Podcasts about vineyard wind

Register for the next SkySpecs Webinar! We discuss China's new 20MW floating turbine by CRRC, and Nordex's patent application for modular blade assembly. Plus HeliService USA's offshore ambulance service and the recent construction delays at Atlantic Shores and Vineyard Wind. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Allen Hall: Our next SkySpecs webinar, if you missed the last one, about lightning protection and how to use SkySpecs, drone imaging and data, and the EOLOGIX-PING Lightning sensor to help yourself on the lightning side. You can actually watch that on the SkySpecs. Just go to SkySpecs and you can see that webinar. It's free. All this stuff is free. It's all great stuff. All you need to do is register. You can get all this information. The next one is coming up on June 25th, 11:00 AM Eastern Time. And this next, webinar is gonna have Liam McGrath from RWE, who's a blade engineer there, and Tom Brady from SkySpecs, who handles all the cool drone technologies. So if you haven't met Tom, you need to go to this webinar and find out what's going on. And Michael McQueenie from SkySpecs. It's the rule. Subject is when should you be scheduling your drone inspections and you shouldn't be doing it in the spring. That's really important. If you wanna save some money on your operational aspects, your [00:01:00] o and m budget, you need to be thinking about how to get your inspections done, when to get your inspections done, and what tools are available to you at different times a year. So there's optimal times to get your drones inspected and there's suboptimal times. Suboptimal times is like March. Don't do it, then do it the previous fall. and so Joel will be there. I will be there. Don't miss it. It is June 25th. 11:00 AM and you can sign up in the show notes below.  Speaker 2: You're listening to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast, brought to you by build turbines.com. Learn, train, and be a part of the Clean Energy Revolution. Visit build turbines.com today. Now, here's your hosts. Alan Hall, Joel Saxon, Phil Totaro, and Rosemary Barnes.  Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I have Joel Saxo along and Rosemary Barnes from Australia and I've. Just been digging through all the news over the last several days. Really disappointing news to the United States, but over [00:02:00] in China. TRRC has unveiled a 20 megawatt floating wind turbine, and it's, has a rotor diameter of 260 meters, which is not really outrageous. The CRRC press release, which is a little outrageous, let, me read you some of this, and it's called The Key Hung. wind turbine, the key Hung, integrates multiple innovative control technologies offering four core advantages. High intelligence system, modularization, full chain collaboration. And Joel, don't we all want that? And exceptional stability. It incorporates various intelligent controls, sensing and detection technologies that design further enhances the unit's flexibility and efficiency by modularizing key system interfaces and structural components. So there are a lot of words in this press release, but they don't say, actually say anything at all. So that's why we have Rosemary here to suss  Joel Saxum: out.  Allen Hall: What is happening with CRRC and a [00:03:00] 20 megawatt floating turbine? Is it really needed, Rosemary?  Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I think I've made my thoughts clear about the, like bigger, kind of pursuit of, offshore wind turbines. And I think that a lot of it is about prestige to be the, first with the biggest. and so I guess that this is the,

Meghan Lapp is leading the charge to save the commercial fishing industry and bringing up a national security risk. How, you might ask, are offshore wind farms a huge problem?The Empire Wind Project, a controversial offshore wind farm near New York, has raised national security and environmental concerns due to its location near JFK flight paths, potential radar interference, and disruption of vital fishing grounds. Meghan Lapp, a fisheries expert, warns that the project—partly owned by Norway's state was rushed through permitting without proper oversight, may obstruct air defense capabilities, and could endanger marine life and navigation. Despite a brief halt by the Trump administration, the project resumed amid speculation of a pipeline deal, drawing scrutiny over regulatory failures and political motivations.Highlights of the Podcast00:00 – Introduction03:13 – Empire Wind Project Controversy05:28 – Alleged Pipeline Deal & Foreign Ownership08:15 – Radar Interference and JFK Airport Risks11:19 – DOD and FAA Inter-agency Failures14:24 – Deceptive Status Claims and Construction Reality17:09 – Maritime Safety and Historic Collisions20:01 – Tower Size and Ecological Blind Spots23:26 – Vineyard Wind and Tax Loopholes27:17 – Falsified Safety Data and National Security Concerns30:44 – Trump Admin Review and Industry Hope33:58 – Structural Governance Problems36:41 – Disparity in Regulation Between Oil/Gas and Wind39:20 – Microplastics and Blade Deterioration42:05 – Reclamation Costs and Industry Burden44:13 – Final Plea for Government Attention46:36 – Conclusion and Call to Action

Meghan Lapp is leading the charge to save the commercial fishing industry and bringing up a national security risk. How, you might ask, are offshore wind farms a huge problem?The Empire Wind Project, a controversial offshore wind farm near New York, has raised national security and environmental concerns due to its location near JFK flight paths, potential radar interference, and disruption of vital fishing grounds. Meghan Lapp, a fisheries expert, warns that the project—partly owned by Norway's state was rushed through permitting without proper oversight, may obstruct air defense capabilities, and could endanger marine life and navigation. Despite a brief halt by the Trump administration, the project resumed amid speculation of a pipeline deal, drawing scrutiny over regulatory failures and political motivations.Highlights of the Podcast00:00 – Introduction03:13 – Empire Wind Project Controversy05:28 – Alleged Pipeline Deal & Foreign Ownership08:15 – Radar Interference and JFK Airport Risks11:19 – DOD and FAA Inter-agency Failures14:24 – Deceptive Status Claims and Construction Reality17:09 – Maritime Safety and Historic Collisions20:01 – Tower Size and Ecological Blind Spots23:26 – Vineyard Wind and Tax Loopholes27:17 – Falsified Safety Data and National Security Concerns30:44 – Trump Admin Review and Industry Hope33:58 – Structural Governance Problems36:41 – Disparity in Regulation Between Oil/Gas and Wind39:20 – Microplastics and Blade Deterioration42:05 – Reclamation Costs and Industry Burden44:13 – Final Plea for Government Attention46:36 – Conclusion and Call to Action

This week: Wind energy continues to spin with lawsuits—the Supreme Court dismissed two against Vineyard Wind, and now 17 states are suing on behalf of wind farms. More than a quarter of employees are now gone from the Northeast Fisheries Science center under Trump administration cutbacks. And boaters protest a plan to remove local navigation buoys.

This week, SSE appoints Martin Pibsworth as the next CEO, GE Vernova inaugurates a new customer center in Florida, RWE advances its Sophia Offshore Wind Project, and Nantucket challenges three offshore wind projects along Massachusetts coast. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Newsflash, industry News Lightning fast. Newsflash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: Starting off the week, British Utility Company SSE has named Martin Pibsworth as its chief executive designate. Pibsworth joined SSE in 1998 and currently serves as Chief Commercial Officer. Pibsworth will take over from Alistair Phillips Davies, who has been CEO since 2013 and will hand over the reigns following the annual general meeting on July 17th. Before leaving the company in November, uh, the new CEO will lead SSE renewables push helping the UK deliver on its decarbonization goals. During Philip's Davies tenure, SSE made a strategic shift toward networks and renewables with shares gaining about 4% during his leadership. Last year. SSE announced plans to invest at least 22 billion pounds in grid infrastructure over five years. Over in the United States, GE Vernova has opened a new customer experience center at its Pensacola facility in Florida, marked by a ribbing cutting event hosted by CEO Scott Strazik. The center includes multiple conference rooms, collaboration areas, and direct access to production space. The investments are part of GE Vernova's broader plan announced in January to invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities. Over the next two years, the Pensacola factory has already produced enough turbines to supply over 1.2 gigawatts of the 2.4 gigawatts ordered for the Sunzia Wind Farm in New Mexico. German Energy group RWE has installed its first turbines at its 1.4 Gigawatt Sophia Offshore Wind Project in the uk Located on Dogger Bank, 195 kilometers off the northeast coast of Britain. Sophia is set to become one of the world's largest single offshore wind farms. The project will consist of 100 Siemens Gamesa turbines featuring 150 recyclable blades. The wind park is scheduled to be fully operational in the second half of 2026. RWE's Chief Operating Officer for offshore wind commented that Sophia will make a significant contribution to the UK's clean power 2030 targets. And over in Massachusetts, the town of Nantucket and a Nantucket based activist group are challenging three offshore wind projects off the Massachusetts coast. The town recently sued the US Department of Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management requesting that the government set aside its approval of South Coast Wind and restart the environmental review. Meanwhile, the group ACK for Whales is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to rescind permits granted to Vineyard Wind and New England wind. These challenges come amid the Trump administration's opposition to offshore wind. Industry analyst Timothy Fox's Vineyard Wind faces less risk from these challenges since it's already under construction while projects in planning stages are at higher risk. South Coast wind, which receive final federal approval on the last business day of the Biden administration could be delayed by up to four years. Vineyard wind is the furthest along among these projects with more than half of its 62 turbine towers already installed. Massachusetts Energy Secretary Rebecca Tepper has reiterated the state support for offshore wind emphasizing the need for energy independence...

Connecticut and Massachusetts have backed out of their portions of the Vineyard Wind 2 offshore project, Avaada Group is investing $12B in renewables for Rajasthan by 2030, and Enersense is selling its onshore wind and solar project development business to Fortum. Fill out our Uptime listener survey and enter to win an Uptime mug! Register for Wind Energy O&M Australia! https://www.windaustralia.com Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Welcome to Uptime News Flash. Industry news, lightning fast. Your hosts, Allen Hall, Joel Saxum, and Phil Totaro discuss the latest deals, mergers, and alliances that will shape the future of wind power. News Flash is brought to you by IntelStor. For market intelligence that generates revenue, visit www.intelstor.com. Allen Hall: There's been a significant setback for offshore wind development from Vineyard Offshore as they announced the withdrawal of its 800 megawatt portion of the Vineyard Wind 2 project from Massachusetts contract negotiations and that decision came after Connecticut opted not to purchase its planned 400 megawatt share of the project. This development impacts Massachusetts ambitious offshore wind goals, where despite earlier procurement of 3200 megawatts of capacity, only Vineyard Wind 1 remains active in the state's pipeline. And Phil, this is due to the combination of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island working together to draw from some of these offshore projects. But now, Connecticut is full stop, not going to be involved in offshore wind, they said, for at least a couple of years. Phil Totaro: Yeah, not that Connecticut has always been Wind Energy's biggest well, biggest fan, pardon the pun. Connecticut has, is basically saying that they're pulling out of this procurement because offshore wind is just too expensive, and that's entirely true. . Given what the industry has to price the PPA at to be able to pay for the project, given the the cost of money and the cost of equipment these days. So I can see why they did it, but it does kind of screw Rhode Island and Massachusetts a little bit because, they were counting on that offtake. So the question then becomes, does Massachusetts unilaterally go and sign an agreement 2 at some point? Is that even something that's going to be able to move forward, before January 20th, where presumably we're not going to get, four years worth of BOEM approvals on offshore wind farms? So there's a lot of uncertainty and unfortunately chaos caused by, Connecticut's decision here and, and certainly unfortunate for, for vineyard offshore wind. Joel Saxum: I think one thing to think about here is that like you said, Phil, that there's a looming deadline that might close the door on some of these wind things or not, not slam the door, but close it a little bit more this offshore wind program that we have going on the East Coast for no matter what state you're in. And, and the way I'm looking at some of this is, yes, the PPAs are expensive. I see that. Tech, the technology is expensive. I see that the financing is, has been a bit difficult. It should be hopefully getting easier to see that. However, If your goal is to have renewable energies and you're in the northeast part of the United States, you don't have a whole lot of options. Your options basically are offshore wind and something else that someone dreams up for something because that's it.

