A Fortunate Failure

The Trump administration has done its best to hamstring wind power.  Its primary tool for this is stopping required reviews of new wind farms by the Pentagon.

The courts are having none of it.

On Thursday, a US District Court in Oregon ordered the US government to restart the process of approving wind projects. All new wind development in the US has been on hold since August 2025, when the Department of Defense (DoD) stopped participating in a process that allows it to compel developers to alter projects in order to limit their interference with radar equipment. The court ruled, however, that the DoD’s national security claims did not allow it to opt out of a process that is legally mandated.

The Trump administration has made many attempts to block wind development, both offshore and land based. Its attempts to stop offshore wind included the same approach at issue in this case: Claim that drone developments mean that radar interference by wind turbines creates a national security risk. The courts were not sympathetic to this claim, including in cases where judges examined a classified report that the DoD was using to justify blocking offshore wind construction. As a result, the administration has turned to paying companies not to pursue wind development.

In parallel, the government was pursuing a similar approach for onshore wind. Here, a law lays out a process for the DoD to evaluate any problems posed by wind turbines and negotiate changes to planned wind farms with the developers. As laid out in the new decision, the government simply stopped participating in this process in August 2025, first by refusing to sign off on previously negotiated agreements, and later by refusing to draft agreements entirely. Eventually, it simply refused to participate in negotiations at all. This has brought a halt to all wind development in the US.

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Nothing in that framework allows the DoD to simply stop participating in the process. “If DoD wishes to alter the statutory scheme, it can ask Congress to do so,” Immergut wrote. In the absence of congressional action, the DoD can’t simply ignore the law.

The ruling orders the DoD to resume the process of approving wind projects using the congressionally mandated schedule and to report back every 30 days on its progress.

 

Good News Everyone!

For the first time ever, solar energy has generated more electricity than coal in the United States.

This is not a surprise.  Solar energy is now cheaper than coal power, the capital investment is lower, and the time from concept from rollout to service entry is lower.

For the first time on record, solar power has generated more electricity than coal in the United States, marking a structural shift in the country’s electricity mix and the accelerating role of renewables in the grid. In May 2026, solar accounted for approximately 12.8% of U.S. electricity generation, while coal accounted for about 12.2%. This marks the first monthly period in which solar surpassed coal in electricity output.

Solar’s record output during the month is is due in part to the seasonal conditions that increase daytime generation. Growth in solar also comes from both utility-scale installations and distributed systems across multiple states. At the same time, coal generation continued its long-term downward trend due to plant retirements, reduced utilization, and competition from lower-cost energy sources. Coal plants also increasingly operate below full capacity, which reduces their overall share of total electricity generation even when facilities remain active. This moment does not signal the end of coal, but it confirms a shift in the structure of electricity production in the U.S. The result is a grid that now relies more heavily on variable renewable energy, with solar playing a growing role in meeting daytime demand and offsetting fossil fuel generation.

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Across regions, solar growth is being driven by declining technology costs, faster deployment timelines compared to fossil fuel infrastructure, and policy frameworks that prioritize renewable energy expansion. The solar-over-coal crossover reflects more than a statistical milestone. It signals a broader reconfiguration of electricity systems toward modular, rapidly deployable energy sources that can scale faster than traditional fossil fuel infrastructure.

This is a good thing.  The faster that we get off coal, the better.

Finally

State Attorneys General in New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont are over payments made to French firm TotalEnergies to shut down their offshore wind projects.

New York’s attorney general is leading a lawsuit against the Trump administration to challenge its deal that put an end to a French energy company’s offshore wind projects.

As part of an agreement with the Trump administration, TotalEnergies said in March it would stop developing offshore wind projects in the U.S. and will instead invest in oil and gas production in the country. The government said the company would be paid $928 million—the value of its offshore wind leases—which would then be reinvested into oil and gas projects.

The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by attorneys general from New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.

“We are fighting back to stop this illegal agreement that threatens to erase over a thousand union jobs and cheat millions of New Yorkers out of clean, affordable energy,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said.TotalEnergies has said it won’t pursue any further offshore wind leases in the U.S.

“This pay-not-to-play scheme pressuring a foreign company to forgo planned offshore wind projects in America in favor of gas and oil drilling is an outrageous abuse of taxpayer dollars that hurts our ability to meet our energy needs, create good jobs, and help secure American energy independence while reducing emissions,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

It should be noted that before the payment was made, Trump attempted to shut down the program through executive order, and when he lost in court, made it clear that he would continue harassing TotalEnergies, and then offered a payment for them to shut down the project.

This is protection racket gangster bullsh%$.