Posted on 04/19/2025 9:19:00 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
On Wednesday afternoon, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to halt construction on Equinor’s Empire Wind project off the New York coast. It’s a new frontier for President Donald Trump’s war on offshore wind, marking the first time his administration has attempted to shut down a fully permitted, in-construction project.
In a post on X, Burgum said the order will allow for “further review of information that suggests the Biden administration rushed through its approval without sufficient analysis.” Equinor had been planning the Empire Wind project for years, receiving its first site assessment approval from BOEM in 2018, during Trump’s first term. The Biden administration issued final approval for the project in November 2023.
When construction began just a few weeks ago, Equinor didn’t create a spectacle. The company didn’t issue a press release, hold a ribbon cutting, or even respond to multiple requests for comment from Canary Media’s Clare Fieseler. Hillary Bright, executive director of offshore wind advocacy group Turn Forward, offered an explanation to Canary: “It’s about not wanting to stick their heads up and drawing more attention, potentially, from the administration.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul immediately decried the Interior Department’s move as “federal overreach,” saying in a statement that she “will fight this every step of the way to protect union jobs, affordable energy and New York’s economic future.”
Like it is for other Northeast states, offshore wind is critical to New York’s renewable energy goals. The state aims to get 70% of its power from renewable sources by 2030.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Why is the memory of a certain Canadian oil pipeline suddenly come to mind?
A different ox being gored?
Let wind farms chocked on their own. No tax subsidies. No government mandates. Nothing. No one would build them if they had to earn money without government forcing them.
I’m okay with this if NY is paying for it. No federal dollars so there is no overreach.
The ARE locations and circumstances where wind turbines are reasonable and economical.
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Care to name one?
New York’s “70% renewable by 2030” is a joke because they don’t have another Niagara Falls to work with.
Right.... so when the wind blows, that just means more water is spilled around the hydro power turbines and generator units. Doesn’t sound too economical to me...
Name one and show some evidence it creates more $ than it uses.
“The ARE locations and circumstances where wind turbines are reasonable and economical.”
West Texas and Texas panhandle. There was two days this week that the whole 80,000 megawatt grid was 60% to 70% wind power in the night time and 40% solar and 35% wind during the day. ERCOT releases down to the minute data to those who have access to it via a wholesale TIN account. Wholesale cost was under $20 per megawatt hour in every one of those cases that’s 2 cents per kWh equivalent. Joe six pack is never going to see those ratas but that is not the technologies fault that is the market set up by a fully Republican single party rule in Texas for 20+ years. The producers sell it to ERCOT the state monopoly and ERCOT sells it to retail energy providers who then sell it to you joe six pack reaping massive profits in the process. That doesn’t include ONCOR the distribution providers cut who get a legislation mandated profit margin for transporting and distribution of said electrons this is 3.6 cents per kWh in Texas plus a monthly base fee.
No gas turbine anywhere can touch $20 a megawatt not even with zero cost natural gas. When the gas turbines fire up the cost jumps immediately to $50 or more. Texas also has 11,085 megawatts worth of energy storage right now this second on the grid, real-time price this second is $14.92 per megawatt hour, wind and solar are 18,500 megawatts and 12,300 megawatts and 54% of the total grid this second. power storage is pulling 800 megawatts from the grid earlier they dumped 4,000 megawatts to the grid right as the sun was coming up as demand increased once solar was taking the load those banks started pulling $10 per megawatt hour power back from the grid. Read those numbers again gas cannot pit electrons on the grid from less than $30 even with free gas to burn they need $50 to turn a profit , solar and wind both push electrons for under 20 on a daily basis in Texas. So yeah it is massively profitable in Texas we have crap tons of wind in West Texas and even more sun. Texas is also the largest power storage market and installed capacity in the whole planet as single entity 11,000+ megawatts with 4-8 hours discharge times.
As I keep saying here, you cannot power modern civilization with wind, solar and unicorn farts. It cannot be done, and that comment outlines why.
That politicians are trying to do so speaks to the fact that they are impractical and/or corrupt.
Take away the subsidies, and show their economics.
Nationally, we are forced to pay for low capacity factor, critical need un-availability, and un-reliable for emergencies, providing the taxpayers elsewhere with nothing.
Yeah; what a system.
Again,there are situations where wind and solar make $en$e: isolated island or other remote places where the cost of conventional electric is prohibitive.Also PRIVATELY owned wind turbines and solar panels for off grid installation.
If the money spent to destroy the stable mostly sectarian,admittedly bad,regimes in Iraq and Syria had been used to modernize our power plants ,distribution systems, and even install some solar roofs every one would be better off.Note the replacement regimes seem even worse and at enormous cost in lives.
Solar roofs are probably best used to reduce peak air conditioning loads .
EXPENSIVE, and that's without forcing TAXPAYERS to pay for thesubsidies".
For those that wanna do their own thing, let them pay FULL PRICES, not getting other taxpayers to foot the bills.
i agree that government subsidies distort the market for everything.
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