Offshore wind projects like Vineyard Wind are set to be a huge part of our state's energy future. But for such a huge infrastructure project, it's not that easy to get out and see for yourself. For one thing, you need to charter a boat to take you out to look at the Vineyard Wind turbines located miles offshore.  This is exactly what a group of New England reporters did in September – including WBUR's own senior climate reporter, Miriam Wasser. She joins The Common to tell us about the experience.  Greater Boston's weekly podcast where news and culture meet.

WBUR senior climate and environment reporter Miriam Wasser joins Radio Boston to share what she saw on a boat trip to Vineyard Wind, the under-construction offshore turbine farm which, once complete, will be the largest in the United States.

GE Vernova's CEO, Scott Straszak, announced at a conference that the company is on schedule to lose about $300 million in Q3. It seems the blade failures at Dogger Bank and Vineyard Wind are resulting in a big chunk of these losses. And many European companies have decided to leave Vietnam due to the country's relationship to China. Register to attend AMI's Wind Turbine Blades Boston, October 2nd and 3rd. Enter to win 2 VIP NASCAR pit passes at the Kansas Motor Speedway! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Philip Totaro: Phil, you were just at RE+ in Anaheim, sunny Anaheim. How'd it go? I was extremely sunny and face meltingly hot on the first couple of days from the heat wave we've had in California. It was like a hundred and three degrees on Monday and then it started cooling off thankfully more recently, but there were, I don't know the official number but they were telling me it was close to 40, 000 attendees. So I've done a few of these events before in at the Anaheim Convention Center, if you're familiar with it. It can hold that capacity, but it was absolutely bursting at the seams. And people absolutely everywhere. I've never seen that so jam packed. The interesting thing about it is there were many different exhibitors there. But the overwhelming majority of them seemed like they were supply chain companies. Which was a little disappointing on my part. I was, I was there to try to talk to project developers and financiers anyway. But the supply chain companies that were there covering the spectrum of both residential and utility scale solar, as well as battery storage technology, really interesting stuff. There's some, they're making great strides in some of the solar module manufacturing and sell. Technology and even some of the packaging and integration is getting pretty slick. Keep in mind, too, that, CAPEX for solar compared to wind is still You know what about 15 to 20 percent lower at this point? Especially in the U. S. market anyway so you're seeing, it's rather substantial amount of interest at this point in solar and hybrid battery storage projects. And everybody that was there, the energy of the event was good. We didn't sadly do an uptime wind energy podcast there. So they're a little light on the the wind energy content that, that the, rebranded solar Power International re, which is now repl, but we hope to be able to address that in the future. Allen Hall: It's a sunny conference for our solar and battery festival, which is really what it is. Makes sense. I just wish when we get to some of our wind conferences, we're in places that are windy. We don't tend to go to places that are windy, like Kansas or Oklahoma. Philip Totaro: I got news for you. It seems like next year we're gonna be in Phoenix Arizona, right? So that, that's gonna be hot and maybe a little miserable, cause I think it's happening in May. Allen Hall: Yeah, we're in a solar hotbed. We should be at a wind site. I know, irony. I'm Alan Hall, and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. The United States is seeing significant growth in offshore wind development. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are moving forward with three offshore wind projects totaling 2. 9 gigawatts. The projects, named South Coast Wind, New England Wind 1, and Vineyard Wind 2, are expected to power approximately 1. 6 million homes.

Joel and Phil dive in to liquidated damages and how the industry can avoid big payouts. GE Vernova is dealing with another offshore blade failure in the UK, and our thoughts on the latest renewable energy Instagram craze. And, a discussion on a very full eagle! If you have encountered metal staples in a GE 2.X-116 or 127 blades, reach out to Joel at joel.saxum@wglightning.com. There's still time to register for AMI Event's Wind Turbine Blade Conference in October 2-3rd! Click here - AMI Boston Wind Blade Conference Need low-cost lightning strike sensors for your turbine? Email Joel at Joel.saxum@wglightning.com. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: All right. Really urgent news story here. A supposedly injured bald eagle. Now, remember that the bald eagle is America's bird. Is it America's bird or national animal? National mammal? And it's also like the national symbol too. It's a national symbol. There we go. All right. So a supposedly injured bald eagle, which is America's national symbol. Was rescued from a national park in Missouri and found it was acting like it was too injured to fly, but they took poor Eagle in and did an x ray on it and realized. That it was just full of raccoon. What? It was full? It had too much food? Yeah, it was found healthy, but engorged with raccoon. In other words, too fat to fly. Philip Totaro: Is there tryptophan in raccoons? Allen Hall: Oh, there may be. Joel Saxum: I'll tell you a fun fact about the eagle as the United States national symbol. Ben Franklin actually wanted it to be the turkey. And his reason. His reasoning was, eagles are actually scavengers and they eat dead things and turkeys don't. Allen Hall: Both of those birds are huge. If you've ever been anywhere near a bald eagle, they are massive creatures. I, the thing that bothers me about this is that eagle was living large, relaxing, chilling, and then somebody grabbed him! Somebody scooped him up and with the x ray in him, the next thing he knows, it's like he's waking up in a hospital and all he wanted to do was watch the Cowboys game, I'm Allen Hall and I'll be joined by the rest of the Uptime hosts after these news headlines. Denmark is making waves in the renewable energy sector with a massive 13 billion euro investment in offshore wind power. Aiming to boost capacity by 10 gigawatts across three areas. This ambitious plan, representing the largest tender for offshore wind power ever issued in Denmark, introduces a novel financing model where companies are required to make concession payments and co invest with the state. Which will retain a 20 percent stake in each project. This initiative is expected to create thousands of jobs with estimates suggesting that each gigawatt of offshore wind power could generate around 9, 500. Direct and indirect positions and require a capital investment of approximately 2. 1 billion euros. Beyond meeting national energy needs, the expanded capacity is set to position Denmark as a key exporter of electricity to neighboring countries. and a producer of green hydrogen. The European Commission's wind power package is breathing new life into the continent's wind industry with major players like Vestas and Siemens Energy expanding their operations. Vestas is establishing a new nacelle and blade factory in Poland, potentially creating over 1, 700 direct jobs by 2026. While Siemens Energy plans to hire around 4,

 We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about! Mario Oliveira - President/Co-Founder of VIPO (Violently Injured Police Officers) - Massachusetts Legislature passed V.I.P.O.'s model legislation to protect the wellbeing of police officers & other first responders who are shot, attacked or otherwise violently injured in the line of duty.Jerry Leeman - CEO of the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association - Fishermen flotilla gathers in protest at the destroyed Vineyard Wind turbine.Darlene Mottley - Staff attorney handling consumer protection matters for the Federal Trade Commission shares the Latest Variations on Impersonation Scams.Julie Bauke – President & Chief Career Strategist of The Bauke Group says bad bosses push Gen Zers, millennials to the brink.Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio!

This week: A fisherman's boat protest sets sail for the Vineyard Wind turbine farm. The Sandwich Boardwalk gets an official opening. And silent red-robed demonstrators parade the length of the Bourne Bridge.

Dan Pronk, a Nantucket Lobsterman, joins the show to explain how the Vineyard Wind project harms his way of life. Visit the Howie Carr Radio Network website to access columns, podcasts, and other exclusive content.

Jerry Leeman, CEO of the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association. Fishermen flotilla gathers in protest at the destroyed Vineyard Wind turbine

As the number of wind turbines increases, the spare parts business has room to grow. But would third-party blade replacement options be technically or financially possible? Plus a review of Vestas' quarter 2 financial call...the company posted a net loss of 156 million euros, widening from a 115 million euro loss from the same period last year. Visit https://www.eologix-ping.com/en/ to learn more about the EOLOGIX-PING lightning sensor. Register for the AMI Wind Turbine Blades Event! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: This is a world announcement. We've been begging for a low cost lightning sensor to be installed on turbines that requires no wiring and no maintenance, and we finally have it. And it's been produced by our friends at EOLOGIX-PING. I have a sample right here. It's quite lovely. It's small, it magnetizes to the turbine, and it tells you if your turbine's been struck. Joel and I have been using it for the last year or so, and it has been 100 percent effective. So this new low cost sensor is being included with our StrikeTape sales, so anytime we sell StrikeTape to our turbine, we are including, we Weather Guard are paying to have a EOLOGIX-PING Lightning Sensor installed so you can track how your turbine is doing with StrikeTape. So this is what everybody's been clamoring for. It is now here. And if you are interested in purchasing one of these low cost lightning units, You gotta get a hold of EOLOGIX-PING. Just go to https://www.eologix-ping.com/en/, or you can just call Joel, (832) 593-2782. We have about a thousand units that are ready to go, and now's the time to get it installed. Call now. I'm Allen Hall and I'll be joined by the rest of the uptime host. After these news headlines, Germany has announced results for a 5.5 gigawatt offshore wind auction. Three North Sea sites were awarded, RDE partnering with Total Energy secured two sites, while asset manager Luxkara won the third. These wind farms are set to become operational between 2029 and 2031. In the Belgian North Sea, the world's first wind powered electric ship charging station has been launched. Developed by Parkwind and MJR Power and Automation, this station is connected to the Noble Wind Farm, 29 miles offshore. The system can deliver up to 8 megawatts of power to service vehicles, operating effectively in choppy seas. Parkwind aims to deliver the first commercial offshore charging system by early 2025. China's central bank is extending its low carbon lending program to the end of 2027. This initiative provides financial institutions with low cost loans to support corporate carbon reduction efforts. China plans to promote battery powered vehicles, energy efficient appliances, and eco friendly building materials. The government aims to transition its economy to a green, low carbon model by 2035. Increasing non fossil energy consumption to about 25 percent by 2030. Vineyard Wind, America's first large scale offshore wind farm, is resuming partial construction following a turbine blade incident on July 13th. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has authorized tower and nacelle installation, but blade installation and power generation remain suspended. GE Vernova attributes the blade failure to a manufacturing deviation of an adhesive bond line. GE is employing high tech crawlers to inspect the existing wind turbine blades at the Vineyard Wind site.

