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Trump Pauses Federal Leases and Permits for Wind Energy Projects

Wed, 22 Jan 2025 00:39:50 +0100

One of the many executive orders President Donald Trump signed on his first day back in office temporarily stopped the United States’ sale of offshore wind leases in federal waters.

It also paused permits, approvals and loans for offshore and onshore wind projects.

“On day one, the Trump administration is putting dirty fossil fuels front and center while delaying progress on renewable energy projects. This is as harmful as it is wrong headed. Putting the brakes on homegrown wind energy is not only bad for clean air, public health, and national security — it cuts short a promising source of additional power at a time when our electricity grid needs it most,” said Kit Kennedy, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)’s managing director for power, in a press release from NRDC.

Wind energy is currently the largest renewable energy source in the United States, providing more than 10 percent of the country’s power. Ninety-nine percent of onshore wind projects are on private lands and cannot be stopped by federal action.

Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa are the top four states for wind power production. More than 131,000 Americans are employed by the wind industry.

The U.S. Secretary of the Interior will review practices for wind leasing and permitting for federal lands and waters, reported The Associated Press. The order states that the assessment will consider factors such as wind projects’ impacts on wildlife, the effect subsidies have on the wind industry’s viability and the economic costs of intermittent electricity generation.

When asked about committing to continuing already issued offshore wind leases during recent confirmation hearings, Doug Burgum, whom Trump selected to be the next interior secretary, said projects that are already established by law and those that “make sense” will continue.

“I’m not familiar with every project that the Interior has underway, but I’ll certainly be taking a look at all of those, and if they make sense and they’re already in law, then they’ll continue,” Burgum said during the hearings, as The Washington Post reported.

According to the American Clean Power Association, 73 gigawatts of offshore capacity are currently under development, enough to provide wind-generated power for 30 million homes, reported The Associated Press.

Trump’s executive order also temporarily halts the development of Magic Valley Energy’s Lava Ridge Wind Project, located in Idaho. A scaled-down version of the wind farm was approved by the U.S. government in December after local groups opposed it due to its proximity to a World War II site where thousands of Japanese Americans were incarcerated.

“We think the EO is likely to significantly curtail the U.S. offshore wind industry over at least the next four years,” said Timothy Fox, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, in an email to The Washington Post. “The EO could have negative implications beyond Trump’s term because project developers may be wary of investing in a sector that faces demonstrable high election risk.”

CEO of the American Clean Power Association Jason Grumet warned that the order could have a detrimental effect on states like Oklahoma, Texas and Iowa that supported Trump in the last election.

“States voting for President Trump are eight of the top ten states in terms of reliance on wind power with many depending on wind for a significant share of their electricity use,” Grumet said, as The Washington Post reported.

It is not clear how much authority Trump has to shut down wind projects, especially those that already have federal permits, and the executive order will likely face legal challenges, reported The Associated Press.

Onshore wind is one of the least expensive power sources, with an average cost of roughly $31 per megawatt hour for new projects. Estimates from the Energy Information Administration say new natural gas plants will likely cost almost $43 per megawatt hour.

During his campaign, Trump promised to stop offshore wind and ramp up production of fossil fuels, with a plan to make U.S. energy the cheapest in the world.

“This is bad for American workers, as well. The growing U.S. wind industry and its manufacturing supply chain are creating quality jobs and growing local economies along our coasts and across the Midwest. This announcement put those investments — and the jobs that go with them — at mortal risk,” Kennedy said in the press release.

The post Trump Pauses Federal Leases and Permits for Wind Energy Projects appeared first on EcoWatch.

Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Paris Agreement, Again

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 20:43:49 +0100

As one of his first orders of business upon taking office, President Donald Trump has once again withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.

During his former presidency. Trump had announced the withdrawal of the U.S. from the agreement in June 2017, as he argued that the accord put an unfair economic burden on American businesses and taxpayers. The process to withdraw began in 2019.

However, in 2021, former President Joe Biden recommitted the country to the Paris Agreement, although the announcements from that time have been removed from federal government websites, including WhiteHouse.gov and Department of State website. (During his former presidency, the Trump administration removed climate change-related content from official websites.)

