UK Not Really Buying Into Climate Activism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 11, 2020

Will green investment be prioritised in the economic stimulus packages that are undoubtedly needed? Will people think differently about travel or food security? Will we emerge with a politics that focuses more on a collective approach to global challenges such as climate? Or will we fall back into desperate attempts to rekindle the old economy and the old ways? – Rebecca Willis (UK), The Guardian, May 21, 2020

The shallowness of climate concern among the public and voters is a large elephant in the climate room. A recent poll by the American Energy Alliance confirmed that U.S. voters are much more interested in pocketbook issues than in the ephemeral, politicized issue of “climate change.” The same is true when it comes to politics as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) lamented earlier this year:

There is no company that shows up in Congress on climate, except maybe Patagonia.

Heart of Hawaii: Oil Powers Oahu’s Sustainable Energy Program

By David Shormann -- June 10, 2020

… on Oahu, generating 1 MW of power using wind and solar requires 154 acres of land. That’s more than 800 times as much land as the Kahe petroleum-fired power plant requires to generate the same amount of power. Using wind/solar projects to produce the same amount of electricity Oahu utilities produced in January 2020 would require … almost one-third of Oahu … be covered with solar panels, wind turbines, and battery storage systems.

On Oahu’s west side, a Hawaiian green sea turtle snuggles up to a reef for an afternoon nap. But this is no ordinary reef. It’s the warm water outflow structure for Oahu’s biggest electric power producer, the Kahe Power Plant.

Built in the early 1960’s, the 651 megawatt (MW) workhorse often provides over 40% of Oahu’s power.…

LEEDCO Update: Offshore Lake Erie (Ohio) Project In Trouble in Year 11

By Sherri Lange and Suzanne Albright -- June 9, 2020

“Lake Erie is the Saudi Arabia of wind … represent[ing] 20 percent of the United States’ total offshore wind energy capacity.” (Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, May 18, 2016)
As we fear for the countless flying animals facing massive slaughter, we are equally fearful that this “demonstration project” is the beginning of the end of the Great Lakes for any other purpose than an industrial power facility spanning multiple states and two countries. (Suzanne Albright, letter of May 31, 2020, below)
One of the most carefully crafted [OPSB] stipulations [requires] the developer to curtail, or “feather” turbines at “night” for eight months of the year. The developer calls this a financial “poison pill.” (below)

On May 21, 2020, the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) unanimously granted a certificate of approval to LEEDCo/Icebreaker, a 6-turbine, 20.7 MW (3.45 MW per turbine) “demonstration” project eight miles offshore Cleveland.…