Local leaders broke ground on Massachusetts' second major offshore wind farm Thursday in Salem. This comes just weeks after a Vineyard Wind turbine blade broke, sending debris into waters off of Cape Cod. WBZ NewsRadio's Madison Rogers reports. 

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found Click On Picture To See Larger PictureThe green new scam just fell apart in California. Newsom was trying to convince people that energy is cheaper in Cali, big fail. The Fed is ready to make the next move, the D's will demand it because they need to show the people that their policies worked, get ready for the boomerang. [BO] is now in a deep panic, they removed [JB], they have [KH] and she is failing. Trump just showed the [DS] how big this movement really is. This will force the [DS] into their next move. Time to change it all up and put in the real candidates. The counterinsurgency is working, the elections will be to big to rig.   (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:13499335648425062,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-7164-1323"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="//cdn2.customads.co/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs"); Economy  https://twitter.com/SCMountainGoat/status/1822858721128825088 https://twitter.com/JunkScience/status/1823338018486292767  Vineyard Wind sent teams to pick up debris on the beaches and vessels to fish it out of nearby waters. Locals were not mollified. At lengthy town meetings, they've urged the select board to scrap or delay the project... Jesse Sandole, 37, was born and raised on the island and owns a fish market there. He has no issue with building wind turbines on land but strongly opposes what he calls the “full-scale industrialization of the ocean.” He's concerned about what will happen once the turbines reach the end of their usable life in several decades and how they will be decommissioned. https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1823268250152493251 https://twitter.com/GRDecter/status/1823346200537358617   on home purchases and major renovations. Stock is up only +0.2% YTD vs S&P +12.05% Not surprised at all. https://twitter.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1823338265388184037 https://twitter.com/TimMurtaugh/status/1823061456818233852 https://twitter.com/ImMeme0/status/1823362128654254409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1823362128654254409%7Ctwgr%5Efc659a1f2ba437e7a9595b043df6f45f6782e9b4%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2024%2F08%2Fflashback-kamala-harris-cast-tie-breaking-vote-let%2F   Trump during his campaign. Biden would sign a bill eliminating a tax on tips, White House says  President Biden would “absolutely” sign legislation to eliminate taxes on tipped wages if it made it to his desk, the White House said Monday, embracing a policy first proposed by former President Trump and echoed by Vice President Harris.   Source: thehill.com   BIDENOMICS: Majority of Americans Believe Country is in Recession The U.S. economy under Joe Biden is thriving so much that a majority of Americans believe the country is in a recession. CNBC were the first to report on a recent survey by Affirm, which found that despite the Biden regime that the U.S. economy is strong, most people aren't feeling the benefits. The report states: The U.S. economy has remained remarkably strong even amid persistent inflation and high interest rates. And yet, 59% of Americans falsely believe that the U.S. is currently in a recession, according to a recent survey of 2,000 adults by Affirm in June. Citing higher costs and difficulty making ends meet, most respondents said they think a recession started roughly 15 months ago, in March 2023, and could last until July 2025, Affirm found.   https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1823034723867713700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1823034723867713700%7Ctwgr%5Ed39c2893378670077a9de68bfaf5ffe377dc8d4f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.

This week: The state has designated Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and much of Cape Cod as seasonal communities — we'll tell you what that means. Two scientific experts weigh in on the turbine blade debris from Vineyard Wind. And New Bedford is taking steps to be ready for the next hurricane.

Cleanup is ongoing after a blade on a Vineyard Wind turbine broke apart, sending tons of debris into the Atlantic. Much of that fiberglass and foam has washed up on Nantucket beaches— at the height of vacation season. What does this mean for the offshore wind industry?

The University of Hawaiʻi study will be the largest of its kind to investigate the health and social impacts of the Maui wildfires. Also, fiberglass is washing up on Nantucket's shores, and residents are concerned about the long-term environmental impact of this debris.Hawaiʻi Wildfire Survivors To Join Long-Term Health StudyNearly a year ago, Maui experienced a series of wildfires that caused major destruction and anguish for residents. More than 100 people died and thousands of structures were destroyed in what was the fifth deadliest wildland fire in U.S. history.Survivors of those fires are now taking part in the largest study of its kind to understand the health and social impacts of the Maui wildfires. The research team will sample the blood, DNA, and urine of participants over at least a decade to see if they develop conditions such as cancer. Researchers say this information will be essential as the island and its residents continue to recover.Casey Crownhart, climate reporter for the MIT Technology Review joins guest host Kathleen Davis to talk about this story and other top science news of the week, including California's Park Fire.Damaged Wind Turbine Blade Sinks Off Massachusetts CoastA large piece of fiberglass debris from the damaged Vineyard Wind turbine blade has sunk to the ocean floor, as the debris cleanup continues, according to press release from the town of Nantucket that's timestamped for 9:10 a.m.Town officials said that about half of the fiberglass shell of the blade remains attached and crews will continue to monitor it until a removal plan is developed. Most of the green and white foam fill dislodged during the initial failure last Saturday.They added that Vineyard wind is also developing a plan to test water quality around the island.“This complex undertaking involves engaging experts to determine the best path forward. To conduct the testing, specific information from GE's Safety Data Sheets is required, which is expected to be delivered to Vineyard Wind today,” according to the press release.To read the full story, visit our website. Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

West Nile virus is found in Boston, Vineyard Wind continues to clean up the scrap, and the lotto could go online in the near future. Stay in "The Loop" with #iHeartRadio.

This week: That failed Vineyard Wind turbine blade? Looks a manufacturing defect could be to blame. Meanwhile, the Army National Guard is seeking construction bids for its controversial Cape Cod machine gun range. And the VP comes to Ptown – 12 hours before she (surprise!) starts running for president.

A blade has failed at the Vineyard Wind Farm off the coast of Nantucket--what will the fallout be? How is GE responding? Will this effect the US Presidential Election? Plus a warning about electrostatic eliminators and mid-blade lightning protection: they don't work. And Mechanix Wear's TRACK (Trial Research and Collaboration Kit) program offers on-site assessments to identify specific hand protection needs for employees. NextEra's Walleye Wind Farm in Minnesota is our wind farm of the week! Visit AMI's website to book a spot at the Wind Turbine Blades conference! Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard's StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes' YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Pardalote Consulting - https://www.pardaloteconsulting.comWeather Guard Lightning Tech - www.weatherguardwind.comIntelstor - https://www.intelstor.com Allen Hall: Welcome to the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast. I'm AllenHall, and I'll be bringing you this week's top stories in the wind energy sector. Siemens Gamesa has secured a 1. 2 billion euro line of green guarantees from the Spanish government and major banks. This support comes at a crucial time for the wind energy subsidiary of Siemens Energy, which has been grappling with financial challenges. The Spanish export credit insurance company and a banking syndicate led by BBVA and BNP Paribas are backing this initiative. The Spanish state is providing a 50 percent guarantee, up to 600 million euros. Sharing the risk with the guarantor banks. This line of guarantees is designed to support Siemens Gamesa's projects in technical guarantees, allowing the company to execute its substantial order backlog of 40 billion euros in the wind business. We now turn our attention to the competitive landscape in the U. S. offshore wind market. Siemens Gamesa is currently leading the pack with a commanding 57 percent share of the order pipeline for offshore wind projects that have already selected a supplier. This translates to six projects with a capacity of Denmark's Vestas follows in second place with a 32 percent share, while U. S. based GE Vernova rounds out the top three with 11 percent. Shifting gears to labor news, approximately 300 workers at a Siemens Gamesa wind turbine factory in Hull, England, Are being balloted for a potential strike. The dispute centers around a pay offer that the Unite Union claims amounts to a real terms pay cut. The union warns that a strike could cause significant disruption to production. The Unite Union argues that the workers' pay has fallen in real terms since 2018, due to below inflation increases and a performance related bonus scheme. The hull factory specializes in constructing 108 meter long blades. In technology advancements, Orsted has successfully tested a new lower noise installation method for offshore wind foundations in Germany. The groundbreaking technology could revolutionize the way offshore wind foundations are installed. The new method, tested at Goda Wind III Offshore Wind Farm, uses a patented jetting technology attached to the monopile. This allows the foundation to sink into the seabed, replacing conventional installation methods such as pile driving. The result is a substantial decrease in underwater noise levels, with a reduction of 34 decibels compared to most commonly used installation methods. This installation not only enhances marine life protection, but also has the potential to make installations more efficient and cost effective. On the equipment front, German company Emitech is launching a new wind turbine blade turning unit designed to facilitate easier on site service and maintenance.

Don't miss a new episode of the Seafoodnews Podcast! Join Seafoodnews Senior Editor Amanda Buckle and Expana Senior Seafood Market Reporter Lorin Castiglione as they talk about some of the biggest stories of the week, including an update on Northline Seafoods' freezer barge following the electrical fire; the latest on Red Lobster's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing; and Vineyard Wind's turbine failure.

This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon's Bruce Mohl is joined by Alicia Barton, CEO of Vineyard Offshore, to discuss the Vineyard Wind 1 and 2 projects, and the challenges facing offshore wind development more broadly.

