The expensive twist in Trump’s campaign against wind energy
President Donald Trump’s hostility towards wind energy — specifically, windmills — is well-known. Since losing a court battle over a decade ago to prevent the construction of a wind farm near his Scottish golf resort, he has derided it as inefficient, costly, and an environmental eyesore.
He turned his animosity into government policy during his second term. Upon taking office, the president immediately issued an executive order to halt new wind projects on public waters and lands.
By December, U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris ruled that the sweeping ban on wind projects was an “arbitrary and capricious” move that surpassed his executive authority. The Trump administration in January also lost a court fight against offshore wind developers after attempting to pause five projects well-underway in the northeastern U.S. Nevertheless, it has pressed on with another less-visible tactic to counter this parade of legal setbacks.
It’s in the middle of carrying out a buyback campaign that has the federal government paying energy developers to abandon their wind projects and invest in fossil fuels instead. Its workaround is an expensive one: So far, the Trump administration has paid $2.6 billion in a string of agreements to dissuade energy companies from pursuing wind farms.
The third deal came last week when the Interior Department said it was paying $765 million to energy firm Invenergy to shelve plans to build four wind farms just off the coasts of California, New York, and Maine.
Under the agreement, the company said it will redirect the money into building at least five natural gas power plants in Midwestern states, and develop geothermal power projects in the western U.S. The Trump administration struck an identical $928 million deal in March with French company TotalEnergies.
“Under President Trump, companies are shifting investment back toward dependable, secure energy infrastructure that can power our economy and lower utility costs,” Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. He also bashed the Biden administration for promoting tax incentives for offshore wind leases in the first place. The GOP-controlled Congress rescinded those tax credits last year in their megabill.
Another court battle is all but certain at this stage. California said on Tuesday that it intended to sue the Trump administration to block the deal from building a planned wind farm just off its central coast.
California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild told the Associated Press the agreement was “a colossal mistake of epic proportions” given the spike in gas prices from the war in Iran.
Energy demand in the U.S. has only climbed higher in recent years. Artificial intelligence and its fleet of data centers have caused a spike in power bills, with some parts of the country seeing prices double. Renewable energy advocates say wind energy is part of the solution, citing the small physical footprint of wind farms and their lack of greenhouse gas emissions.
The five wind projects in the Northeast that the Trump administration initially tried to halt would produce enough energy to power 2.5 million homes, per the Natural Resources Defense Council.
There are signs that the Trump administration may be yielding in its legal crusade against wind energy. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice dropped its appeal of the December decision that annulled its freeze on new wind project permits. However, it has kept the door open for another barrage of deals.
More information:https://qz.com/trump-buyback-wind-projects
