It looks like Joe Biden’s climate change agenda just took another big hit.
Three offshore wind projects in New York have been canceled, removing about four gigawatts of power from Biden’s expected 2030 output.
Talking Points…
- Biden looking for wind boost to meet climate goals
- The New York project was canceled
- Analysis
When Joe Biden took office, he made it clear that he would push for renewable energy to meet his climate goals. A huge part of that agenda was to dramatically expand wind operations. Biden wanted to add 30 gigawatts of wind energy by 2030 (the country currently produces about 42 megawatts of offshore wind energy). By 2050, Biden’s goal was to achieve net-zero emissions by the entire country.
This was an aggressive agenda by Biden, which is putting it mildly. Unfortunately for Biden, the aggressive nature of the plan has backfired significantly, as the planned projects have been facing challenges from the outset. The administration started targeting large offshore projects in states like New Jersey and New York, but developers ran into supply chain issues as they realized that some of these farms were just not economically viable.
By November 2023, it became clear that Biden would be nowhere near his stated goals as cancelations and size-downs were hurting his offshore wind goals. Three projects off the coast of Massachusetts and Connecticut were canceled, which would have produced 3.2 gigawatts of power. Then Orsted canceled two large offshore wind projects off the coast of New Jersey, removing another 2.2 gigawatts of energy from his plans.
The bad news continued this week for Joe Biden, with three more projects getting scrapped. This time, it was because of a design change by General Electric Vernova, which decided to use a smaller turbine than had originally been planned. The project had initially called for 18-megawatt turbines.
In total, these three projects would have delivered four gigawatts of power for Biden’s goals. This adds to an already growing number of wind project cancellations, making it all but certain that Biden will fail to meet his 2030 goal.
According to reports, the company changed the design due to rising interest rates, inflation, and design challenges the larger turbines presented, which have added to the struggles of the companies undertaking these projects. NYSERDA, the state authority in charge of the deals, announced the cancelation of the projects on Friday, stating:
“Subsequent to the provisional award announcement, material modifications to projects bid into New York’s third offshore wind solicitation caused technical and commercial complexities between provisional awardees and their partners, resulting in the provisionally awarded parties’ inability to come to terms.”
Spokesperson Kate Muller then added:
“NYSERDA remains committed to advancing New York’s offshore wind industry in pursuit of the state’s Climate Act goals.
“Next steps will be announced in the near future.”
The administration and state agencies are all trying to put a positive spin on this, insisting that this is just a setback and that projects will continue to move forward. However, at this point, Biden has had about a third of the projects approved canceled on him, and there is no sign that inflation or interest will let up, so these companies are not willing to risk significant financial losses. So, in reality, Biden’s climate agenda is doing nothing but costing American taxpayers billions, if not trillions, in fantasy energy projects that will never become a reality. All the while, he continues to keep his boot on the throat of the fossil fuel industry.