In Episode 450 of District of Conservation, Gabriella unpacks the fall-out and attempted cover up of the Vineyard Wind 1 turbine disaster unfolding in Nantucket, MA. She taps Bonnie Brady and Meghan Lapp, two commercial fishing industry activists and Big Wind opponents, to deconstruct what's happening and why ocean industrialization is harmful to conservation efforts. Tune in to learn more! SHOW NOTES Bonnie Brady & Meghan Lapp Texas Public Policy Foundation brings fishermen's lawsuit against Vineyard WindVineyard Wind Shut Down By Feds After Turbine Blade Failure Meghan Lapp on Local News Talking Nantucket Wind ‘Ruined by negligence': Dave Portnoy blasts Nantucket wind farm after broken blade shuts down beaches Part One: Women Fighting for Freedom for the Coast and Fisheries Part Two: Women Fighting for Freedom for the Coast and Fisheries July 19 Update - Vineyard Wind Turbine Blade Crisis Why Did Vineyard Wind Wait Two Days To Alert The Town About Its Damaged Turbine? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/district-of-conservation/support

This week: A blade comes off a Vineyard Wind turbine scattering debris onto Nantucket beaches. The Cape gets $1 billion for replacing the Sagamore Bridge. And the state says no to Holtec dumping radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay.

//The Wire//2000Z July 18, 2024////ROUTINE////BLUF: RIOTS BEGIN IN BANGLADESH. WIND TURBINE DEBRIS CLOSES NANTUCKET BEACHES. FINANCIAL DISCREPANCIES HIGHLIGHT TRUMP SHOOTING ISSUES.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-South Asia: Riots have emerged in Bangladesh following tensions that have been developing over the past few years. A few months ago, tensions escalated as students began to intensify protests against a controversial 1971 law that affects the hiring practices of civil servants. Those protests continue today, and have expanded to include most major universities throughout the nation. Conversely, as demonstrations have expanded, so has the crackdown, with clashes between protesters/rioters and police becoming increasingly more violent.-HomeFront-Massachusetts: Most of the beaches in Nantucket have been closed for cleanup operations as debris from destroyed wind turbines washes ashore. Last weekend, storm damage caused a catastrophic failure of turbine AW38 in the Vineyard Wind field which resulted in large fields of fiberglass and foam debris washing ashore over the past few days. Texas: Controversy has emerged following financial data that has come to light following the attempted assassination of President Trump. One day before the assassination attempt, Austin Private Wealth LLC (an investment firm located in the Austin area) disclosed a large put option against $DJT (Trump's media group) of 12,000,000 shares. Some sources claim that this disclosure is a quarterly filing (which also included other positions, not just DJT), and therefore no nefarious activity occurred. However since these records have come to light, the company has amended the filing and issued a statement that a “clerical error” was the reason for such activity.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: For many people, the financial data surrounding the attempted assassination of President Trump is suspicious. Of course, the potential for error always exists, and statistically speaking is often underrepresented as the cause for incidents like this.More broadly, the fact that the company felt the need to address these claims is telling enough. Even as many financial advisors balk at the potential for nefarious activity in the financial sector regarding this incident, and scold any layperson who may think some investigation is worthwhile, the honest truth is that the majority of the entire financial sector is built on a bedrock of sketchy trades, or suspiciously-timed investment moves. Most of the time, investment groups can safely ignore claims of inside knowledge, even for high profile incidents involving politicians. In this case, the company responding to these claims strongly indicates that even the company admits this looks really suspect, and therefore an explanation was required. The company itself has not clarified whether or not the report filing was in error, or if those shorts had really been made, but backtracked on upon the failure of Trump's assassination attempt. Many are asking the question of, if the assassination had been successful, and DJT crashed…would this “clerical error” have been corrected or would it have been tied up (or covered up) in some way? In any case, significant forensic analysis of this incident would be reassuring for what many laypersons not involved in the financial sector consider to be a smoking gun.Analyst: S2A1//END REPORT//

Noticias Económicas y Financieras Casi 50 líderes europeos se reunirán el jueves en el Palacio de Blenheim en Oxfordshire, Inglaterra, para una sesión de un día de la Comunidad Política Europea. Será un gran momento para el nuevo Primer Ministro del Reino Unido, Keir Starmer, que busca enmendar la relación post-Brexit con la Unión Europea. Las discusiones sobre defensa y seguridad están en el menú, pero el comercio también está en el foco, especialmente ahora que las partes intentan construir una cooperación más estrecha en temas compartidos. Según se informa, Warner Bros. Discovery $WBD está evaluando varias opciones estratégicas, incluida la venta de activos o la separación de su servicio de transmisión Max y los negocios de estudios cinematográficos de sus cadenas de televisión tradicionales. La medida dejaría a su grupo de televisión con la mayor parte de su carga de deuda de $39B. Las personas cercanas a WBD también se han acercado informalmente a grupos de medios rivales para evaluar el interés en posibles opciones de fusiones y adquisiciones para algunos de sus activos. Bank of America advirtió que una separación podría tener un impacto "devastador" en los tenedores de bonos, similar a lo que sucedió después de que su rival Lionsgate escindiera su negocio de estudios $LION de Starz. $DE Deere es la última empresa en revisar sus políticas de diversidad y ha decidido poner fin a su participación y apoyo en eventos de concienciación social. El fabricante de maquinaria agrícola reafirmó que las cuotas de diversidad y la identificación con pronombres no son una política de la empresa. La decisión se tomó después de que el comentarista político Robby Starbuck argumentara que las políticas de DEI estaban perjudicando el negocio de Deere, ya que la empresa implementa recortes de empleo en medio de una menor demanda de equipos agrícolas. El mes pasado, Tractor Supply $TSCO eliminó los objetivos de DEI y los objetivos de emisiones de carbono que, según dijo, eran impopulares entre sus clientes. El presidente Biden está perdiendo el apoyo de los demócratas de alto rango en medio de preocupaciones sobre su capacidad para ganar las elecciones presidenciales. Además, acaba de dar positivo por COVID-19, lo que dejará de lado los esfuerzos de campaña, mientras que el DNC postergó una votación nominal virtual sobre la nominación hasta agosto. Casi dos tercios de los demócratas quieren que Biden se retire, y Stifel la semana pasada asignó una probabilidad del 40% de que se retire. Los mercados de apuestas ahora favorecen a Kamala Harris como candidata demócrata después de que Biden dijera que estaba dispuesto a transferirle el poder si los problemas de salud le impedían cumplir un segundo mandato.

Lawmakers aim to rake in the dough for Cape Cod bridges, Vineyard Wind comes to a halt after a turbine blade breaks, and the Red Sox has an All-Star MVP on board. Stay in "The Loop" with #iHeartRadio.

Dr. Lisa Quattrocki Knight. After graduating from Stanford University, she earned an MD/PhD from Yale. Her PhD was in basic neuroscience. She then completed a medical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital and her adult psychiatry residency at McLean Hospital. She has been affiliated with Harvard Medical School since 1994 and spent one year as a visiting scholar at the University College of London. She has three daughters and cares deeply about the world in which they will raise their own children. She recognizes that our sense of well-being benefits from feeling connected to the natural world, especially the ocean. We cannot afford to spoil the few remaining natural habitats left on this planet. As a result, she has co-founded a grassroots organization to protect the ocean and the biodiverse life it sustains from industrialization. Constance Gee resides in Westport, MA where she has worked on behalf of animals and barrier beach protection for years. She first found out about the planned development of the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf by offshore wind in Feb 2021, and has been working in active opposition ever since. She joined Green Oceans when it was founded in the fall of that same year. She is also a member of Save Right Whales Coalition, an umbrella group under which a dozen offshore wind opposition groups from NC to Maine have come together to support one another and share information. She and two other colleagues have recently founded a new group, Protect Our Westport Waters (POWW). POWW aims to stop Vineyard Wind from bringing the high-voltage cabling from one of its projects onshore at a local beach and through the entire length of Westport.

The Planet Beyond team has been recording live from the International Partnering Forum (IPF) 2024 in New Orleans. In this episode, host Jon Baston-Pitt is joined by three prominent women leaders in the offshore wind industry in the Americas: Liz Burdock from Oceantic Network, Jennifer Cullen from Vineyard Wind, and Celine Gerson from Fugro. The...

The Global Wind Energy Council forecasts that, with sustained policy support and investment, global wind capacity could reach 2,000 GW by 2030. This would be a significant contribution to net zero goals, so what does this sustained policy support look like? Where does the investment need to go, and where are we seeing innovation in the sector? On The Clean Energy Revolution, Carolyn and Laura explore the policy, technological advancements, investment needs, and the pivotal role of international cooperation in developing wind power. Laura is in Bilbao at the WindEurope annual conference. WindEurope, formerly the European Wind Energy Association, represents manufacturers, suppliers, utilities, developers and research institutes to develop and advocate for wind power in Europe. Giles Dickson is CEO, and he joins Laura as the conference gets underway. Together they highlight the role of the North Sea as a pivotal energy hub for Europe, as Giles talks about the need for increased cooperation among North Sea bordering countries to maximize the region's wind energy potential. What does the wind sector look like on the East side of the Atlantic? Meanwhile, Carolyn is in New York, with Will Hazelip, President of National Grid Ventures for the U.S. Northeast, to discuss the outlook for wind power in the region. Wind power in the US has seen substantial growth in the last two decades; 6 terawatt-hours in 2000 to 434 in 2022. What's the potential for growth over the next decade, and beyond? Major projects such as South Fork Wind Farm and Vineyard Wind show the scale of ambition in the north-east, and the progress that's being made to the 30GW target for 2030 set by the Biden administration. Carolyn and Will examine the state cooperation and policy support for offshore wind projects – projects that are perfectly placed to provide New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC with firm, reliable clean energy. As of the end of 2022, the UK's offshore wind capacity stood at over 10 GW, contributing significantly to the country's renewable energy mix. The UK government aims to add an extra 40 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 to meet increasing electricity demands and sustainability goals. Across Europe, the goal is 300 GW by 2030. The main talking points to come out of the WindEurope event, as Laura explains, are the complexities of scaling wind energy, the necessity of robust commercial frameworks, the impact of NIMBYism, and the crucial aspect of community engagement in wind projects.Katie Jackson, President of NGV, and Matt Hinde, Head of European Affairs, also join this episode to explore these key points: the critical need for substantial investment and development in wind energy to meet future electricity demands, the importance of state cooperation and international collaboration to harness wind power effectively, and the significant challenges posed by supply chain issues, regulatory hurdles, and community opposition.

This week: The power is on! Vineyard Wind is sending electricity from its first five offshore wind turbines – that's already enough to power 30,000 homes. And: what happens when our cell phone service goes out? And: climate change is punishing New Bedford's hurricane barrier.

This week: The federal budget currently being wrangled in Washington, D.C., may make a big difference to the replacement of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges. And: What's going on at the offshore site of Vineyard Wind? And, we take a look at the long entanglement and brief life of a singular right whale — number 5120.

