Arkansas Business reports this morning that Clean Line "preferred vendor" General Cable is likely to shut its doors before it actually manufactures any cable for the long-delayed project.
Being a "preferred vendor" didn't help General Cable. Being a "preferred vendor" isn't useful on a project proposed by a company with no financing, no revenue, and no customers. It's pie in the sky empty promises, and any company whose financial success depends on "contracts" with Clean Line is probably in big trouble. This may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Clean Line got a huge kick in the jimmies last week when wind turbine-hating Donald Trump was elected President. The company's business plan depended on eastern utilities being forced to add huge amounts of renewables to their portfolios that could only be supplied by big Midwestern wind and new transmission lines. First it was a federal carbon tax, which never came to fruition. Then it was state renewable portfolio standards, which ended up favoring local resources, instead of long-distance imports. Then it was the EPA's Clean Power Plan, currently tied up in the courts and not expected to survive. There's no incentive for eastern utilities to buy huge amounts of new transmission capacity to import hypothetical renewables thousands of miles, and it's not looking like customer interest in a "Clean Line" is going to rebound during a Trump administration. If you think Clean Line struggled to find customers over the past 8 years, its future is even more grim now.
Despite the initial threat of mass public temper tantrums, which has now morphed into false bravado, big wind is in serious trouble. Do they think that just saying they're already too committed to their grandiose plan to stop now is going to make a difference? And, hey, how about those current claims that big wind is so economic that they don't even need the subsidies they think they have locked down for the next 4 years? If big wind is so economic, I challenge them to stop taking the handouts they obviously don't need, which is estimated to cost the U.S. taxpayers $14.5B through 2025. To add insult to injury, most of this taxpayer largesse is funneled out of the country to foreign wind companies. On a state level, wind incentives cost state taxpayers millions to lower the cost of power that is shipped out of state and provides absolutely no benefit to state residents. In fact, shipping more power out of an export state causes power prices in the state to rise. It's simple supply and demand. Oklahoma seems to be on the brink of cutting this huge drain on its taxpayers. Other states may soon follow suit, and add repeal or reform of renewable portfolio standards to legislative goals. The Trump phenomenon caused plenty of Republican trickle down into state legislatures and change is pretty much guaranteed.
Policy moves with the speed of a glacier in Washington, DC. It's taken 8 years for the present administration to greenwash big wind into existence. Over the next 4 years, the new administration is going to systematically dismantle and cripple it because it can't perform without subsidies and favorably biased policy. Big wind probably won't survive because economics and better ideas will remake our energy future in the short term. The void must be filled, and progress waits for no man. Midwest wind powering the entire country was never a good idea and it's doubtful it can sustain itself during this period of uncertainty. Right now, we're all in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens, and utilities are no different. But they will adapt and quickly find new ways to tweak policy to complement their bottom lines, without big wind.
Adaptation probably won't include paying a premium for new transmission lines. Factually baseless, bogus claims of big wind front groups and their sycophants cannot stop the inevitable.
Clean Line got a huge kick in the jimmies last week when wind turbine-hating Donald Trump was elected President. The company's business plan depended on eastern utilities being forced to add huge amounts of renewables to their portfolios that could only be supplied by big Midwestern wind and new transmission lines. First it was a federal carbon tax, which never came to fruition. Then it was state renewable portfolio standards, which ended up favoring local resources, instead of long-distance imports. Then it was the EPA's Clean Power Plan, currently tied up in the courts and not expected to survive. There's no incentive for eastern utilities to buy huge amounts of new transmission capacity to import hypothetical renewables thousands of miles, and it's not looking like customer interest in a "Clean Line" is going to rebound during a Trump administration. If you think Clean Line struggled to find customers over the past 8 years, its future is even more grim now.
