Free Republic

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s green-energy lunacy keeps socking New Yorkers, with the latest blow coming from the Empire Wind One offshore turbine project. Team Trump has blocked it for now, and that’s great news (despite Eric Adams’ pleading that it should go forward): If it went into operation, New Yorkers would be forced to pay a brain-busting 2.5 times the market rate for energy, an independent analysis found. The project won a sweetheart contract to provide energy at $155 per megawatt hour, as opposed to the wholesale-market rate of around $50, an effective subsidy on the order of $9 billion over...

New Yorkers would be forced to pay 2.5 times the market rate for electricity generated by the Empire Wind One offshore wind farm if the deal goes through, according to an independent financial analysis. The Trump Administration paused construction of the controversial project — 54 turbines in the Atlantic Ocean some 14 miles south of Long Island — last week, saying it needs further review. The project has seen strong backing from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Trump’s move was welcomed by those who claim the project is going to overcharge taxpayers. “New Yorkers are entitled to clean,...

Policymakers on both sides of the political aisle increasingly advocate for affordable, reliable, and clean energy. This is for good reason – modern society requires energy that is affordable and available on demand. Environmental concerns are also very important. Together, affordability, reliability, and cleanliness form the three pillars of ideal energy policy. Two new analyses evaluate competing electrical power sources and produce an affordable, reliable, and clean scorecard. The two analyses – one published by Northwood University and the Mackinac Center, and the other published by my public policy organization, The Heartland Institute – independently reach near-identical findings. Both analyses...

In June 2019, when New York passed its Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), it all seemed so easy. Back then, everyone knew that “renewables” were cheaper than fossil fuels for making electricity; it was only the nefarious machinations of evil oil and gas companies that stood in the way of an effortless energy transition. New York would assume the mantle of climate leadership to show everyone the way. And even as recently as December 2022, New York’s path to energy utopia still seemed clear. That’s when the state issued what it called the Final Scoping Plan under the...

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...

Large-scale solar farms, wind turbines, and associated infrastructure are touted as solutions to the climate crisis, but their development comes at the cost of native forests and critical habitats.” “Until conservation charities disentangle themselves from government funding and corporate influence, they risk becoming complicit in the very destruction they were created to prevent.” ... One of the great ironies of our age is the double standard of Big Environmentalism toward wind and solar, which commit numerous eco-sins that would not be tolerated otherwise. Dilute, intermittent, and thus inefficient? Yes. Energy sprawl requiring service roads and transmission lines in the wild?...

President Trump issued a 90-day moratorium on federal renewable energy projects, including Lava RidgeIdaho legislators have unanimously voted to oppose the proposed Lava Ridge Wind Project in the Magic Valley, sending a clear message to Congress and President Trump. The Idaho House of Representatives approved a House Joint Memorial, which serves as a formal letter of opposition to the Lava Ridge Wind Project, proposed on Bureau of Land Management land in Jerome, Lincoln, and Minidoka counties. This decision comes amid concerns about the project's potential impact on local resources, such as the aquifer. "This is a House Joint Memorial, which...

There is a private property rights battle brewing in rural parts of southeastern Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma and portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska and five Tribal Nations. The U.S. Department of Energy has plans to establish the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors or NIETCs, in these areas and the corridors span five to 15 miles in width. If approved, in New Mexico about 2 million acres of mostly private property would be transferred to the control of the federal government potentially via eminent domain. In Colorado, farmers, ranchers and rural residents stand to lose control of 325,000 acres in...

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plans for the Empire State to go green are going south as local communities refuse to build massive battery plants that would store wind and solar energy. One upstate town where a top state official leading the state’s anti-fossil fuel push just voted to ban construction of the plants — and one New York City politician has already called to pause any new sites for the facilities. “We called for — and still support — a moratorium on these [Battery Energy Storage System] facilities almost two years ago,” said Vito Fossella, borough president of Staten Island, where...

Shell announced its withdrawal from the Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm project in the US, resulting in a write-off of nearly $1 billion. The decision was disclosed in the company's quarterly earnings report on Thursday, marking another setback for the American offshore wind industry. Shell's decision to exit the project comes as the industry faces challenges from President Donald Trump's executive orders aimed at halting its development. This is a significant shift from the support the industry enjoyed under Joe Biden, despite the recent increase in costs. Shell's Chief Financial Officer, Sinead Gorman, explained the decision during a call with...