On January 2nd, the first large offshore wind farm in New England started producing electricity when its first turbine came online.  The Vineyard Wind project, located off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, will by the end of the year have a total of 62 turbines with a capacity of 800 megawatts, enough electricity to power […]

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 26th, 2024. Dropwave Do you have a podcast, or thinking about starting one? Does your church have a podcast feed for sermons? Then Dropwave.io is for you. Cancel culture is like walking on a thin glass bridge over the Grand Canyon. Every step you take could get you killed, I mean canceled. Since the beginning CrossPolitic has been working on being antifragile, so no matter what happens, our content can still be delivered to your tv and to your podcast. The Waterboy and his friend Jeremi, have been working on building a podcast hosting solution for rowdy platforms like CrossPolitic, so that you can be confident your podcast will never fall through that glass bridge. Dropwave offers seamless onboarding for shows that have been around for years to easy to use solutions for starting your own podcast. Dropwave will track all your show’s downloads by city, state, and country, and it offers network and enterprise packages for solutions like the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Free to speak, Free to podcast, free to start your journey now at www.Dropwave.io. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4428905-gop-governors-abbott-border-security-immigration/ GOP governors back Abbott in border standoff Republican governors are backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in his standoff against the federal government over border authority. On Tuesday, the Texas National Guard appeared to ignore a Supreme Court decision and continued building razor wire barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, preventing the federal Border Patrol from doing their jobs. In a statement Wednesday, Abbott justified the actions by claiming his authority to combat an “invasion” of the state “supersedes” federal law. GOP Govs. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Brian Kemp of Georgia have all said they support Abbott’s actions. “If the Constitution really made states powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn’t have been ratified in the first place and Texas would have never joined the union when it did,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter. “TX is upholding the law while Biden is flouting it.” Youngkin added that the Biden administration “has turned every state into a border state,” and that Abbott is doing what the border officials “refuse to do to secure our border.” Stitt, Noem and Kemp also said their states “stand with” Texas. The federal government has claimed in court filings that the Texas National Guard has physically prevented the Border Patrol from doing its job on certain parts of the Rio Grande, as well as blocked off portions of the border previously used to process migrants. The claim that Texas officials can supersede federal authority has sparked calls from Democrats for President Biden to nationalize the Texas National Guard and force them to follow the court’s decision and federal law. Democratic Texas Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar have advocated for nationalizing the state guard. Abbott’s statement Wednesday specifically claims the federal government has “broken the compact” with the states, justifying ignoring federal law and the Supreme Court. The so-called “compact theory” is a rejected idea of state supremacy used to justify the secession of Confederate states during the Civil War. The Supreme Court repeatedly shot down the legal theory in the early years of the U.S., when it was first proposed to nullify federal legislation during former President John Adams’s time in office. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-ags-battle-blue-state-push-to-shutter-largest-ammo-manufacturer-to-punish-second-amendment-rights GOP AGs take aim at Dem plea for Biden to shut down critical ammo manufacturer Every republican attorney general in the country blasted their Democrat counterparts for attempting to shutter an ammunition factory in Missouri, a letter sent to the White House Wednesday revealed. In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, all 28 GOP attorneys general asked President Biden and White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention director Stefanie Feldman to disregard their Democrat colleagues' request to end commercial sales from Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, one of the country’s largest ammo manufacturers. Democrats had previously asked the administration to investigate the contracting and manufacturing practices of the plant after a New York Times report alleged that "military-grade rounds" were sold commercially and were connected to mass shootings. But the Republicans say the Democrats’ letter contained a "litany of errors." "Perhaps those States should focus more on prosecuting crime to stop mass shootings—rather than trying to stop lawful Americans’ use of guns and ammunition. Their tactic is an overt attempt to punish Americans’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights, Among the list of "errors" the GOP AGs point out that their Democrat colleages allege that ammunition manufactured for "military use" does not belong in communities. "First, the ammunition manufactured at Lake City and sold into the commercial market is not the primary rifle cartridge used by the United States military. The primary cartridge is proprietary to the Army and may not be sold commercially," the AGs note. "Second, while the United States military purchases and uses a particular type of ammunition, that is not determinative as to whether it is "military ammunition" that should be banned for public use," they write. "If the United States military using ammunition precluded that ammunition’s use by civilians, then other widely and commonly available ammunition, including 9mm and 12-gauge shotshells, would also be prohibited for public use," they argued, adding that Supreme Court precedent "does not support such an openly artificial distinction." According to the state’s top prosecutors, Lake City only sells ammunition to commercial customers that is legal to manufacture, and it complies with all the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) requirements. The AGs argued that the Democrats’ efforts would undermine national security. "Gun control advocates are firing blanks when they contend that taxpayers are subsidizing mass shooters. They get causality backward. The law-abiding target shooters and gun owners who buy Lake City ammunition are subsidizing national defense and military readiness," they argue. They note that the Defense Department "sought to avoid a situation when the military needs surge due to a real-world conflict, ammunition is not readily available," adding that ammunition availability requires facilities, production equipment, a skilled workforce, and supply chains to remain in constant operation. "Machines and production cannot be turned on like the flip of a switch. It takes time to hire and train the highly skilled workers needed to operate production lines to manufacture the highest quality ammunition for U.S. warfighters. Commercial production has allowed Lake City, and its suppliers, to maintain steady labor, maximize equipment run time, ensure a stable supply base, and provide a level of readiness to the U.S. military that would not otherwise be available," they added. The attorneys general also said that Lake City cannot halt commercial use without a "detrimental loss" to their communities and economy. If it stopped, the AGs allege it would result in an estimated loss of 500–700 jobs or 30%–45% of the skilled workforce now employed at Lake City and "countless more" throughout the supply chain. Montana Attorney General Austen Knudsen in a statement to Fox News Digital called the investigation by the New York Times "highly questionable" and, their latest effort to shut down the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant is based on a highly questionable ‘investigation' by the New York Times." Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird charged that "if the Biden Administration and anti-gun activists were serious about saving lives, they would start by enforcing the laws on the books to combat violent criminals." Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey echoed those sentiments, adding that "Lake City Ammunition did nothing wrong." "We should be focused on the free flow of illegal weapons coming across our border – not taking aim at law-abiding patriots," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said, adding that the border crisis "is exactly why law-abiding citizens need the liberty to defend themselves." https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/24/canadian-court-rules-trudeaus-unreasonable-crackdown-on-trucker-convoy-violated-federal-law/ Canadian Court Rules Trudeau’s ‘Unreasonable’ Crackdown On Trucker Convoy Violated Federal Law A Canadian court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a controversial federal law in early 2022 to target truckers protesting their industry’s Covid vaccine mandate was “unreasonable” and illegal. The use of the Emergencies Act “does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness — justification, transparency and intelligibility,” Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote. “I conclude that there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable and ultra vires.” As the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) explained, “ultra vires” is a term courts use “to refer to actions beyond the scope of the law.” In early 2022, Trudeau’s government implemented a series of Covid shot mandates for various sectors of Canadian society, including a requirement for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. The tyrannical mandate ultimately prompted Canadian truckers to launch the “Freedom Convoy,” a massive protest comprised of vehicles that ended outside Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital. While peaceful, the protests evoked the ire of Trudeau, who used the Emergencies Act to mobilize the Canadian military and state intel agencies to forcibly remove the demonstrators gridlocking Ottawa. In addition to backing GoFundMe’s attempts to deplatform fundraising efforts for the convoy, Trudeau’s administration also expanded “its terrorist financing rules to target crowdfunding sites like the convoy’s new platform GiveSendGo,” The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd wrote, with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland baselessly claiming the platforms were “being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy.” As if his abuse of the Emergencies Act weren’t despicable enough, Trudeau — who went into hiding upon the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa — also grossly smeared the protesters with the typical diatribe of leftist slanders, including accusations of “antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and transphobia.” Despite his best attempt to play the role of a dictator, Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act went beyond the scope of what is permitted by Canadian law. While the Emergencies Act can be employed to manage a national emergency that “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada,” Mosley determined that Trudeau’s actions far exceeded that threshold. “The potential for serious violence, or being unable to say that there was no potential for serious violence was, of course, a valid reason for concern,” Mosley wrote. “But in my view, it did not satisfy the test required to invoke the Act, particularly as there was no evidence of a similar ‘hardened cell’ elsewhere in the country, only speculation, and the situation at Cou[r]ts had been resolved without violence.” Mosley further ruled that the government’s financial crackdown violated demonstrators’ Charter rights “by permitting unreasonable search and seizure of the financial information of designated persons and the freezing of their bank and credit card accounts.” Unsurprisingly, the Canadian government plans to appeal the ruling, with Freeland laughably claiming on Tuesday that the administration’s unlawful actions were “necessary” and “legal” because Canadian “national security was under real threat.” https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/taxpayers-could-get-stuck-cost-removing-offshore-wind-farm-after-biden-admin Taxpayers may get stuck with cost of removing an offshore wind farm after Biden admin waives fees The Biden administration reportedly waived fees for an offshore wind project that are in place to ensure that the infrastructure is removed and the site reclaimed at the end of the project’s life. President Joe Biden, as part of his climate agenda, is pushing an aggressive buildout of offshore wind projects along the East Coast. With the offshore wind industry struggling financially, the waiving of these fees raises concerns about what would happen if these companies go bankrupt and leave behind wind farms they can’t afford to remove. Protect The Public Trust (PPT), a government watchdog group, obtained documents showing that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) informed Vineyard Wind had approved the company’s request to waive fees for financial assurances that goes toward decommissioning costs. The bureau’s reasoning for granting the deferral, according to PPT, was that the financial assurance was “unnecessarily burdensome for lessees because, at that point, they have not begun receiving project income.” Since the project is using “proven wind turbine technology” and its contracts guaranteed electricity sale prices, BOEM reasoned, the project had a predictable income over the life of the project. The Department of Interior requires these bonds from oil and gas producers, as taxpayers have been stuck decommissioning the projects of companies that go bankrupt or were operating prior to bonding requirements. California, for example, is trying to decommission 23 federal offshore platforms at a cost of $1.7 billion, and the liability for those costs remain unresolved. There are also thousands of onshore orphaned wells across the country that the federal government is trying to plug. In some cases, these wells were drilled a century or more ago before bonding requirements, and there’s no solvent owner of record to hold accountable for the costs. In Wyoming, an industry sprang up a decade ago hoping to tap coal beds for natural gas, but after natural gas prices collapsed, the entire industry collapsed with it. The state was left with a lot of wells to plug and no companies to hold accountable. While the Biden administration is granting waivers for these protections to offshore wind projects, it’s proposing steep increases in bonding requirements for oil and gas operations. While that proposal is met with support from environmentalists, industry groups have criticized the measure. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, told Reuters in July that rather than trying to ensure funding for reclamation efforts, the administration was raising the costs so high as a means to reduce the number of operations. Elmer Peter Danenberger III, a petroleum engineer with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, explained on his “Bud’s Offshore Energy” blog that BOEM’s decision to waive Vineyard Wind’s obligations significantly increases the public’s risk exposure. Danenberger wrote that BOEM, in granting the waiver, cited a general departure authority, which was intended for special situations and not for waivers that could be applied broadly.