NYTimes: The Promise and Pressures of Deb Haaland, the First Native American Cabinet Secretary
As interior secretary, Ms. Haaland runs an agency once responsible for eradicating the homes, culture and often the lives of Indigenous people.
Overturning Trump, Biden to suspend several oil and gas leases in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
A polar bear keeps close to her young along the Beaufort Sea coast in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2007. (Susanne Miller/USFWS/Reuters)
By Juliet Eilperin and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post
The Interior Department will suspend several oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Tuesday, according to three individuals briefed on the decision, overturning one of President Donald Trump’s most significant environmental acts during his last days in office.
The move, which could spark a major legal battle, aims to unwind nearly a dozen leases in the heart of a pristine expanse in Alaska that Republicans and Democrats have fought over for four decades. The Trump administration auctioned off the right to drill in the refuge’s coastal plain — home to hundreds of thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl as well as the southern Beaufort Sea’s remaining polar bears — just two weeks before President Biden was inaugurated.
Several individuals briefed on the Biden administration’s decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it had not been formally announced yet, said Interior would halt the leases on the grounds that Trump officials rushed the Jan. 6 auction and did not follow proper procedures.
The step, coming just days after the Justice Department defended another drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, underscores the balancing act the new administration aims to strike as it slows fossil fuel development on public lands. While Biden has paused new federal oil and gas leasing and pledged to drastically cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, he has taken a much more cautious approach toward most oil and gas operations approved under his predecessor.
On Wednesday, Justice Department attorneys filed a brief defending ConocoPhillips’s Willow project, an oil reservoir on the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that could hold up to 300 million barrels of oil. The administration also has defended the Trump administration’s decision to issue oil and gas leases in Wyoming and declined to press for the shutdown of the Dakota Access pipeline, a project Interior Secretary Deb Haaland protested while serving in Congress.
But Tuesday’s move signaled that the new administration was willing to take aggressive action in an area that has been a rallying cry for environmentalist for decades.
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.
If New England offshore wind meets expectations, trade balance could shift, sending U.S. power north to Canada
 |
By Gene Laverty, S&P Global
A flood of cheap power generated by planned U.S. offshore wind projects could find its way onto Canada’s power grid, reversing a long-standing trend of mostly one-way trade that sees massive exports of Canadian hydropower to the U.S.
The Biden administration’s recent approval of the first major wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts kick-started a plan for 30 GW of offshore wind capacity to be installed by 2030. Vineyard Wind LLC’s 800-MW Vineyard Offshore Wind Project and subsequent projects could upset a captive clean energy market for province-owned Hydro-Québec, which has for decades exported power from its network of dams to New York and New England.
Infrastructure expansions are already underway to meet renewable portfolio standards in U.S. states, including Central Maine Power Co.’s New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line, which would carry Quebec-generated power to Massachusetts. Central Maine is a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc., which itself is a partner in the Vineyard Offshore project.
Don’t miss environmental news like this Click for updates
Even if offshore wind does not reach President Joe Biden’s ambitious goals, with 30 projects proposed in U.S. waters, there will likely be enough power sources to disrupt the traditional import-export market with Canada, industry experts said. Although Bloomberg NEF’s forecast of 23 GW offshore wind installations by 2030 falls short of the U.S. government’s prediction, Melina Bartels, an associate for Bloomberg NEF, said the volume of power flowing onto the Northeastern U.S. grid will be high enough to drive down winter prices and create an opportunity to send power north of the border.
The extra power in New England could send winter power prices 40% below those seen in the last few years in five years, Bartels said, and multiple transmission connections could create favorable conditions to send power to Canada.
“Traditionally, when we think of this connection relationship with Canada, we think of hydropower coming from Quebec and fueling these two different markets in the U.S.,” Bartels said during a recent virtual conference by the Canadian Renewable Energy Association. “I think as this offshore wind begins to flood New England, we actually might see power flowing in the opposite direction as well.”
Struggling former coal-powered town looks to be a hub for power sent ashore by newly approved wind farm off Cape Cod
Mayflower Wind strikes Brayton Point deal. Power from future wind farms would come ashore in Somerset
Brayton Point in Somerset provides an interconnection to the regional power grid that was previously used by the coal-fired power plant. (Photo by Bruce Mohl)
By BRUCE MOHL, CommonWealth
Mayflower Wind, which is planning to bring ashore on Cape Cod the electricity generated by its first wind farm, said on Thursday that it intends to shift the landing point for the power produced by its future wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts to Brayton Point in Somerset.
