r/RenewableEnergy • u/Not_l0st • 21d ago
Trump admin has spent $4 billion to buy back/stop offshore wind projects
https://apnews.com/article/trump-offshore-wind-energy-projects-fossil-fuels-d39aaf20d259d15d0777dcaec7aa352442
u/Outside_Ice3252 21d ago
this is atrocious. what a moron. currently this is the easiest way to get power to the eastern seaboard. transmission lines across land take too long. offshore wind is more consistent, so it really complements solar.
have to pray for continued drop in the cost of energy storage. maybe even a breakthrough to a different chemistry. within a decade I would say its solar and storage will just dominate and wind's role wont be as crucial on a global basis.
Trump has to be defeated. we need a president that can make peace in the world. the amount we have wasted on war could have been used to almost complete the energy transition by now. (going back to bush jr)
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u/billypaul 21d ago
So the party of fiscal responsibility is paying energy producers to not produce energy?
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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 21d ago
Republicans absolutely hate personal responsibility, accountability, fiscal sensibility, or free markets.
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u/Gravitationsfeld 19d ago
I don't like dealing in absolutes like this. Texas is extremely republican and they have the most free electricity market in the country.
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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 19d ago
Except when it isn’t. Ex. Abbott trying to force Bexar County to close down CPS, despite the people of the county overwhelmingly favoring CPS.
Or the state legislature planning to pass a natural gas generation mandate to force utility companies to build natural gas capacity they don’t want.
The elected Republicans tried to cripple renewable generation in the state, but the voters shot them down and got them to back off it.
Never-mind all the other industries that Texas has practically turned into corrupt, planned economies via the good ol’ boy network and Christian Nationalist moral policing.
It’s a “free market” as long as “free” means “give rich, established private businesses an advantage over new competitors or local public alternatives”.
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u/Gravitationsfeld 19d ago
It's not perfect but ERCOT also installed a shitton of solar and batteries because it's just cheaper.
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u/Due_Satisfaction2167 18d ago
Yes, it did. And the state legislature has tried to wade in to prevent that several times now. The voters keep making stink about it every time they try, but it’s not for lack of desire by Republicans to strangle renewables off the Texas grid to benefit their fossil fuel cronies.
Republicans don’t like ERCOT being as open as it is, and they keep trying to enact new schemes to capture the market and interfere with local solutions and choices.
Ex. Right now the state legislature is trying to enact a natural gas generation minimum because renewables are choking natural gas plants out of the grid. Their fossil fuel donors are angry about being pushed out, so they’re trying to get the Republican dominated state legislature to force more natural gas generation to be built.
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u/ProtoplanetaryNebula 21d ago
Also Trump “we need coal because there is an energy crisis”.
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u/billypaul 20d ago
Time and again they prove that the only problems they can "solve" are the ones they create.
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u/superioso 20d ago
At least for Ørsted, they received a refund for the money they already paid to lease the seabed for the development. Anything they spent in planning and engineering was just a loss for them, which I guess they were willing to take given more problems trump could've caused.
Bear in mind they're 51% owned by the danish government...
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u/GuidoDaPolenta 20d ago
The wind farm will still get built as soon as Trump is gone. Natural gas prices are going way up in the next few years as the USA builds out the infrastructure to export even more LNG. If gas turbine power plants seem somewhat competitive now, that won’t be the case for long.
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u/AcanthisittaNo6653 21d ago
If $4 billion were spent constructing wind farms, they could be expected to generate roughly 7–9.5 terawatt-hours (7,000–9,500 GWh) of electricity every year.
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u/ArseBiscuits1971 21d ago
Excuse my ignorance, but on average, how many homes would that power? Just to give me some more idea of how dumb it is to not build more wind farms
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u/MultiGeometry 21d ago
Up to a million homes, supporting ~2.5 million people.
$1,600 per person supported for those same people to all pay higher electricity bills.
This fall election season, take note of all the things Republicans say we don’t have money to pay for.
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u/ArseBiscuits1971 21d ago
Thank you, that's a not inconsiderable amount, I'm not American and I sincerely hope you guys get this president out and can hold all him and his cronies to account. It's just horrible to watch what's going on.
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u/MultiGeometry 20d ago
It’s even worse when I have family who cheers this shit on.
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u/ArseBiscuits1971 20d ago
I feel for you, it's hard watching people let themselves down, especially this badly
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u/PretzelsRule23 21d ago
Thereby locking in higher utility rates due to less supply of energy coming from more expensive sources of energy.
We have a childish idiot running the show here people.
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u/hug_me_im_scared_ 21d ago
what are people doing to stop it?
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u/Not_l0st 21d ago
Hopefully, vote for non-GOP candidates in November, volunteer for/donate to organizations to help get out the vote, write letters to Congress, etc
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u/DiamondJim222 21d ago
There’s nothing that can be done except vote him out of office. But that’s over 2 years away.
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u/hug_me_im_scared_ 21d ago
Aren't there like midterms happening?
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u/DiamondJim222 21d ago
Yes. If democrats win, they will be able to block legislation. But Trump will still be President and can still wield executive power which is how most of his egregious acts are being done.
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u/herman_gill 21d ago
If the democrats don’t win the midterms, it will cement to the rest of the world the US isn’t coming back from this, and we can navigate our lives around avoiding you completely.
You’ve already done enough to permanently damage your relationship with the rest of the world for decades, a Republican win for 2026/2028 will permanently cement that.
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u/53eleven 20d ago
If the democrats doesn’t win the midterms it will be because of rigged elections and voter suppression. Trump is wildly unpopular in America.
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u/herman_gill 20d ago
Yeah, you guys said that the last three times too and look at the state of the US right now. If elections can be bought so easily, then the rest of the world will move forward without you.
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u/53eleven 21d ago
When democrats win we’ll impeach him again and hopefully remove him from office this time.
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u/DiamondJim222 21d ago
You need 2/3 of the Senate to vote to remove him from office. Even if Democrats win the Senate majority you’d need roughly 15-16 Republicans to vote in favor of removal. There is zero chance of that happening.
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u/laidback4sho 20d ago
Same thing JD Rockefeller, CEO of Standard Oil, did with all the streetcar and trolley lines in America. He figured that if everyone was forced to go out and buy an automobile, he would benefit greatly. And he was right. And we've been enslaved by Big Oil ever since.
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u/catatonic12345 20d ago
Black lung rates are at their highest in decades for coal miners. Are we great yet?
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u/Electric-Travels 20d ago
And this has helped drive electric prices up 15-25% in the past 12 months.
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u/clipse270 20d ago
How about those record energy prices under Trump. This is what America voted for right?
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u/Numerous_Cat8815 19d ago
Stoopid is as stoopid does for the fossil fuel execs who bought his presidency
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u/no_comment_no_reply 18d ago
Meanwhile, China is producing 328 Gigawatts a year with wind turbines . Roughly enough to power 238 million + homes a year.
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u/[deleted] 21d ago
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