capacity as of the end of 2024, ranking first for wind and solar and second behind California for battery capacity. (Reuters)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR: A renewables company announces the closing of financing for a 109 MW solar farm under construction in Georgia. (Renewables Now)
OIL & GAS:
GRID:
EMISSIONS: Mitsubishi drops its plans to build a $1.3 billion petrochemical plant that would have ranked among the top 50 greenhouse gas polluters in Louisiana, citing a drop in demand for the products it would have made. (Louisiana Illuminator)
UTILITIES: Houston’s city council denies a rate increase for CenterPoint Energy after the utility was criticized for its efforts to maintain and restore power during Hurricane Beryl, although the utility is likely to appeal the decision to state regulators. (Houston Chronicle)
POLITICS: Hundreds of Oklahoma activists rally for Gov. Kevin Stitt to issue an executive order to block new wind and solar facilities despite renewables’ relative success in the state, which ranks third in the nation for wind energy. (Heatmap)
SOLAR: Texas and California led the way for the record-breaking addition of 34 GW of new solar and 13 GW in battery storage across the U.S. last year, as 96% of all new power plants built in 2024 were carbon-free. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS: Phillips 66 announces it will spend $2.2 billion to buy a Texas network of gas pipelines and processing facilities as the company aims to grow its sales of natural gas liquids. (Houston Chronicle)
STORAGE: A battery materials company cuts staffing despite Tennessee expansion plans that could draw on more than $50 million in incentives. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Analysts expect a 30% jump in electric vehicle sales 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)
GRID:
COAL: Coal mining safety advocates worry that President-elect Trump and Republican majorities in Congress could weaken a new rule to protect miners from toxic silica dust that contributes to a form of black lung disease. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
EMISSIONS: Florida residents protest a county’s plan to build a trash incinerator in or near some diverse communities that advocates say have been disproportionately affected by toxic plants and their emissions. (KFF Health News)
CLIMATE: Louisiana officials vote to end an extra 1.36% assessment and other charges at the state-run insurer of last resort, helping lower fees as insurance rates skyrocket in the state. (Louisiana Illuminator)
COMMENTARY:
Welcome back to Energy News Weekly! Today, we’ve got an update on a long-awaited federal move that will drive the clean hydrogen industry, and a dive into what it’ll mean under the next president.
After more than a year of anticipation, the U.S. Treasury Department last week released rules for claiming federal clean hydrogen tax credits.
Hydrogen’s role in the clean energy transition is still unclear. The fuel does not release greenhouse gas emissions when burned, so it could help decarbonize heavy manufacturing and large vehicles. But today, it’s largely produced using natural gas, which means it still has a big climate impact. It’s also expensive and hard to come by.
That’s something the Inflation Reduction Act aimed to change. The huge 2022 climate law included the 45V tax credit to push developers to start producing clean hydrogen, but didn’t specify how the fuel had to be made.
As environmental advocates had hoped, the Treasury’s rule will prioritize tax credits for hydrogen made with solar and wind power. But it’ll also grant smaller benefits to hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, so long as it incorporates carbon capture — a method some advocates say could outweigh hydrogen’s climate benefits.
Even with the priority for hydrogen produced with renewables, oil industry leaders and Republican lawmakers still back the hydrogen tax credits, the Washington Post reports. So with that support in place, industry observers expect President-elect Trump to keep the incentives, albeit with a few changes to benefit fossil fuels even more.
🕚 Last-minute drilling ban: President Biden permanently bans the sale of new federal drilling leases off much of the U.S. coasts in a move that will be hard to repeal, but experts say the order is unlikely to slow oil and gas production. (E&E News, Associated Press)
🏭 A manufacturing transformation: U.S. clean energy manufacturing rapidly expanded over the past four years as factories emerged to produce solar panels, batteries and electric cars, though the growth trajectory is less certain going forward under President-elect Trump. (Canary Media)
🏙️ Urban decarbonization: Major U.S. cities are leading the way on decarbonizing large buildings by instituting standards that require owners to submit energy usage data and gradually improve their performance. (Canary Media)
🛢️ Oil’s playbook: An investigation reveals oil and gas companies’ “playbook” for shirking liability for environmental damage, avoiding cleaning up their wells and offloading reclamation costs to taxpayers. (ProPublica)
🚘 EVs roll through winter: The inclusion of heat pumps in newer electric vehicle models is among the improvements helping to boost battery performance during cold weather, as experts say winter charging concerns have been overblown. (Inside Climate News)
⚡️ Gridlocked: A lack of transmission lines on the U.S. power grid and stalled interconnection processes remain the biggest barriers to continued clean energy growth, experts say. (Canary Media)
💰 Cost/benefit: The Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credits will cost around $656 billion but deliver as much as $2.7 trillion in net benefits over the next decade, a report commissioned by a clean power group finds. (Utility Dive)
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