Many politicians have built campaigns around their stated economic policy of not picking winners and losers in the energy marketplace.
Two separate decisions within different federal agencies this month, however, show that traditional and fossil energy are the priority moving forward in this current Republican-led era, while renewable energy may be fighting for its future viability despite years of favorability under previous Democratic presidential administrations.
In short, one liquified natural gas (LNG) project gains valuable time to find its way forward to global contracts, while a utility-scale offshore wind farm nearly completed and fully permitted is now forced to stop work at least temporarily.
The Republican Administration-led U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recently granted additional time for the Lake Charles LNG project to make progress on starting its export operations along the U.S. Coast with the Gulf of Mexico. The extension, granted to Lake Charles LNG developer Energy Transfer, gives the company more time to work on exports to non-free trade agreement countries.
“Granting this commencement extension furthers the Trump Administration’s priority of unleashing American Energy, a radical shift from the last administration, whose actions undermined the progress of Lake Charles LNG for years,” said Tala Goudarzi, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.
At around the same time, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued a stop-work order for the Revolution Wind offshore project near the Rhode Island coastline. This BOEM order to cease comes even though Danish project developers Ørsted and Skyborn Renewables and various contractors have completed close to 80% of construction and plan to put Revolution Wind into commercial operation as early as next year.
The offshore wind project also is fully permitted, including approval by BOEM last year. It also already has 400 MW of power purchase agreements under contract for customers in Rhode Island and Connecticut.
The recent Department of Interior letter to Ørsted stated that national security concerns about Revolution Wind arose during the Trump Administration’s review of renewable energy projects greenlighted during the Biden Administration and even first Trump term.
“In particular, BOEM is seeking to address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States and prevention of interference with reasonable uses of the exclusive economic zone, the high seas, and the territorial seas,” reads the BOEM letter to Ørsted. “You may not resume activities until BOEM informs you that BOEM has completed its necessary review. If you fail to comply with the terms of this order, BOEM may take additional corrective action as appropriate.”
The Revolution Wind leadership group replied that it is taking steps to halt work. It noted that millions of labor union manpower has contributed to the construction, and that a nearby and operational offshore wind farm, South Fork, utilized the same turbine technology as being employed with Revolution.
LNG, meanwhile, is clearly a priority with the U.S. ascending to the top global exporter position thanks for prolific natural gas production in shale plays and the Permian Basin. Eight large-scale LNG infrastructure projects are operational along the nation’s coastlines and could eventually total export capacity of 13.8 billion cubic feet per day, according to Energy Department reports.
Lake Charles LNG has signed several long-term off-take agreements with energy firms such as Chevron and Kyushu Electric Power Co.
