WND by Nick Pope Daily Caller News Foundation 9/7/2023
• The U.S. offshore wind industry has struggled in recent weeks, a development which could complicate President Joe Biden’s climate agenda.
• Two major offshore wind companies have paid tens of millions of dollars in fines to get out of deals they signed to provide wind-sourced power to utility companies, a third has seen nearly 30% of its market capitalization wiped out after announcing a major reduction in the expected value of some of its East Coast projects and an August sale of three offshore wind lease areas by the Biden administration drew disappointing levels of interest from companies reported to have had interest in the bidding.
• “The wind industry was already heavily subsidized before the Inflation Reduction Act, and after the IRA, there is more money and the favoritism is greater,” Daren Bakst, director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment, told the Daily Caller News Foundation, adding that “the wind industry, like any industry, should stand on its own without government handouts paid for by American taxpayers.”
The U.S. offshore wind industry, key to President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, has struggled in recent months due to inflation, rising interest rates and mounting supply chain difficulties.
Several companies involved in offshore wind projects off the East Coast have experienced financial difficulties as inflation, supply chain difficulties and rising interest rates have hampered the sector. Despite the wind industry receiving considerable support from subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s signature climate bill, some firms have paid large fines to get out of energy deals they signed, while one company has seen its stock price tank because of impairments to its projects.
“Biden has a top-down ‘deindustrialization policy,’ in much the same way Germany did,” Dan Kish, senior fellow for the Institute for Energy Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s amazing to watch politicians try to design a system that will work to replace one we know works and made us the number one economy in the world.”
More:
https://www.wnd.com/2023/09/offshore-wind-industry-facing-massive-headwinds-enthusiasm-dwindles-losses-mount/