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 26th, 2024. Dropwave Do you have a podcast, or thinking about starting one? Does your church have a podcast feed for sermons? Then Dropwave.io is for you. Cancel culture is like walking on a thin glass bridge over the Grand Canyon. Every step you take could get you killed, I mean canceled. Since the beginning CrossPolitic has been working on being antifragile, so no matter what happens, our content can still be delivered to your tv and to your podcast. The Waterboy and his friend Jeremi, have been working on building a podcast hosting solution for rowdy platforms like CrossPolitic, so that you can be confident your podcast will never fall through that glass bridge. Dropwave offers seamless onboarding for shows that have been around for years to easy to use solutions for starting your own podcast. Dropwave will track all your show’s downloads by city, state, and country, and it offers network and enterprise packages for solutions like the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Free to speak, Free to podcast, free to start your journey now at www.Dropwave.io. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4428905-gop-governors-abbott-border-security-immigration/ GOP governors back Abbott in border standoff Republican governors are backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in his standoff against the federal government over border authority. On Tuesday, the Texas National Guard appeared to ignore a Supreme Court decision and continued building razor wire barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, preventing the federal Border Patrol from doing their jobs. In a statement Wednesday, Abbott justified the actions by claiming his authority to combat an “invasion” of the state “supersedes” federal law. GOP Govs. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Brian Kemp of Georgia have all said they support Abbott’s actions. “If the Constitution really made states powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn’t have been ratified in the first place and Texas would have never joined the union when it did,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter. “TX is upholding the law while Biden is flouting it.” Youngkin added that the Biden administration “has turned every state into a border state,” and that Abbott is doing what the border officials “refuse to do to secure our border.” Stitt, Noem and Kemp also said their states “stand with” Texas. The federal government has claimed in court filings that the Texas National Guard has physically prevented the Border Patrol from doing its job on certain parts of the Rio Grande, as well as blocked off portions of the border previously used to process migrants. The claim that Texas officials can supersede federal authority has sparked calls from Democrats for President Biden to nationalize the Texas National Guard and force them to follow the court’s decision and federal law. Democratic Texas Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar have advocated for nationalizing the state guard. Abbott’s statement Wednesday specifically claims the federal government has “broken the compact” with the states, justifying ignoring federal law and the Supreme Court. The so-called “compact theory” is a rejected idea of state supremacy used to justify the secession of Confederate states during the Civil War. The Supreme Court repeatedly shot down the legal theory in the early years of the U.S., when it was first proposed to nullify federal legislation during former President John Adams’s time in office. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-ags-battle-blue-state-push-to-shutter-largest-ammo-manufacturer-to-punish-second-amendment-rights GOP AGs take aim at Dem plea for Biden to shut down critical ammo manufacturer Every republican attorney general in the country blasted their Democrat counterparts for attempting to shutter an ammunition factory in Missouri, a letter sent to the White House Wednesday revealed. In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, all 28 GOP attorneys general asked President Biden and White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention director Stefanie Feldman to disregard their Democrat colleagues' request to end commercial sales from Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, one of the country’s largest ammo manufacturers. Democrats had previously asked the administration to investigate the contracting and manufacturing practices of the plant after a New York Times report alleged that "military-grade rounds" were sold commercially and were connected to mass shootings. But the Republicans say the Democrats’ letter contained a "litany of errors." "Perhaps those States should focus more on prosecuting crime to stop mass shootings—rather than trying to stop lawful Americans’ use of guns and ammunition. Their tactic is an overt attempt to punish Americans’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights, Among the list of "errors" the GOP AGs point out that their Democrat colleages allege that ammunition manufactured for "military use" does not belong in communities. "First, the ammunition manufactured at Lake City and sold into the commercial market is not the primary rifle cartridge used by the United States military. The primary cartridge is proprietary to the Army and may not be sold commercially," the AGs note. "Second, while the United States military purchases and uses a particular type of ammunition, that is not determinative as to whether it is "military ammunition" that should be banned for public use," they write. "If the United States military using ammunition precluded that ammunition’s use by civilians, then other widely and commonly available ammunition, including 9mm and 12-gauge shotshells, would also be prohibited for public use," they argued, adding that Supreme Court precedent "does not support such an openly artificial distinction." According to the state’s top prosecutors, Lake City only sells ammunition to commercial customers that is legal to manufacture, and it complies with all the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) requirements. The AGs argued that the Democrats’ efforts would undermine national security. "Gun control advocates are firing blanks when they contend that taxpayers are subsidizing mass shooters. They get causality backward. The law-abiding target shooters and gun owners who buy Lake City ammunition are subsidizing national defense and military readiness," they argue. They note that the Defense Department "sought to avoid a situation when the military needs surge due to a real-world conflict, ammunition is not readily available," adding that ammunition availability requires facilities, production equipment, a skilled workforce, and supply chains to remain in constant operation. "Machines and production cannot be turned on like the flip of a switch. It takes time to hire and train the highly skilled workers needed to operate production lines to manufacture the highest quality ammunition for U.S. warfighters. Commercial production has allowed Lake City, and its suppliers, to maintain steady labor, maximize equipment run time, ensure a stable supply base, and provide a level of readiness to the U.S. military that would not otherwise be available," they added. The attorneys general also said that Lake City cannot halt commercial use without a "detrimental loss" to their communities and economy. If it stopped, the AGs allege it would result in an estimated loss of 500–700 jobs or 30%–45% of the skilled workforce now employed at Lake City and "countless more" throughout the supply chain. Montana Attorney General Austen Knudsen in a statement to Fox News Digital called the investigation by the New York Times "highly questionable" and, their latest effort to shut down the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant is based on a highly questionable ‘investigation' by the New York Times." Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird charged that "if the Biden Administration and anti-gun activists were serious about saving lives, they would start by enforcing the laws on the books to combat violent criminals." Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey echoed those sentiments, adding that "Lake City Ammunition did nothing wrong." "We should be focused on the free flow of illegal weapons coming across our border – not taking aim at law-abiding patriots," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said, adding that the border crisis "is exactly why law-abiding citizens need the liberty to defend themselves." https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/24/canadian-court-rules-trudeaus-unreasonable-crackdown-on-trucker-convoy-violated-federal-law/ Canadian Court Rules Trudeau’s ‘Unreasonable’ Crackdown On Trucker Convoy Violated Federal Law A Canadian court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a controversial federal law in early 2022 to target truckers protesting their industry’s Covid vaccine mandate was “unreasonable” and illegal. The use of the Emergencies Act “does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness — justification, transparency and intelligibility,” Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote. “I conclude that there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable and ultra vires.” As the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) explained, “ultra vires” is a term courts use “to refer to actions beyond the scope of the law.” In early 2022, Trudeau’s government implemented a series of Covid shot mandates for various sectors of Canadian society, including a requirement for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. The tyrannical mandate ultimately prompted Canadian truckers to launch the “Freedom Convoy,” a massive protest comprised of vehicles that ended outside Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital. While peaceful, the protests evoked the ire of Trudeau, who used the Emergencies Act to mobilize the Canadian military and state intel agencies to forcibly remove the demonstrators gridlocking Ottawa. In addition to backing GoFundMe’s attempts to deplatform fundraising efforts for the convoy, Trudeau’s administration also expanded “its terrorist financing rules to target crowdfunding sites like the convoy’s new platform GiveSendGo,” The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd wrote, with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland baselessly claiming the platforms were “being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy.” As if his abuse of the Emergencies Act weren’t despicable enough, Trudeau — who went into hiding upon the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa — also grossly smeared the protesters with the typical diatribe of leftist slanders, including accusations of “antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and transphobia.” Despite his best attempt to play the role of a dictator, Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act went beyond the scope of what is permitted by Canadian law. While the Emergencies Act can be employed to manage a national emergency that “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada,” Mosley determined that Trudeau’s actions far exceeded that threshold. “The potential for serious violence, or being unable to say that there was no potential for serious violence was, of course, a valid reason for concern,” Mosley wrote. “But in my view, it did not satisfy the test required to invoke the Act, particularly as there was no evidence of a similar ‘hardened cell’ elsewhere in the country, only speculation, and the situation at Cou[r]ts had been resolved without violence.” Mosley further ruled that the government’s financial crackdown violated demonstrators’ Charter rights “by permitting unreasonable search and seizure of the financial information of designated persons and the freezing of their bank and credit card accounts.” Unsurprisingly, the Canadian government plans to appeal the ruling, with Freeland laughably claiming on Tuesday that the administration’s unlawful actions were “necessary” and “legal” because Canadian “national security was under real threat.” https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/taxpayers-could-get-stuck-cost-removing-offshore-wind-farm-after-biden-admin Taxpayers may get stuck with cost of removing an offshore wind farm after Biden admin waives fees The Biden administration reportedly waived fees for an offshore wind project that are in place to ensure that the infrastructure is removed and the site reclaimed at the end of the project’s life. President Joe Biden, as part of his climate agenda, is pushing an aggressive buildout of offshore wind projects along the East Coast. With the offshore wind industry struggling financially, the waiving of these fees raises concerns about what would happen if these companies go bankrupt and leave behind wind farms they can’t afford to remove. Protect The Public Trust (PPT), a government watchdog group, obtained documents showing that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) informed Vineyard Wind had approved the company’s request to waive fees for financial assurances that goes toward decommissioning costs. The bureau’s reasoning for granting the deferral, according to PPT, was that the financial assurance was “unnecessarily burdensome for lessees because, at that point, they have not begun receiving project income.” Since the project is using “proven wind turbine technology” and its contracts guaranteed electricity sale prices, BOEM reasoned, the project had a predictable income over the life of the project. The Department of Interior requires these bonds from oil and gas producers, as taxpayers have been stuck decommissioning the projects of companies that go bankrupt or were operating prior to bonding requirements. California, for example, is trying to decommission 23 federal offshore platforms at a cost of $1.7 billion, and the liability for those costs remain unresolved. There are also thousands of onshore orphaned wells across the country that the federal government is trying to plug. In some cases, these wells were drilled a century or more ago before bonding requirements, and there’s no solvent owner of record to hold accountable for the costs. In Wyoming, an industry sprang up a decade ago hoping to tap coal beds for natural gas, but after natural gas prices collapsed, the entire industry collapsed with it. The state was left with a lot of wells to plug and no companies to hold accountable. While the Biden administration is granting waivers for these protections to offshore wind projects, it’s proposing steep increases in bonding requirements for oil and gas operations. While that proposal is met with support from environmentalists, industry groups have criticized the measure. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, told Reuters in July that rather than trying to ensure funding for reclamation efforts, the administration was raising the costs so high as a means to reduce the number of operations. Elmer Peter Danenberger III, a petroleum engineer with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, explained on his “Bud’s Offshore Energy” blog that BOEM’s decision to waive Vineyard Wind’s obligations significantly increases the public’s risk exposure. Danenberger wrote that BOEM, in granting the waiver, cited a general departure authority, which was intended for special situations and not for waivers that could be applied broadly.

