Wind woes

From: POLITICO's The Long Game - Tuesday Oct 17,2023 04:14 pm

Oct 17, 2023

THE BIG IDEA

Wind turbines spin off Virginia Beach, Va., for Dominion's offshore wind project.

It's not all blue skies these days in the offshore wind industry. | Jordan Wolman/POLITICO

HEADWINDS — Offshore wind is facing a pivotal moment as Northeast states that have made the technology a focus of their clean energy goals on the technology are facing pressure from developers to provide more aid or risk losing projects.

Now even cheerleading officials in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and other states can’t ignore the high costs that could be passed to ratepayers, potentially jeopardizing the Biden administration’s climate targets.

It’s forcing some tough decisions.

Regulators need to decide whether they will acquiesce to wind companies demanding more public subsidies to maintain existing contracts for planned projects, citing rising costs due to inflation and supply chain constraints. New York rejected such a request just last week, Marie J. French reports.

“These projects are not everything. They do not represent the entirety of our efforts to fight climate change,” said New York Public Service Commission Chair Rory Christian. “They’re one part of our portfolio, and as with any portfolio, different assets produce different results.”

State and federal officials are just starting to grapple with the ramifications — and how to handle the options for trying to save an industry under intense pressure.

The governors of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut unveiled a new agreement earlier this month to coordinate offshore wind development as wind companies raise the possibility of withdrawing their plans to install hundreds of turbines along the Atlantic Coast. The agreement will allow the New England states to jointly solicit offshore wind proposals from developers to help cut costs after multiple projects were terminated earlier this year, Benjamin Storrow at POLITICO’s E&E News reports.

It’s also a cautionary tale as the Biden administration looks to site offshore wind areas and lease acres of water off the coasts of Gulf Coast and Western states while spurring a domestic supply chain industry for turbines, large vessels and the workforce needed to build it all.

Already, the administration has had to slow its roll for offshore wind in Oregon after members of Congress relayed concerns from fishing and tribal communities about planned offshore wind leases in that state.

“The U.S. targets of 30 GW by 2030 are further from reality,” said Atin Jain, an analyst who tracks the offshore wind industry at BloombergNEF. “I’ve been saying it was a pipe dream at the beginning of the year. My opinion has just become stronger.”

WASHINGTON WATCH

ANTI TRUSTING ESG — Financial firms and other corporations facing Republican-led attacks over joint efforts to address environmental, social and governance issues need federal guidance to navigate around emerging legal threats, according to experts at a Monday event in Washington.

GOP officials have targeted voluntary initiatives like those promoting net-zero commitments from asset managers and insurers, contending that those collaborations could violate antitrust law.

Such assertions have formed the basis of state-level and congressional investigations into financial-industry giants including BlackRock and Vanguard.

Legal experts and government officials at the event, led by the Howard University School of Law and the American Bar Association, said that while the role of antitrust and corporate collaboration on sustainability matters is complicated, coordination could be permissible. Company officials Monday argued that they should be given leeway to avoid the prospect of being punished with higher costs for moving first in trying to do the right thing by taking steps such as adopting clean technology or ridding labor abuses from its supply chain.

“My ask of antitrust enforcers would be to give us your guidance where you can on what you consider to be pro-competitive, pro-social collaborations,” said Sarah Flanagan, Intel’s senior director of global antitrust compliance. “For the companies that want to do good, then this is going to give them comfort in moving forward with those collaborations and for other companies or other actors, then they will be on notice more clearly on what is considered to not be pro-competitive.”

Peggy Otum, a WilmerHale partner who focuses on environment and natural resources, said the antitrust issue oftentimes leaves some of her clients deciding that “it's easier just to pull back because of this perceived risk.”

Don’t expect the debate to go away. Will Hild, the head of the leading anti-ESG group Consumers’ Research, said in a statement that financial firms should be “terrified” of the antitrust risks in joining net-zero and other sustainability groups.

AROUND THE WORLD

COP CONUNDRUM — A Biden administration plan to have the World Bank help poor countries cope with climate change could be a key sticking point at U.N. talks in Dubai next month.

The “loss and damage” fund reluctantly endorsed by U.S. climate envoy John Kerry last year is facing logistical hurdles as developing nations oppose housing the program at an institution that they fear is too controlled by wealthier countries and Washington in particular.

“It’s just a question of logic,” said Michai Robertson, lead finance negotiator for a bloc of island states that stands to receive much of the money. “Why is there this pressure to push it back to this institution that we need to reform?”

At the root of the concerns is skepticism that the U.S. and other large emitters will actually pay into the fund, Zack Colman reports. That fear is not without justification, as House Republicans are opposed to President Joe Biden’s request for $11 billion in international climate finance.

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YOU TELL US

GAME ON — Welcome to the Long Game, where we tell you about the latest on efforts to shape our future. Join us every Tuesday as we keep you in the loop on the world of sustainability.

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WHAT WE'RE CLICKING

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— Chemical recycling proponents are pushing big projects for the technology amid linger business and policy questions, Waste Dive reports.

— Meanwhile, fossil fuels seem to be having a moment, as Bloomberg reports that Wall Street is finding new ways to finance coal projects while rising commodity prices boost oil and gas, according to the Financial Times.

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