Photo: EDP Renewables North America
A US District court ruled against republican attempts to block deployment of wind and solar projects that could help to reduce US electricity costs as energy prices spike worldwide.
At issue is a series of actions to make permitting more difficult for wind and solar systems, which are some of the cheapest forms of energy available today, and only getting cheaper as technology improves.
As energy prices spike due to unnecessary chaos surrounding fossil fuels, renewable energy offers an option for cheaper energy bills and domestic energy independence – but also independence from fossil fuel companies, which are the primary constituency of the republican party.
Republicans have made permitting reform a key platform plank in recent years, saying that new energy projects are blocked by lengthy permitting processes that constrain American energy, and threaten “American energy/AI dominance.”
After taking control of Congress in 2023, the very first bill proposed by republicans was focused almost wholly on making oil & gas permitting simpler. This largely focused on ignoring environmental impacts of dirty energy projects.
And the White House, currently occupied by a man who cannot legally hold office in the US, said that it wants to offer “concierge, white glove service” to fossil fuel companies. It also keeps trying to force the reopening of expensive, broken coal plants.
For other, better forms of energy – those not controlled by the republican party’s fossil fuel masters – the party has largely focused on making permitting harder, not easier, even going so far as to cut off power to homes in the dead of winter.
Such was the case when the Department of the Interior and Army Corps of Engineers increased red tape for wind and solar project approvals, effectively banning them through five policy changes, summarized thusly by the Environmental Defense Fund:
- Heightened review process for Department of the Interior approvals of wind and solar projects, including requiring the personal sign-off of the Interior Secretary
- Ban of wind and solar projects from using the Information for Planning and Consultation website, an online mapping tool for identifying potential endangered species impacts and other environmental review needs
- Department of the Interior’s “capacity density” rule, which effectively banned the approval of new wind and solar projects on federal lands
- The Army Corps of Engineer’s “capacity density” rule, which stalled review of permits for wind and solar projects
- Changes to effectively block the approval of any offshore wind project
Several clean energy groups sued in December over these restrictions, and yesterday were granted a preliminary injunction stopping these agency actions.
While this is just an injunction and not a final court decision, the court found that these actions were likely to be found as “arbitrary and capricious” and/or contrary to existing law if brought to a full trial. Agency actions can be found to be “arbitrary and capricious” if they do not follow the Administrative Procedures Act, the law that governs how executive agencies are allowed to change rules without seeking approval from Congress first.
Environmental groups responded positively to the injunction, which is just the latest in a long list of illegal republican actions to raise your energy costs that courts have stopped.
The NRDC pointed out Mr. Trump’s losing record in court and the waste of time that propping up “Victorian Era” fuels represents:
Despite its woeful record in court, the administration’s efforts are exacting a real cost on our nation. Consumers are paying higher prices, workers are losing jobs, the air and water are more polluted, and the renewable energy industry is having to fend off these attacks when it should be building at full speed.
-Kit Kennedy, Managing director for power, Natural Resources Defense Council
The SEIA pointed out that solar is among the best ways to increase American energy availability at a time when electricity prices are spiking, and that the supposed “energy dominance” agenda is harmed by actions that restrict solar:
This ruling is a win for affordable energy in America, a win for American consumers, and a win for workers. Energy costs are rising for Americans, and the only way to put downward pressure on prices is with more power, not less. Low-cost, quick-to-deploy solar and storage are key to meeting the Trump Administration’s goals of keeping costs down for Americans and bolstering our AI leadership on the world stage. This is a constructive step forward toward letting America’s solar and storage industry build and deliver more American energy to households and businesses nationwide.
-Darren Van’t Hof, Interim President and CEO, Solar Energy Industries Association
And the EDF pointed out the hypocrisy behind claiming to want to improve permitting processes while in fact making them harder for superior forms of energy:
The ruling underscores how the Trump administration has been taking a two-tiered approach to energy permitting. While officials have tried to unfairly delay and cancel clean energy projects at every turn, they have rolled out ‘concierge, white-glove service’ for coal and other polluting fossil fuels — opening millions of new acres of public land for coal mining and forcing families to pay for unreliable, expensive coal plants indefinitely.
-Ted Kelly, Director and Lead Counsel for US Clean Energy, Environmental Defense Fund
Republicans aren’t just trying to raise electricity prices, but gas prices too. A recent attempt by the EPA to delete climate science has the stated goal of making cars less efficient and more costly to fuel, with the Department of Energy’s own analysis saying it would raise gas prices by $.76/gal. That effort has also found itself in court, so stay tuned for the eventual result there.
Electrek’s Take
There has been a common refrain that during Mr. Trump’s second dictatorship, he has been more effective than during the first.
The thinking goes that his group has been more prepared and has had more success at executing their plan to harm America than the last time around, particularly owing to their takeover of all three branches of government, leaving America with few ways to resist their attacks.
But I recall covering their attempts to destroy renewable energy last time around, and I recall writing the same sentences last time as well – that these attempts were largely thrown out by courts due to the incompetence of the people executing them (the NRDC won 92% of its cases against Mr. Trump during his first dictatorship).
It has been disappointing to see what seems like less pushback against these attacks, with cowardly companies working to surrender their own industry to foreign competitors, media organizations being bought out by billionaires and forced to advocate against the interests of their country, some illegitimately-packed courts that show little interest in law, and what many rightly see as not-fervent-enough opposition from the current opposition party. I understand how all of those can lead to a perception that the fascist takeover has been more effective than the last attempt thereof.
But from where I’m standing, covering environmental policy shifts, I’m seeing a lot of court wins and expect to see more, just like last time. I’m seeing agency heads who are constantly on the chopping block for their incompetence, only to be replaced with someone similarly incompetent (its incompetents all the way down). I’m seeing leadership from states and cities, in the face of federal bungling.
And I’m seeing another imminent backlash against this absolute idiocy as soon as Americans get a chance to have their voices heard (maybe 2024 would have been a nice time to think of that, Americans, it’s not like it wasn’t obvious at the time that voting for a violent dumbass would result in violent dumbassery).
But above all, I’m seeing the same superior economics behind renewable energy projects that forces businesses to take them seriously regardless. Even with the massive subsidy for dirty energy (and dirty cars), cleaner options are still better choices as they are cheaper and more reliable than fossil alternatives.
This means that companies, whose raison d’etre is to make money, will want to build these superior options regardless – unless they’re directly bribed from taxpayer coffers not to, at which point they’ll just keep doing it internationally and leave the US to languish and fall behind the rest of the world, which is already seeing the benefits of clean energy.
And countries around the world are scrambling to do something they should have done long ago and get off of a resource that we have all once again been reminded was a terrible idea to get addicted to in the first place.
So no matter how hard the stupidest, most evil group of people on the planet try otherwise, that genie just isn’t going back in the bottle. At worst, this will result in delays, which will irreparably harm America as the rest of the world blazes a path while we cut off our nose to spite our face, but the success – and the life of the fossil fuel industry – will remain short-lived in the overall scheme of things.
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