President Trump sits for first interview

The mistakes of the U.K. and Germany this winter serve as a wakeup call for policymakers worldwide as they consider their own energy policies. The winter of 2025 has been brutal for Europe, exposing the severe flaws of its over-reliance on wind and solar energy. As temperatures plummeted, countries grappled with electricity shortages, soaring energy prices, and the grim specter of blackouts. In the United Kingdom and Germany, two countries that have positioned themselves as global leaders in the adoption of “renewable” energy, the dangerous gamble of prioritizing wind and solar power over reliable energy sources is leaving millions vulnerable...

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for interior secretary told a Senate panel Thursday the U.S. can leverage development of fossil fuels and other energy sources to promote world peace and voiced concerns about the reliability of renewable power sources promoted under the Biden administration. Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum described Trump’s aspiration to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” as a way to counter demand for fossil fuels from autocratic nations — Russia, Iran and Venezuela — that have fewer environmental safeguards. Burgum also said the U.S. needs to make more “baseload” electricity from coal and other sources as it seeks to...

President-elect Donald Trump caused quite a stir this week with his comments about the wind industry during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. Trump compared wind farms to “dropping garbage in a field” and said wind developers are “getting rich” off of government subsidies that the projects receive. Trump also argued that wind energy is the most expensive form of energy, far more expensive than “clean natural gas.” Experts doing full analyses of all the costs associated with putting wind and solar farms on the grid tell Just the News that Trump is correct. Electricity ratesThe New York Times called the...

Faults along Los Angeles’ power grid surged in the same locations where three of this week’s massive wildfires are raging, a company that monitors electrical activity said. Whisker Labs recorded sharp increases in faults in the hours prior to the Eaton, Palisades and Hurst Fires, its chief executive officer Bob Marshall told Fox News Saturday. In the Palisades area, the largest of the fires, there were 63 grid faults in the two to three hours prior to the start of the fire, Marshall said. There were also 18 faults registered in the hour it began Tuesday. He also said there...

Southern California is about to be blasted by one of its most powerful Santa Ana windstorm in recorded history. It may not be #1, but the combination of high population, drought conditions, abundant fuel, and mountain wave strength may create world-record high fire danger.

Welcome to Germany’s green economic miracle. The year is 2025! Germany’s so-called Energiewende (transition to renewable energies) has had one unmistakable result: Germany now finds itself rapidly nearing the brink of a third world country where the power supply is no longer reliable and brownouts becoming more and more a daily routine. What’s happening is the opposite of what was once promised by the know-it-all climate wisemen: “Green energies would lead to a clean and prosperous country that would be the envy of the world. So much for their fantasies. The reality, as reported yesterday by Germany’s leading daily, Bild...

A federal judge has ruled that the owner of an Osage County wind farm, Osage Wind LLC, must pay over $300,000 in damages, millions in attorney fees, and remove 84 turbines and supporting structures by December 2025. The case, which has been ongoing for more than a decade, centers around the wind farm's failure to obtain necessary permits from the Osage Minerals Council. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves ruled in 2023 that Enel, the parent company, had committed trespass by extracting minerals from the Osage illegally

In 2018, the city council of Broken Hill in New South Wales, Australia, had hoped to become the country’s first carbon-free city by 2030. About $415 million USD was invested in solar, wind and battery projects within 15 miles of the town of 19,000. These generators were supposed to supply enough electricity to power 117,000 homes. Then in October, a storm hit the region, destroying power lines connecting the town to dispatchable power from the New South Wales grid, and the entire town was plunged into rolling blackouts. While things gradually returned to normal over a few weeks, the region...

Denmark received no bids in its largest-ever wind power tender, aimed to more than triple its offshore capacity by the end of the decade. The Danish Energy Agency hadn’t received a single bid in a tender for three offshore wind farms in the North Sea by Thursday’s deadline, it said in a statement. It now will initiate a dialog with the market to find out why. Denmark’s Climate and Energy Minister Lars Aagaard called the results “very disappointing” and said they were “not at all what was expected” when a broad majority in parliament entered into the political agreement to...