The announcement is good news for Somerset, which has been waiting for years for offshore wind to fill the void left behind by the dismantling of an enormous coal-fired power plant at Brayton Point. But it could be years more before the dream of offshore wind at Brayton Point can actually be realized. Mayflower Wind would need to win a second state procurement and go through a lengthy permitting process before construction of a power line to Brayton Point could begin.
In the meantime, Somerset is struggling. Tax revenues are down and residents are divided over Brayton Point. With offshore wind unable to get moving under the Trump administration, the brownfield developer that tore down the coal-fired power plant had no revenue coming in. The firm angered residents of Somerset by selling space at Brayton Point to noisy and dirty scrap metal and road salt operations. The developer and town are now fighting in court and a strong grassroots operation has emerged calling for an end to the scrap metal and road salt businesses.
Kathy Souza, a leader of the grassroots effort and a candidate for Somerset’s select board, said she was encouraged by the Mayflower Wind announcement. She said the president of the company called Thursday to give her the news and said a community relations director would be in touch with her and other members of the community. “They promised to be honest and upfront. That’s positive,” said Souza.
“We will do everything we can to be a good neighbor and partner,” said Seth Kaplan, director of government and regulatory affairs at Mayflower.
Related wind energy news stories:
Vineyard Wind approval injects optimism into offshore wind industry
Biden Administration Approves Nation’s First Major Offshore Wind Farm
Program spins out new tech to monitor marine life near wind farms
Two companies have secured offshore wind contracts from Massachusetts so far. Vineyard Wind recently won near-final approval for its project from the Biden administration, the first industrial-scale offshore wind farm to do so. Mayflower Wind is awaiting its environmental permits. Both of those wind farms will bring their power ashore on Cape Cod. The two projects will max out the Cape’s electricity infrastructure, which is why Mayflower secured its deal with Brayton Point.
Mayflower, which plans to compete for the state’s next offshore wind procurement, snapped up the Brayton Point connection by acquiring transmission rights developed by a company called Anbaric Development. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.
#BILLYPENNGRAM OF THE DAY
 |
| #BILLYPENNGRAM OF THE DAY Scraping the sky (photo by @kslouf) |
| Want to see your photo here? Tag #billypenngram on Instagram |
#BILLYPENNGRAM OF THE DAY Read More »
A farmer in Maine extolls the virtue of planting solar
Graphic by George Danby, Bangor Daily News
By Toby Whitman, Whitman’s Hidden Meadow Farm
Farmers have always used the sun to grow things. At our farm in West Paris, my family has used the sun to grow food for ourselves and for the animals we raise — cattle, sheep, goats, oxen and draft horses, to name a few. The sun has helped us feed and support three generations of Whitmans on this land, and, in a few months, it will help us feed the fourth generation when our grandson is born.
And as we get ready to welcome this next generation, our farm is using the sun in a whole new way to help provide for our family. We’ve converted about 10 acres of pasture to host a community solar power array that will provide clean, renewable power to our neighbors in the area.
A new law passed last year opened the door for these community solar projects, and it has had a big impact. People who can’t have solar panels on their own property can now join together to be part of a community solar project, and participate in the benefits of clean and affordable solar power. And this new program has given Maine farmers a unique opportunity to stabilize our incomes and preserve our family farms.
The Farmer’s Guide to Going Solar (U,S. Department of Energy)
For us, the decision to be part of this program and host a community solar project was a no-brainer. Our land can accommodate a substantial solar array, enough to provide electricity to about 500 households in our area. While the solar farm is providing clean energy to our community, our sheep will keep grazing in the same fields.
We’re still using this land to make a living, just in a different way than we’re used to. Instead of selling bales of hay to help pay the bills, we’re harvesting clean electricity.
Farmers diversify all the time. A beef farmer might start raising pigs. A dairy farmer might start growing corn. We adjust to what makes the most sense to support our families. And that’s exactly what Maine farmers are doing when we use our land to harvest power from the sun.
A farmer in Maine extolls the virtue of planting solar Read More »