This is Garrison Hardie with your CrossPolitic Daily News Brief for Friday, January 26th, 2024. Dropwave Do you have a podcast, or thinking about starting one? Does your church have a podcast feed for sermons? Then Dropwave.io is for you. Cancel culture is like walking on a thin glass bridge over the Grand Canyon. Every step you take could get you killed, I mean canceled. Since the beginning CrossPolitic has been working on being antifragile, so no matter what happens, our content can still be delivered to your tv and to your podcast. The Waterboy and his friend Jeremi, have been working on building a podcast hosting solution for rowdy platforms like CrossPolitic, so that you can be confident your podcast will never fall through that glass bridge. Dropwave offers seamless onboarding for shows that have been around for years to easy to use solutions for starting your own podcast. Dropwave will track all your show’s downloads by city, state, and country, and it offers network and enterprise packages for solutions like the Fight Laugh Feast Network. Free to speak, Free to podcast, free to start your journey now at www.Dropwave.io. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4428905-gop-governors-abbott-border-security-immigration/ GOP governors back Abbott in border standoff Republican governors are backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in his standoff against the federal government over border authority. On Tuesday, the Texas National Guard appeared to ignore a Supreme Court decision and continued building razor wire barriers on the U.S.-Mexico border, preventing the federal Border Patrol from doing their jobs. In a statement Wednesday, Abbott justified the actions by claiming his authority to combat an “invasion” of the state “supersedes” federal law. GOP Govs. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Glenn Youngkin of Virginia and Brian Kemp of Georgia have all said they support Abbott’s actions. “If the Constitution really made states powerless to defend themselves against an invasion, it wouldn’t have been ratified in the first place and Texas would have never joined the union when it did,” DeSantis said on X, formerly Twitter. “TX is upholding the law while Biden is flouting it.” Youngkin added that the Biden administration “has turned every state into a border state,” and that Abbott is doing what the border officials “refuse to do to secure our border.” Stitt, Noem and Kemp also said their states “stand with” Texas. The federal government has claimed in court filings that the Texas National Guard has physically prevented the Border Patrol from doing its job on certain parts of the Rio Grande, as well as blocked off portions of the border previously used to process migrants. The claim that Texas officials can supersede federal authority has sparked calls from Democrats for President Biden to nationalize the Texas National Guard and force them to follow the court’s decision and federal law. Democratic Texas Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar have advocated for nationalizing the state guard. Abbott’s statement Wednesday specifically claims the federal government has “broken the compact” with the states, justifying ignoring federal law and the Supreme Court. The so-called “compact theory” is a rejected idea of state supremacy used to justify the secession of Confederate states during the Civil War. The Supreme Court repeatedly shot down the legal theory in the early years of the U.S., when it was first proposed to nullify federal legislation during former President John Adams’s time in office. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-ags-battle-blue-state-push-to-shutter-largest-ammo-manufacturer-to-punish-second-amendment-rights GOP AGs take aim at Dem plea for Biden to shut down critical ammo manufacturer Every republican attorney general in the country blasted their Democrat counterparts for attempting to shutter an ammunition factory in Missouri, a letter sent to the White House Wednesday revealed. In a letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, all 28 GOP attorneys general asked President Biden and White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention director Stefanie Feldman to disregard their Democrat colleagues' request to end commercial sales from Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, one of the country’s largest ammo manufacturers. Democrats had previously asked the administration to investigate the contracting and manufacturing practices of the plant after a New York Times report alleged that "military-grade rounds" were sold commercially and were connected to mass shootings. But the Republicans say the Democrats’ letter contained a "litany of errors." "Perhaps those States should focus more on prosecuting crime to stop mass shootings—rather than trying to stop lawful Americans’ use of guns and ammunition. Their tactic is an overt attempt to punish Americans’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights, Among the list of "errors" the GOP AGs point out that their Democrat colleages allege that ammunition manufactured for "military use" does not belong in communities. "First, the ammunition manufactured at Lake City and sold into the commercial market is not the primary rifle cartridge used by the United States military. The primary cartridge is proprietary to the Army and may not be sold commercially," the AGs note. "Second, while the United States military purchases and uses a particular type of ammunition, that is not determinative as to whether it is "military ammunition" that should be banned for public use," they write. "If the United States military using ammunition precluded that ammunition’s use by civilians, then other widely and commonly available ammunition, including 9mm and 12-gauge shotshells, would also be prohibited for public use," they argued, adding that Supreme Court precedent "does not support such an openly artificial distinction." According to the state’s top prosecutors, Lake City only sells ammunition to commercial customers that is legal to manufacture, and it complies with all the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) requirements. The AGs argued that the Democrats’ efforts would undermine national security. "Gun control advocates are firing blanks when they contend that taxpayers are subsidizing mass shooters. They get causality backward. The law-abiding target shooters and gun owners who buy Lake City ammunition are subsidizing national defense and military readiness," they argue. They note that the Defense Department "sought to avoid a situation when the military needs surge due to a real-world conflict, ammunition is not readily available," adding that ammunition availability requires facilities, production equipment, a skilled workforce, and supply chains to remain in constant operation. "Machines and production cannot be turned on like the flip of a switch. It takes time to hire and train the highly skilled workers needed to operate production lines to manufacture the highest quality ammunition for U.S. warfighters. Commercial production has allowed Lake City, and its suppliers, to maintain steady labor, maximize equipment run time, ensure a stable supply base, and provide a level of readiness to the U.S. military that would not otherwise be available," they added. The attorneys general also said that Lake City cannot halt commercial use without a "detrimental loss" to their communities and economy. If it stopped, the AGs allege it would result in an estimated loss of 500–700 jobs or 30%–45% of the skilled workforce now employed at Lake City and "countless more" throughout the supply chain. Montana Attorney General Austen Knudsen in a statement to Fox News Digital called the investigation by the New York Times "highly questionable" and, their latest effort to shut down the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant is based on a highly questionable ‘investigation' by the New York Times." Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird charged that "if the Biden Administration and anti-gun activists were serious about saving lives, they would start by enforcing the laws on the books to combat violent criminals." Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey echoed those sentiments, adding that "Lake City Ammunition did nothing wrong." "We should be focused on the free flow of illegal weapons coming across our border – not taking aim at law-abiding patriots," Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said, adding that the border crisis "is exactly why law-abiding citizens need the liberty to defend themselves." https://thefederalist.com/2024/01/24/canadian-court-rules-trudeaus-unreasonable-crackdown-on-trucker-convoy-violated-federal-law/ Canadian Court Rules Trudeau’s ‘Unreasonable’ Crackdown On Trucker Convoy Violated Federal Law A Canadian court ruled Tuesday that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s use of a controversial federal law in early 2022 to target truckers protesting their industry’s Covid vaccine mandate was “unreasonable” and illegal. The use of the Emergencies Act “does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness — justification, transparency and intelligibility,” Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote. “I conclude that there was no national emergency justifying the invocation of the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable and ultra vires.” As the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) explained, “ultra vires” is a term courts use “to refer to actions beyond the scope of the law.” In early 2022, Trudeau’s government implemented a series of Covid shot mandates for various sectors of Canadian society, including a requirement for truckers crossing the U.S.-Canada border. The tyrannical mandate ultimately prompted Canadian truckers to launch the “Freedom Convoy,” a massive protest comprised of vehicles that ended outside Parliament Hill in the nation’s capital. While peaceful, the protests evoked the ire of Trudeau, who used the Emergencies Act to mobilize the Canadian military and state intel agencies to forcibly remove the demonstrators gridlocking Ottawa. In addition to backing GoFundMe’s attempts to deplatform fundraising efforts for the convoy, Trudeau’s administration also expanded “its terrorist financing rules to target crowdfunding sites like the convoy’s new platform GiveSendGo,” The Federalist’s Jordan Boyd wrote, with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland baselessly claiming the platforms were “being used to support illegal blockades and illegal activity which is damaging the Canadian economy.” As if his abuse of the Emergencies Act weren’t despicable enough, Trudeau — who went into hiding upon the convoy’s arrival in Ottawa — also grossly smeared the protesters with the typical diatribe of leftist slanders, including accusations of “antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism, homophobia, and transphobia.” Despite his best attempt to play the role of a dictator, Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act went beyond the scope of what is permitted by Canadian law. While the Emergencies Act can be employed to manage a national emergency that “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada,” Mosley determined that Trudeau’s actions far exceeded that threshold. “The potential for serious violence, or being unable to say that there was no potential for serious violence was, of course, a valid reason for concern,” Mosley wrote. “But in my view, it did not satisfy the test required to invoke the Act, particularly as there was no evidence of a similar ‘hardened cell’ elsewhere in the country, only speculation, and the situation at Cou[r]ts had been resolved without violence.” Mosley further ruled that the government’s financial crackdown violated demonstrators’ Charter rights “by permitting unreasonable search and seizure of the financial information of designated persons and the freezing of their bank and credit card accounts.” Unsurprisingly, the Canadian government plans to appeal the ruling, with Freeland laughably claiming on Tuesday that the administration’s unlawful actions were “necessary” and “legal” because Canadian “national security was under real threat.” https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/energy/taxpayers-could-get-stuck-cost-removing-offshore-wind-farm-after-biden-admin Taxpayers may get stuck with cost of removing an offshore wind farm after Biden admin waives fees The Biden administration reportedly waived fees for an offshore wind project that are in place to ensure that the infrastructure is removed and the site reclaimed at the end of the project’s life. President Joe Biden, as part of his climate agenda, is pushing an aggressive buildout of offshore wind projects along the East Coast. With the offshore wind industry struggling financially, the waiving of these fees raises concerns about what would happen if these companies go bankrupt and leave behind wind farms they can’t afford to remove. Protect The Public Trust (PPT), a government watchdog group, obtained documents showing that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) informed Vineyard Wind had approved the company’s request to waive fees for financial assurances that goes toward decommissioning costs. The bureau’s reasoning for granting the deferral, according to PPT, was that the financial assurance was “unnecessarily burdensome for lessees because, at that point, they have not begun receiving project income.” Since the project is using “proven wind turbine technology” and its contracts guaranteed electricity sale prices, BOEM reasoned, the project had a predictable income over the life of the project. The Department of Interior requires these bonds from oil and gas producers, as taxpayers have been stuck decommissioning the projects of companies that go bankrupt or were operating prior to bonding requirements. California, for example, is trying to decommission 23 federal offshore platforms at a cost of $1.7 billion, and the liability for those costs remain unresolved. There are also thousands of onshore orphaned wells across the country that the federal government is trying to plug. In some cases, these wells were drilled a century or more ago before bonding requirements, and there’s no solvent owner of record to hold accountable for the costs. In Wyoming, an industry sprang up a decade ago hoping to tap coal beds for natural gas, but after natural gas prices collapsed, the entire industry collapsed with it. The state was left with a lot of wells to plug and no companies to hold accountable. While the Biden administration is granting waivers for these protections to offshore wind projects, it’s proposing steep increases in bonding requirements for oil and gas operations. While that proposal is met with support from environmentalists, industry groups have criticized the measure. Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, told Reuters in July that rather than trying to ensure funding for reclamation efforts, the administration was raising the costs so high as a means to reduce the number of operations. Elmer Peter Danenberger III, a petroleum engineer with decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, explained on his “Bud’s Offshore Energy” blog that BOEM’s decision to waive Vineyard Wind’s obligations significantly increases the public’s risk exposure. Danenberger wrote that BOEM, in granting the waiver, cited a general departure authority, which was intended for special situations and not for waivers that could be applied broadly.