Despite the initial threat of mass public temper tantrums, which has now morphed into false bravado, big wind is in serious trouble. Do they think that just saying they're already too committed to their grandiose plan to stop now is going to make a difference? And, hey, how about those current claims that big wind is so economic that they don't even need the subsidies they think they have locked down for the next 4 years? If big wind is so economic, I challenge them to stop taking the handouts they obviously don't need, which is estimated to cost the U.S. taxpayers $14.5B through 2025. To add insult to injury, most of this taxpayer largesse is funneled out of the country to foreign wind companies. On a state level, wind incentives cost state taxpayers millions to lower the cost of power that is shipped out of state and provides absolutely no benefit to state residents. In fact, shipping more power out of an export state causes power prices in the state to rise. It's simple supply and demand. Oklahoma seems to be on the brink of cutting this huge drain on its taxpayers. Other states may soon follow suit, and add repeal or reform of renewable portfolio standards to legislative goals. The Trump phenomenon caused plenty of Republican trickle down into state legislatures and change is pretty much guaranteed.
Policy moves with the speed of a glacier in Washington, DC. It's taken 8 years for the present administration to greenwash big wind into existence. Over the next 4 years, the new administration is going to systematically dismantle and cripple it because it can't perform without subsidies and favorably biased policy. Big wind probably won't survive because economics and better ideas will remake our energy future in the short term. The void must be filled, and progress waits for no man. Midwest wind powering the entire country was never a good idea and it's doubtful it can sustain itself during this period of uncertainty. Right now, we're all in a holding pattern, waiting to see what happens, and utilities are no different. But they will adapt and quickly find new ways to tweak policy to complement their bottom lines, without big wind.
Adaptation probably won't include paying a premium for new transmission lines. Factually baseless, bogus claims of big wind front groups and their sycophants cannot stop the inevitable.
If you’ve never heard of the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership before, join the club. It has the potential to influence rapid change in the global energy sector...
The exclusive organization (by invitation only) characterizes itself as “an entity with a unique operational knowledge of the electricity sector:”
Among the group’s four main recommendations is this one:
"Make urgent progress with innovative research, development and demonstrations of advances economically viable technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the efficient generation, delivery and end ‐ use of electricity."
That goal dovetails neatly with U.S. Department of Energy initiatives under the Obama Administration. Many of these are already under way and are virtually irreversible. In some states they enjoy strong support from Republican policymakers. One good example is the 720-mile Plains & Eastern transmission line. It will deploy GE transformer stations for the economical delivery of 4,000 megawatts of wind power, sourced from wind farms located in the “red” state of Oklahoma.
These big city sycophants are only kidding themselves if they think that "recommendation" insures Clean Line will survive. Clean Line is the antithesis of the stated goal. It's not economic and it is not efficient new technology. The U.S. Department of Energy's goals will change considerably under new leadership, putting its Sec. 1222 ad hoc "program" in jeopardy. What has been a corrupt process under the current administration is not "virtually irreversible." I hope lying to themselves about where Clean Line is headed provides the safe space they need for their cry-in. The reality of Clean Line is that it is also "enjoying" strong opposition from Republican policymakers in "red" states, such as Arkansas. Even in Oklahoma, where the Governor has previously been supportive, continued financial support for wind exports is on the chopping block.
The globalization of America has come to a screeching halt. Only one company in the mentioned "Partnership" is an American company, and it only supports big wind if it can make some big bucks building and owning its own little cash cow wind projects. There's no room in there for Clean Line Energy Partners. Maybe they should start courting the other foreign "partners" and move their operations overseas?
They're dead here. Middle America is tired of having its fate dictated by greedy foreign corporations and their elite policy wonks in Washington, DC.
The globalization of America has come to a screeching halt. Only one company in the mentioned "Partnership" is an American company, and it only supports big wind if it can make some big bucks building and owning its own little cash cow wind projects. There's no room in there for Clean Line Energy Partners. Maybe they should start courting the other foreign "partners" and move their operations overseas?
They're dead here. Middle America is tired of having its fate dictated by greedy foreign corporations and their elite policy wonks in Washington, DC.
I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.
Isoroku Yamamoto
Damn right.
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