In response to the growing shortage of energy that critics say has been self-imposed by the administration’s policies, the Biden White House announced that it is developing plans for a massive wind farm stretching along the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast of the U.S., Yahoo reported.
“The announcement came months after the Biden administration approved the nation’s first major commercial offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and began reviewing a dozen other potential offshore wind projects along the East Coast,” says the New York Times.
Biden administration announces plans for massive expansion of wind farms off US coasts: https://t.co/p9M92WU3fR pic.twitter.com/EuMrUCbTUU
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Republicans have been blasting the administration for creating an energy crisis that hurts ordinary Americans the most while favoring radical, expensive, anti-energy schemes.
“The Biden Administration has abandoned hard-working families because they once again chose radical anti-energy special interests over lower energy costs and national security for American households,” said House Republican Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., in a press release.
The new Biden wind plan is more futuristic than practical says critics.
The Times says that leases still have to be negotiated, with impact studies that determine if “potential sites could harm endangered species, conflict with military activity, damage underwater archaeological sites, or harm local industries such as tourism, the federal government could deem them unsuitable for leasing.”
In addition, local transmission lines will have to upgraded to accommodate a new supply of electricity from offshore wind turbines. And offshore wind farm operate in far harsher conditions than say in Texas, where there were widespread outages of wind turbines this past winter.
“Those upgrades, too, require extensive regulatory proceedings with uncertainty as to the ultimate cost and in-service date of the needed infrastructure improvements,” said Reuters.
The wind turbine industry has been in a major funk, with rising costs making it difficult for companies who produce turbines to make money.
Top wind-turbine makers are struggling with lower earnings as rising raw- material costs, problems shipping the hulking machines, and uncertainty over the future of U.S. subsidies pressure their businesses,” said the Wall Street Journal.
