Trump’s war against the wind extends in electrical transmission projects

The developer of the Invenergy cereal belt has awarded construction contracts in May. State permits are approved and 95% of the acquisition of land is completed. The 15-year project, if it is completed-will be transported more clean energy than any other line in the country, from center to the United States to the United States in the Midwest populated and beyond.

This summer, the opposition of the GOP quickly intensified at the level of the state and then at the national level.

At the end of July, the Trump administration torn off the federal loan guarantee of $ 4.9 billion in grain Belt, awarded last year, questioning the project in doubt.

For what? Official reasons included the allegedly precipitated approval under the Biden administration and landowners who were concerned about purchases of forced “eminent domain”.

But wind energy has long collected the personal animus of President Trump, and now the broader departments of energy and the interior. Trump has complained bitterly and repeatedly “windmills”: “It is the worst form of energy, the most expensive form of energy,” he said in July. “Windmills should not be allowed.”

Political opponents called Grain Belt a “massive green energy scam”. The historical battles located on the electric lines had pivoted the concerns of the land owner and nimbyism (not in my backyard) in the White House.

While the Trump administration is expanding its regulatory attacks on renewable energies, the transmission infrastructure for electricity – in particular those allowing more wind turbines – has also moved into the reticulation.

“The administration seeks to undermine both the generation of clean energy and the infrastructure that supports it,” said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Power Association Fortune. “It is quite difficult to build power lines without adding polarization.

“You cannot give the electrons a fidelity test (policy) to decide whether or not they belong to the country’s electricity network,” added Grumet.

The White House refused to comment, and the Ministry of Energy said that the loan guarantee was not necessary for the cereal belt and could become a responsibility of taxpayers.

“The Ministry of Energy will continue to use all the tools at its disposal, including the Loan Programs Office (LPO), to support projects that advance the energy sources of Basoad, strengthen the network and reduce costs for the American people,” said a spokesperson for the DOE in a statement.

The emphasis is placed here on “Basel” energy, which means coal, natural gas, nuclear and – define –not Wind or solar, which are intermittent in nature when they are not coupled with the storage of the battery.

While political attacks intensified, Invenergy argued that the cereal belt will also carry the power generated by coal, gas and nuclear power plants.

Invenergy insists that the cereal belt will still move forward: “America is dominant with energy and a power of AI, and Grain Belt Express will be the largest power pipeline in America. Although we are disappointed with the LPO loan guarantee, a dominating and American technology of the cereal belt and the transmission of energy saving services, the gride and the realization of the grid and the renovation and creation and reactivity.

Daniel Acker – Blomberg / Getty Images

Blow

The cereal belt line would cross the Missouri and the Illinois en route to Indiana. Invenergy claims that the grain belt would link four American network regions, would offer the power and reliability of the network to 29 states and Washington, DC, representing more than 40% of all Americans.

The death of the loan guarantee started in Missouri with the republican senator Josh Hawley and the public prosecutor Andrew Bailey, who targeted the project as an “imprudent green energy scam”.

They initially asked for revocations of state approvals, then Hawley advanced via meetings with the energy secretary Chris Wright and would have been with Trump, guaranteeing the cancellation of the loan guarantee.

Hawley did not respond to a request for comments.

In a press release of July 2, Invenergy argued: “If the projects cannot count on certainty, even after being approved and examined after appeal, America cannot count on obtaining steel in the soil. America will lose the test of its desire to build. “

Before the cancellation of the loan guarantee, Invenergy wrote to Secretary Wright with a last plea on the attacks “politically blatant” as part of an “unjustified and disarticulated crusade”.

The plea was in vain.

Uncertainty is wreaking havoc

In the middle of the opposition, the invenergy construction contractor, Quanta Services, chose not to place the grain belt in his official backwards of the project for the moment, citing uncertainty.

“This is an excellent project. It is certainly faced with certain political ramifications there, and we are working with the customer,” said Earl “Duke” Austin, CEO of Quanta, when he calls the results of August 1. “We will work together to try to make it pass the finish line, and we really like the project. I believe at one point that it will be built. ”

Studies have shown that the wind belt called in the center of the United States, including Kansas, has nearly 1,000 gigawatts of wind energy capacity. But so much wind energy cannot be captured due to the lack of infrastructure. Kansas, for example, has around 10 gigawatts of wind energy due to the lack of transmission lines to transport electricity to more populated regions where demand exists.

The question is now whether the administration will choose to target other electricity transmission projects. Trump has already distant federal offshore waters from wind developers, and transmission projects connecting offshore wind turbines proposed to Earth are canceled, industry analysts said.

But no other major onshore transmission projects have been published publicly so far.

The largest currently under construction is the Sunzia transmission project of 500 miles from Pattern Energy in Arizona and New Mexico, but it is planned for completion next year and it is unlikely to be interrupted lately, analysts said.

Capital transmission capital expenses are at a record level for public services, but the expenses of new transmission lines are close to 10 years because companies focus on replacing and modernizing existing lines, said Brett Castelli, energy analyst and public services for Morningstar. More projects like Sunzia and Grain Belt are necessary, he said.

“There is a huge need to meet the growing demand for electricity when you think of things like AI,” said Castelli. “The challenge is that it is generally a certain time to be authorized. Building a new long-haul electric transmission that crosses states is an extremely long and heavy process.”

Grum of the Power Association said it just wanted the Trump administration to support the growth of the private sector. “The only way to build major infrastructure and modernize the country is that we come back to this idea that the government should support the private sector and build any infrastructure that the country needs,” he said.