Now, on January 20, Trump spent the first day in office signing multiple executive orders, including several that targeted climate and sustainability actions. As NPR reported, Trump signed the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement while in front of supporters at Capital One Arena.

“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” Trump said while signing the executive order, as reported by Earth.org. “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”

Although the move was expected, environmental organizations and activists have still criticized the executive order, as the world just experienced its hottest year on record. Last year also brought record-breaking ocean temperatures and a record-fast pace of rising carbon dioxide emissions.

But many organizations and countries are ready to move forward with climate action, even without U.S. involvement.

“This moment should serve as a wake-up call to reform the system, ensuring that those most affected — communities and individuals on the front lines – are at the center of our collective governance,” said Laurence Tubiana, CEO at European Climate Foundation who was involved in structuring the Paris Agreement, as reported by NPR.

Although meeting the Paris Agreement target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times is critical to avoiding catastrophic damages from climate change, the world is not currently on track to meet this target.

Climate scientists have already described the goal as “deader than a doornail.” A 2023 study determined that the world is just 10 to 15 years from consistently exceeding the 1.5-degree target, and the world already surpassed a global average of 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial times from February 2023 to January 2024 and again for the 2024 calendar year.

Along with removing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, other executive orders signed yesterday include a reverse on the 50% EV mandate by Biden, a lift of an LNG export permit approval pause and a freeze on wind energy project leases and permits.

“Clean energy is creating jobs, cutting consumer costs, and improving health in red states and blue,” Manish Bapna, president and CEO of Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), said in a statement on the latest executive orders. “It’s strengthening the supply chain for the building blocks of a modern economy, making U.S. companies more competitive and the country more energy secure. Targeting those gains on Day 1 is part of a raft of fossil fuel handouts meant to stall the shift to clean energy.”

Bapna added, “The election didn’t roll back the laws of atmospheric chemistry. It didn’t negate the manifest benefits the country is experiencing from finally confronting the climate crisis. It didn’t signal that it’s okay to condemn our children to a runaway train of climate disasters. There’s no mandate to slam climate progress into reverse.”

The post Trump Pulls U.S. Out of Paris Agreement, Again appeared first on EcoWatch.

Onderzoek verwarmingsinstallaties

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 19:42:15 +0100

Een groot deel van de woningen in de wijken Ypenburg en de Venen is aangesloten op het warmtenet van Eneco. De verwarmingsinstallaties van deze woningen zijn inmiddels 15 tot 25 jaar oud. De verwarmingsinstallatie is het systeem dat zorgt dat de warmte zich verspreidt in je woning. Denk hierbij aan de radiatoren en leidingen. De installatie bevindt zich in je woning en is het eigendom van de woningbezitter. De afleverset, de warmtemeter en de slimme meter zijn eigendom van Eneco. Om te toetsen of de installaties optimaal kunnen blijven presteren in de toekomst, zal er in een flink aantal woningen visueel onderzoek gedaan worden naar de conditie van de installatie. Zo nemen we stappen om te zorgen dat het totale warmtesysteem van de wijken zo goed en veilig mogelijk blijft werken. De firma Breman Woningbeheer Zuid West voert het onderzoek uit in opdracht van HWY. HWY wordt voor dit onderzoek ondersteund door Eneco, de gemeente Den Haag en de gemeente Pijnacker-Nootdorp. Het onderzoek zal uitgevoerd worden in de maanden februari-maart-april. Een medewerker van Breman bekijkt dan de verwarmingsinstallatie vanaf het punt dat de aanvoerleiding het huis binnenkomt tot aan het punt waar de retourleiding het huis verlaat. De uitnodigingen om je aan te melden worden per email verstuurd door Eneco naar een groot aantal bewoners. Helaas kunnen we niet iedereen bereiken via email. Deelname is kosteloos voor de bewoners. De aanmeldtermijn sluit op maandag 2 februari. Als we meer aanmeldingen ontvangen dan nodig zijn voor het onderzoek, wordt er een selectie gemaakt. De resultaten zullen na afloop van het onderzoek gepubliceerd worden op de website van HWY (omstreeks midden 2025). Ook zal er te zijner tijd een informatieavond georganiseerd worden waarin de resultaten gepresenteerd en besproken worden.