Hard Pass on Green Cash

Good morning and happy Friday,

In this week’s headlines, the Long Horn State has the most clean energy of any state waiting to be hooked up to the grid, Kentucky debuts the largest private onsite solar farm, and the painful history of a proposed wind site in Idaho makes headlines.

Read on for more.

Hard Pass on Green Cash?

The Inflation Reduction Act is already driving significant investment and job creation, and much of this activity is occurring in red states. So at long last, we can expect to see elected officials in these areas softening their resistance to clean energy, right? Um, not quite – in fact, the opposite is happening. Here’s today’s serving of cognitive dissonance:

• The IRA has already directed big bucks to 72 Republican-held districts, including more than two dozen that have received $1 billion or more in investments in new facilities or expansions of existing facilities. Advocacy group Climate Power reports that as of Q1 2023, companies have announced “191 new clean energy projects in small towns and bigger cities nationwide totaling $242.81 billion in new investments” that will create approximately 142,000 jobs.?
• Politics align with emissions: Trump won 20 of the 21 states that emit the most carbon from their energy sector per each dollar of economic activity, whereas Biden won 19 of the 21 states with the lowest emissions.
• Why the divide? Climate change is another battle line in the culture wars, with support for cleaner energy alternatives viewed by many as “an example of ‘coastal elites’ trying to erase traditional American values.” In other words, “climate change has become another fissure along the central fault line in modern American politics.”

?? The Takeaway

Dashed hopes. Red states’ resistance to clean energy has “dashed a central hope and expectation among environmentalists” that increased economic opportunity would mean “less political opposition from Republicans to the transition toward a clean energy economy.” As reported in a recent Dispatch, polling by Pew Research indicates that Republican voters are much less likely than Democrats to view climate change as a serious threat – likely a key factor in this opposition.

Permitting Progress?

Discussions about permitting legislation kicked up a notch in Congress over the past week, prompted in the House by Representatives Sean Casten (D-IL) and Mike Levin (D-CA) releasing a discussion draft of a bill, and in the Senate by Joe Manchin (D-WV) reintroducing his bill from last year. Here are some key points regarding each:?

• The House proposal focuses on “electricity infrastructure, renewable energy and including local communities in the process,” through community engagement, designation of “priority” areas for renewable energy development on public lands and increasing FERC’s authority to approve transmission lines.
• Senator Manchin’s Building American Energy Security Act also focuses on “streamlining the federal permitting process for energy infrastructure projects.” Manchin chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee and says the legislation is key to reforming project permitting.
• Manchin’s bill would establish maximum timelines for permitting reviews and limit legal challenges to projects and enhance federal authority over interstate transmission, as well as directing the White House to “regularly designate at least 25 high-priority wide-ranging energy infrastructure projects.”

?? The Takeaway

Keep talking. The proponents of both efforts cite extremely long approval processes for energy projects as a major issue and frame their respective offerings as a “starting point for conversations” about this critical topic. While that’s welcome news, it should be noted that Manchin’s bill “also includes a carveout green-lighting the 300-mile West Virginia-to-Virginia Mountain Valley Pipeline project,” which inspired intense opposition last fall. Stay tuned for more news as these efforts advance!

• Everything’s Bigger: Texas trumps California as key US energy transition driver
• Big Burly Bill: Texas Has a Bill to Kill Booming Renewables Sector
• Clean Jobs: Clean energy job training begins at Chicago's Sustainability Hub
• Broken Promises: Google pledged to defund climate lies, but the ads keep coming
• Hallowed Ground: Where wind power blows up against a site of WWII trauma

• Michigan anti-solar group withdraws proposed ban on rural utility projects
• After initial denial, Iowa Utilities Board preapproves NextEra Solar projects
• Ameren Missouri approved to buy 200 MW solar project

Greener Green Energy

Wind energy offers a way to dramatically reduce the GHG emissions from electricity production, but even wind power has a carbon footprint (albeit one that achieves “payback” within a few months of operation). Further, wind turbines don’t last forever, which means it’s important to find ways to recover and reuse materials from decommissioned turbines.

Manufacturer Siemens Gamesa has done considerable work in this area, from creating recyclable blades to exploring ways to reduce the carbon emissions associated with manufacturing towers. In late April the company announced the GreenerTower, which is made from “more sustainable steel.”

Manufacturing steel is highly carbon-intensive: for every ton of steel, roughly 1.91 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere. For Siemens Gamesa, “sustainable steel” means that its manufacture results in emissions that don’t exceed 0.7 tons of CO2 per ton of steel – well below the amount emitted by conventional steel-manufacturing processes.

As noted, “this isn’t zero, but it is a significant step when you consider that…(it) has the potential to reduce the emissions associated with the steel plates used in wind turbine towers by 63%. If all turbines installed by Siemens Gamesa in one year would utilize GreenerTowers, it would be like taking 466,000 cars off the roads in Europe for a year.” Sounds good to us!