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Good morning and happy Día de Muertos,
As Election Day looms, the Harris and Trump campaigns are in a dead heat, which has many clean energy advocates spooked. While Trump has pledged to dismantle the IRA, many of his allies are making money from it.
The Democrats are still struggling to get traction from the IRA, while the Republicans are grappling with messaging on Biden’s climate law. The two candidates differ on energy policy, and some experts warn that the future of the IRA and permitting reform hinge on the upcoming election.
In other news, a U.S. district court ruled “no fer ROFR,” finding that a Texas transmission law favoring incumbent utilities is unconstitutional; for its part, SPP approved a “historic” $7.7B transmission plan that involves 89 projects across 14 states
And, ICYMI Friday, an exciting new non-profit is supporting champions of local renewable energy projects to provide a counterweight to organized opposition. We’re grateful for them!
Read on for more.
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At Sixes and Sevens
Nevada has just six electoral votes, but it’s one of seven swing states that could decide next week’s presidential election. It’s also a place where some conventional alignments between politics and views on energy and climate have been turned on their head. Here’s what’s happening:
The Silver State is also a big solar state, with about 5 GW of solar online today, and an additional 3.2 GW in the pipeline. More than 9,000 Nevadans work in the industry, and almost 12 million acres of BLM land – “an area larger than Maryland” – could be open for solar development.
Nevada also has vast lithium reserves and has attracted investment in developing and refining the mineral, as well as interest from battery manufacturers. Ironically, some in the state welcome this economic activity but “scoff at electric vehicles” and dismiss climate change as “a bunch of hooey.”
The abundance of natural resources and other factors combine to create “a very unusual opportunity” that puts Nevada at the center of the clean energy transition. But with opportunities come conflicts over land use, particularly for areas that have cultural significance to tribes.
⚡️ The Takeaway
Not necessarily resonating. The vast sums of money for clean energy- and climate-related initiatives creating an “economic bonanza” in Nevada aren’t necessarily “resonating in a presidential race dominated by issues like the cost of living and transgender rights.” Some voters welcome clean energy investment, but reject the Democratic party; others support Harris but are against development that threatens “fragile ecosystems.” Given the “tough trade-offs” at play, it’s no wonder clean energy advocates in Nevada may at times feel they’re at sixes and
sevens.
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Solar Siting Redux
In Virginia, the Mid-Atlantic Renewable Energy Coalition (MAREC) is working to reduce barriers to solar development – several of which it says “amount to a ban on utility-scale projects” and have resulted in the rejection of 33 projects representing 3,236 MW of capacity in the past 18 months. Here’s a look at what’s afoot:
The 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act seeks to “decarbonize the state’s electric grid” by 2050 and requires the state’s two utilities to transition to carbon-free power by 2035, in part by owning solar. A Nov. 18 summit will explore “ways to maintain the goals” of the Act.
While some solar projects have been approved, many more have “run into opposition from those trying to preserve the state’s remaining farmland,” which declined by 500,000 acres between 2017 and 2022.
The Virginia Farm Bureau and the Virginia Cattlemen’s Association have expressed strong concerns about solar projects taking farmland out of production and resulting in the loss of forests, which could impact farmers’ ability to meet water quality standards.
⚡️ The Takeaway
Legislative solutions? MAREC, which represents 47 renewable energy developers, wants to find a better balance. In the 2024 legislative session, it tried unsuccessfully to advance legislation that would give the state the ability to override local opposition. In 2025, it’s “considering a bill that would create a solar siting board pairing local officials with state-level officials more familiar with solar projects in order to understand more holistically the benefits of a project,” potentially accompanied by “the creation of a standard set of best practices.”
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Turtle Scoop
Turtles have been around for some 230 million years, so they might not seem an obvious choice for a technological leap that represents “a step-change in operating costs and emissions” associated with subsea work, such as inspections of offshore wind turbine platforms.
Nevertheless, the Scottish technology company HonuWorx has chosen the Loggerhead sea turtle as the namesake for its flagship submersible. The Loggerhead is an uncrewed, “all-electric mothership that transports and deploys worker robots in remote locations for subsea inspection and maintenance.”
The potential emissions reductions are significant. By eliminating the need for fossil-fuel powered surface ships, Loggerheads can avoid emissions equivalent to 4,000 petrol or diesel cars per vessel it displaces.
In addition, another major benefit of the Loggerhead is that its ability to run independently means “it can provide year-round services without being impacted by choppy seas, which usually make conventional techniques difficult.”
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HonuWorx has big plans for its submarines: in the next decade, it hopes to capture 20% of the $3.2 billion global market for subsea inspection, repair and maintenance across the oil and gas, offshore wind, and defense sectors. Since Loggerhead sea turtles are considered vulnerable by the IUCN, perhaps some of those profits could go toward conservation efforts!
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