Long Islander's Blog (3,023)

Although EPA’s Clean Power Plan may be eliminated by the Trump administration, state clean energy goals could drive projects that deliver Canadian hydro and wind power from Maine and the Atlantic Ocean. Order 1000 requires public utility transmission providers to consider “transmission needs driven by public policy requirements [PPR] in both the local and regional transmission planning processes.”…

Given the history of collaboration between Big Wind and FWS officials, the motives behind this push should be questioned by Congress and the public.”

https://www.masterresource.org/cuisinarts-of-the-air/protect-eagles-usfwss-30-year-take-permits/

BDN

Democratic lawmakers expressed worry Perry would weaken the department’s functions and potentially target its army of scientists focused on climate and clean energy research......

Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a senior Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Perry had failed to persuade him he would push back against Trump administration plans to cut the department’s budget and focus…

EDP Renewables: "We need to lay low with this type of president"

Trump, whose animosity towards wind energy has put the industry on edge, was a major topic of discussion at the summit, the first large gathering of industry leaders since he took office. Some of his policy priorities, they agreed, have generated significant uncertainty for the industry......some of the changes being proposed could curb the availability of tax…

While the Maine Department of Environmental Protection issues permits for wind projects, the state’s standards and protections are weak. But once a wind project permit is granted, you cannot protect yourself.......

Communities that were not proactive on wind zoning have gone through hell when Big Wind suddenly came to town, pitting neighbor against neighbor, driving deep wedges and dividing communities. Big Wind is a dirty, ugly business that has driven Maine people from…

Conceived by Stanford University professor Mark Z. Jacobson and endorsed by McKibben and others, The Solutions Project is a plan to move America to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050. McKibben offered glowing praise for the proposal in a recent op-ed, saying it comes “as close to winning this war [on climate change] as we could plausibly get.”…

They need to store an order of magnitude more than anything yet seen

By Vaclav Smil

It would be a lot easier to expand our use of solar and wind energy if we had better ways to store the large quantities of electricity we’d need to cover gaps in the flow of that energy.

Even in sunny Los Angeles, a typical house roofed with enough photovoltaic panels to meet its average needs would still face daily shortfalls of up to about 80 percent of…

Sample of contents:

Greed Energy Economics:

NYS is paying 11 wind and solar power projects 2X more in subsidies than electricity generated

Duke Energy says solar power will cost N.C. customers $1 billion too much

End IRS Abuse of Wind PTC

Electric Vehicles: Are the Costs Worth the Benefits?

Retiring worn-out wind turbines could cost billions that nobody has

Former Oklahoma Governor Says Wind Energy Tax Breaks Were a…

Meeting dates and written comment deadline are highlighted below. Perhaps the new DOE will take public input seriously.

The stakes are big. Dong, Statoil, Deepwater and other companies secured a total of 11 leases to build offshore wind farms. To move forward, developers will need permits from multiple agencies and, in some instances, federal grants to refurbish ports. For instance, Deepwater’s 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island benefited from a $22.3 million U.S. Transportation Department grant to upgrade piers and terminals for use as a staging area.…

In the coming months, we recommend the new administration take action to reset the priorities of the DOE including:

Reviewing and eliminating DOE efforts that fall outside core proficiencies. Identify and defund activities aimed at wind advocacy.

Discourage funding of wind-related research where the costs can and should be borne by private industry.

Halt efforts by the DOE to assert federal authority over states with regard to transmission expansion.

Please…

Good luck in the Gulf of Maine. Of course the harshest conditions for wind turbines are when the public becomes informed and when the subsidies run out.

Environment Canada launched the pilot project in 2000 — which would have seen the five wind turbines generate energy onto the grid of the island known for its shifting sand dunes and fragile environment.

But when Parks Canada took over management of the 40-kilometre-long island when…

The wind industry spin machine is spinning away like never before and all the crooks are reacting to President Trump like vampires do sunlight. Hopefully President Trump is well aware that "grid modernization" means nothing more than building shipping facilities for the subsidy leeches in the wind industry.…

With a power purchase agreement already approved by the Maine Public Utilities Commission in 2014 and the Mohegan test site designated in 2009 by the Maine Department of Conservation being approved, Dagher told committee members the Aqua Ventus project has avoided trip-ups that led to other projects being dropped by DOE.

Both Aqua Ventus and the Ohio project are in line for $40 million in funding, contingent on reaching specific milestones and subject to continued congressional…

LaBrecque’s relationship with the governor is frustrating for renewable-power advocates. LaBrecque has the freedom to promote what they see as an extreme, anti-solar and anti-wind agenda in the name of the governor.......LaBrecque said he’s likely to start a paid, part-time position later this year to formally represent the governor in pushing his energy agenda. He said it would be separate from the Governor’s Energy Office, which is functioning with an acting director since Patrick Woodcock…

Are you curious to know why so many landowners will not sign easements? I have spoken to landowners living in industrial wind energy installations from Adair to Lake Park to Webster City to Primghar. I also have heard from folks in Kansas, Missouri, Vermont and Oklahoma. While you can find people who are pleased with their experience, I have heard statements such as:

• “We had to put in soundproofing windows – it helped some.”

• “If we knew then what we know now, this (wind…

Groups led by Americans for Prosperity support a bill that would pull the state out of the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/12/battle-lines-over-renewable-energy-drawn-in-new-hampshire/

The initial concept was a one-eighth scale floating turbine for two periods of five months each. Now it is two approximately 600-feet-high industrial turbines for at least the next 20 years. The only complete impact study done to date was based on the much smaller turbines. Talk about “bait and switch.”…

This essay is the second in a series aimed at exposing abuses by the Obama administration in its effort to force wind power on the public. 

“The IRS expanded the two-year development window to four years [from two years to give] … developers countless ways in which to secure the full PTC and never experience the…

Figdor ran Environment America’s global warming program from 2005 to 2010, before moving to Maine........From 2010 to 2014, Figdor led the environmental advocacy group Environment Maine.............Figdor is now the platform campaign manager for MoveOn.org...............

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/09/new-force-in-portland-politics-packs-a-one-two-punch/