Best Of BPR 1/12: Ulysses Quartet & Vineyard Wind Goes Online

This week: A milestone for offshore wind — locally and nationally — as Vineyard Wind plugs into the grid for the first time. Also: new state regs may make it a lot trickier to build along the coastline. And CAI is broadcasting live from Monomoy Regional High School next week.

Results from New York state administered tests have been unavailable since the spring. Vineyard Wind says they can meet their deadline to bring power to homes by the end of the year. And proponents of New York's new campaign finance system are worried about a bill awaiting the governor's signature.

In an under-the-radar move, the US government allowed an energy organization working on an offshore wind venture off Massachusetts' coast to forgo taxpayer protection fees. This came to light after assessments of internal paperwork by independent parties. Specifically, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) notified Vineyard Wind about the relinquishment of a decommissioning costs assurance fee on June 15, 2021, according to a letter procured by civic watchdog Protect the Public's Trust (PPT). Under federal law, developers are typically required to remit such a fee before initiating construction on their leased land, which ensures that the federal property will be restored to its original condition upon lease termination. Michael Chamberlain, the director of PPT, aired his dismay to the press, rhetorically asking if there existed worse optics than this scenario. The director's criticism stems from the perception that this act undermines the administration's declaration of being the ethical standard-bearer. Chamberlain highlighted that the recent Deputy Interior Secretary, Tommy Beadreau, was at one time professionally connected with the Vineyard Wind project. Beadreau served as a legal advisory at Latham & Watkins and has shown to have formerly represented Vineyard Wind, as evidenced by his 2021 financial disclosure.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine a government plan designed to achieve these wonderful goals:    1. Make electricity SIX TIMES MORE EXPENSIVE. 2. Destroy America's security by removing our radar and missile systems' ability to see over the horizon to detect incoming threats. 3. Deprive people of healthy seafood or at least make it three times as expensive.  4. Take American tax dollars and give them to Scandinavian countries' pension funds for the long-term benefit of Scandinavian companies and workers.  5. Oh, and kill lots of whales by deafening / blinding them while building the magical machines which deliver these wonderful benefits.  In a better - not even perfect - nation, this insanity would not occur.  In that hypothetical nation, if someone raised such a bad idea, rational voices in government would tick off all the negative consequences to, say, destroying marine life to build pointlessly expensive electricity generation and the whole thing would stop.  Sadly, we do not live in such a nation.  Thank Heavens for driven citizens such as Meghan Lapp, who has dedicated thousands of hours to digging deep into this mess - all on her own time - to tell the rest of us how stupidly damaging the fallout from ridiculous political convictions can be.  I will not steal her thunder; have a listen to this conversation.   There are myriad lessons to be gleaned from this madness.  One is that NOAA and any other agency tasked with delivering analysis to the government must be a purely scientific enterprise, with its staff insulated from budgetary or other concerns.  We all watched what happened when "science" became divorced from reality and became one more political plaything.  Here is another example of that abuse of the objective scientific process in pursuit of ridiculously damaging political aims.  For those who wish to dig deeper, Meghan provided some helpful links:  Save Right Whales (www.saverightwhales.org) Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (www.rodafisheries.org) An Examination Into Offshore Wind Industrialization https://www.youtube.com/live/j9MY7G8pi5M?si=G0_1XsBidT03NGw0 Cape Wind Info | Cape May County, NJ (www.capemaycountynj.gov)     Information on the lawsuit against Vineyard Wind, taken by the Texas Public Policy Foundation- two short videos here: https://youtu.be/vlFwRIWRwf0?si=8XoNdGZMpcZASqgM and https://youtu.be/2F-bBTsK04k?si=QOpChT7k0ZCOx_3o   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/messytimes/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/messytimes/support

Should the federal government industrialize our oceans by leasing off our whales' “migratory superhighway” to foreign wind energy companies, displacing American commercial fishermen and women? Jacki interviews Rob Henneke, the Chief Counsel of the Center for the American Future (TPPF) which is suing the Biden Administration for failure to meet health, safety, and environmental requirements in the permitting of the Vineyard Wind farm off of the coast of Massachusetts. (Check out the mini-documentary, “A Heavy Wind: The Fight to Save an American Heritage” at texaspolicy.com). The surveying, underwater detonations / pile driving to place the wind towers, sound pollution, and EMF radiation emitted by the underground cabling repel wildlife and destroy whales' ability to navigate. Worst of all, the project will interfere with the First Detection Radar System that the Department of Defense uses to protect the homeland from attack; Hence, TPPF is suing the Department of Defense as well. - - - - - Author Thurman Smith joins Jacki to discuss his book, Supreme Damage: Rescuing Representative Government from Judicial Overreach. We examine the famed “Chevron Deference” precedent and how we got into this mess of un-elected bureaucrats micromanaging our every move.- - - - -America's energy capital, Texas, continues to issue emergency alerts to citizens to cut electricity use by unplugging major home appliances at midday or not turning the AC below 78. Our grandparents' generation would never have stood for this nonsense. Bill Peacock, Policy Director at The Energy Alliance explains why Texas is actually starting to experience energy poverty, despite having some of the most energy-rich real estate on earth. Few noticed that the state issued a Level 2 Alert last month – the first since the Texas freeze of 2021 – and we explain why these will become more frequent. #TexasPublicPolicyFoundation #TheEnergyAlliance

Depending on what you read, it can be hard to get a sense of where the offshore wind energy industry is at in Massachusetts. On the one hand, the long awaited Vineyard Wind project is anticipated to start generating electricity for the grid by the end of the year. But on the other, the futures of other potential offshore wind projects are currently up in the air due to economic challenges, such as inflation and supply chain issues. Miriam Wasser is a senior environment and climate reporter at WBUR. She joins The Common to help us make head(winds) or tails of the Massachusetts offshore wind industry.  Greater Boston's daily podcast where news and culture meet.

A poll reveals New Yorkers support a pathway to citizenship, but still have concerns over the influx of migrants. A judge rules the creation of New York's ethics panel is a violation of the state's constitution. The first turbine of Vineyard Wind should be finished within a week or so. And those retroactively added to the sex offender list look to Connecticut lawmakers for help.

On a special nautical episode of the Codcast, CommonWealth editor Bruce Mohl visits the construction site of Vineyard Wind 1, the nation's first commercial-scale offshore wind farm.

Excitement is brewing over an Atlantic offshore wind project 15 miles east of Massachusetts. Developers of the first utility-scale project in the country have begun laying the foundations for 62 planned turbines.   Vineyard Wind, the nation's first commercial scale offshore wind farm, is expected to generate 800 MW of electricity. A joint venture of Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables, Vineyard Wind would power 400,000 homes and businesses in Massachusetts annually. State officials are confident this project, and others coming down the pike, will play a critical role in meeting net zero by 2050 goals.  But challenges remain for offshore wind. Inflation is driving up costs. Complicated logistics for groundbreaking projects could cause delays. And opposition from the commercial fishing industry, which has deep roots in the area, is still strong. So, what role will public policy play in getting this and other offshore projects across the finish line? And how will it impact the rest of the industry? This week host Bill Loveless talks with Lars Thaaning Pedersen about the Vineyard Wind project and the policy support that has kept it moving forward. They also discuss the challenges of developing offshore wind projects in the U.S.  Lars is co-CEO of Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) and CEO of Vineyard Offshore. Both organizations are engaged in offshore wind development and the energy transition around the world. Prior to founding Copenhagen Offshore Partners in 2015, Lars held executive positions at DONG Energy, which is now Ørsted. He has been involved in more than 10 offshore wind projects in Europe since 2008, and is now focusing his attention on the U.S. as well as other areas of the world.

This week: That million gallons of radioactive water that Holtec wants to dump into Cape Cod Bay? Samples of it have now been taken and sent to a lab. Also: Vineyard Wind is gathering the pieces to start assembling its offshore wind farm. And, the Steamship Authority is in no rush to reach for electric ferries — that's got some folks frustrated.