Big Package ??

Good morning and happy Friday,

In this week’s headlines, North Dakota is getting litigious with Minnesota over clean energy interstate feuds, O&G layoffs translate to renewables hires, and BNEF lays out a mixed bag of wins and losses for the industry in 2022. 

Read on for more.

Big Package

House Republicans took action this week on “numerous bills that will make for part of their sweeping energy and permitting reform package, which they hope to put on the floor for a vote by the end of March.” However, Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee “expressed skepticism of the GOP plan” at a hearing Tuesday. For their part, “Republican operatives” are gearing up to spend megabucks to loosen federal permitting rules. Here are a few things to know:

• The Republican-led package “will be the first legislative product of their new majority to come from multiple committees – in a policy arena they campaigned on in the 2022 midterms,” the “cornerstone” of which is the “Building United States Infrastructure Through Limited Delays and Efficient Reviews (BUILDER) Act,” H.R. 2515.
• The bill “seeks to speed up environmental reviews that can currently delay permits for energy projects, including wind and solar, by requiring regulators to rely on existing ‘reliable’ data rather than conduct lengthy new research; allowing project sponsors to assist in conducting environmental reviews; and limiting lawsuits that would slow down processes.” However, “It would accomplish these objectives by overhauling the National Environmental Policy Act, which many Democrats regard as a critical safeguard that should not be touched.”
• Meanwhile, “Building a Better America,” an initiative led by Bill Koetzle, “a former Chevron and American Petroleum Institute lobbyist who also worked for Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee,” hopes to raise up to $10 million, funds it will use to put “’the right pressure’ on vulnerable Senate Democrats” to get their support for permitting reforms.

?? The Takeaway

Barreling ahead? As we saw last year during debates over Senator Joe Manchin’s proposed energy legislation, permitting reform is something “members of both parties champion,” albeit for different reasons. While climate advocates want easier  federal approval for clean energy projects, they fear that the reforms could clear the way for “mines, pipelines and other fossil-fuel projects that green activists oppose.” Many House Democrats recognize the need to update “some of the country’s bedrock environmental laws were enacted in the 20th and even 19th centuries, but oppose ‘gutting’ NEPA reviews for major projects.”

A Ban on Bans

It’s no secret that in today’s divisive environment, battles to build renewables can be ‘really ugly.’ As the number of places where local rules have made development almost impossible continues to increase, three states – New York, California, and now Illinois – have passed bills that prevent local governments from limiting or banning wind and solar power. Here’s the 411 on  H.B. 4412:

• Signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker in late January, the new law standardizes local permitting for utility-scale renewable energy facilities and prevents local government from enacting rules that are more restrictive than those of the state. Further, “local governments are required to approve any wind or solar project that meets the rules,” and “counties with bans on renewable energy development must rescind those restrictions within 120 days.”
• Advocates for local control “are livid,” and the law may have “intensified the conflict rather than helping to heal it.” However, renewable energy proponents say they “had little choice...because local governments have relied on misleading or false information about the safety and economics of renewable energy to pass rules that are not in the public interest.”
• According to ACORE, “New York and California are the two states with laws most similar to what Illinois has now passed,” prompting observers to wonder which state might be next. Indiana and Michigan are two possibilities, “but neither state seems likely to pass something, at least not in the near future.

?? The Takeaway

Two sarahs, two views. Northern Illinois University law professor Sarah Fox, whose legal work includes representing landowners who have leased property for a wind farm, says “the existential threat of climate change means that the regulatory system needs to err on the side of allowing renewable energy development, even if that means reducing local control.” Over at the University of Michigan, Sarah Mills, who “writes about land use conflicts over renewable energy development,” worries that “the benefits may end up being smaller than the harm that comes from the way the law solidifies the idea that urban areas are imposing renewable energy on rural areas. ‘This is not the way you build bridges between urban and rural areas. It’s making that chasm even wider.’”

• Non-hostile Takeover: Solar set to overtake other energy sources by 2027
• Big Tory Energy: Red states leading the US in solar and wind production
• Plug It In Plug It In: U.S. Has Billions for Clean Projects. Good Luck Plugging Them In
• BLM RFP: Public Lands Are Responsive to Increased Demand for Renewable Energy

• Engie’s 200 MW solar project receives approval in Howard County, IN
• BLM evaluates publicly opposed Magic Valley Energy’s wind project in Shoshone, Idaho
• Columbiana County, Washington bans solar and wind in four townships
• National Grid’s 200 MW Muskegon County, MI solar project hosts community forum

Upward Spiral

Taller turbines can tap into higher wind speeds, which means they produce more power and reduces the number of turbines needed to produce an equivalent amount of electricity. CleanTechnica reports that the U.S. DOE “has been shopping around for taller, less expensive wind turbine towers and longer blades to go with them,” and “in 2014 the Energy Department selected the Boston-based startup Keystone Tower Systems to help solve the problem.”

In a recap of the R&D project last year, the DOE said “With more than $7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy, Keystone Tower Systems has developed a solution: a spiral-welding technique, borrowed from the steel-pipeline industry, to build some of the largest turbine towers on the market.”

The DOE post goes on to explain “Spiral welding is when the steel used to make the tower is curled into a cylinder; essentially, these towers are built from meters-wide steel plates. The technique requires only one machine to construct a tower section, and it can produce towers up to twice as tall and 10 times faster than conventional towers. These towers are produced using less steel, so they could be more affordable than conventional towers, too. They can even be manufactured on site at the wind farm, eliminating transportation issues.” 

Last week, Keystone and GE announced the “installation of the first commercial spiral-welded wind tower on a 2.8 MW GE turbine” that was manufactured at Keystone’s new factory, located in Pampa, in the Texas Panhandle. The press release notes “While this first factory is in a fixed location, Keystone is also developing mobile factories capable of building taller towers directly at the wind site.” Coming soon to a wind farm near you!