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Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills

Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills - Reuters

(Reuters) - The Trump administration has ended a two-year rent holiday for solar and wind projects operating on federal lands, handing them whopping retroactive bills at a time the industry is struggling with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, according to company officials.

The move represents a multi-million-dollar hit to an industry that has already seen installation projects canceled or delayed by the global health crisis, which has cut investment and dimmed the demand outlook for power.

It also clashes with broader government efforts in the United States to shield companies from the worst of the economic turmoil through federal loans, waived fees, tax breaks and trimmed regulatory enforcement.

U.S. power plant owner Avangrid Inc, majority owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, received a bill for more than $3 million for two years of rent on its 131-megawatt Tule wind project on federal land near San Diego, according to spokesman Paul Copleman.
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Coal is on the way out & now solar/wind renewables can't catch a break in the pandemic, where power demand has dropped. And in some states if you put solar panels on your roof to get free of the grid, the utility bills you anyway.

What is left off....

The Interior Department had stopped charging the rents at the end of 2018 to review company complaints that former President Barack Obama’s administration had increased them too much, making them uncompetitive with rents on private property.
 
Cattle = food. Should we be raising costs for cattle farmers, thereby raising the price of beef at the grocery store? That doesn't make much sense. Does it?

Solar panels = energy. Should we raise the costs of energy? Doesn't make sense, does it?
 
Solar panels = energy. Should we raise the costs of energy? Doesn't make sense, does it?

Solar generated electricity costs twice as much per watt as fossil fuels.
 
Solar generated electricity costs twice as much per watt as fossil fuels.

And cars will never replace horses because you have to buy the fuel in cans at the general or hardware store.
Hydro power costs less than half what fossil fuels cost.
hydro-1.gif
If cost is really what matters. But it isn't. Protecting the investments of already very wealthy people is what matters.

Did you know that hydro is basically solar power? Another reason to reject it.
 
Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills - Reuters

(Reuters) - The Trump administration has ended a two-year rent holiday for solar and wind projects operating on federal lands, handing them whopping retroactive bills at a time the industry is struggling with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, according to company officials.

The move represents a multi-million-dollar hit to an industry that has already seen installation projects canceled or delayed by the global health crisis, which has cut investment and dimmed the demand outlook for power.

It also clashes with broader government efforts in the United States to shield companies from the worst of the economic turmoil through federal loans, waived fees, tax breaks and trimmed regulatory enforcement.

U.S. power plant owner Avangrid Inc, majority owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, received a bill for more than $3 million for two years of rent on its 131-megawatt Tule wind project on federal land near San Diego, according to spokesman Paul Copleman.
==========================================================
Coal is on the way out & now solar/wind renewables can't catch a break in the pandemic, where power demand has dropped. And in some states if you put solar panels on your roof to get free of the grid, the utility bills you anyway.

In what year do you see a prediction that Wind/Solar can power the world? Not happening in your lifetime.
 
Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills - Reuters

(Reuters) - The Trump administration has ended a two-year rent holiday for solar and wind projects operating on federal lands, handing them whopping retroactive bills at a time the industry is struggling with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, according to company officials.

The move represents a multi-million-dollar hit to an industry that has already seen installation projects canceled or delayed by the global health crisis, which has cut investment and dimmed the demand outlook for power.

It also clashes with broader government efforts in the United States to shield companies from the worst of the economic turmoil through federal loans, waived fees, tax breaks and trimmed regulatory enforcement.

U.S. power plant owner Avangrid Inc, majority owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, received a bill for more than $3 million for two years of rent on its 131-megawatt Tule wind project on federal land near San Diego, according to spokesman Paul Copleman.
==========================================================
Coal is on the way out & now solar/wind renewables can't catch a break in the pandemic, where power demand has dropped. And in some states if you put solar panels on your roof to get free of the grid, the utility bills you anyway.
Kind of a tenuous connect to the sub-forum topic, eh?
 
Solar generated electricity costs twice as much per watt as fossil fuels.

That's exactly the kind of statement that screams for a citation. Was that something you read ten years ago? Solar energy costs have been plummeting. Does it exclude subsidies for both the solar and the fossil fuels? (See the article I referenced that you didn't read).

Here's something I found on the internet just now:

The best way to compare solar energy and fossil fuels without subsidies is to examine global energy prices. Consider this: global coal prices have historically averaged $0.06 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Until the past decade, no alternative energy resource came close to rivaling that price. Fossil fuel steam averages around $0.05 cents/kWh and small scale natural gas can go as low as $0.03 cents/kWh. It’s no wonder that the world was shocked in 2016 when a major commercial solar installation bid an extremely low price for PV at $0.029 per kWh – effectively leveling the playing field between solar and fossil fuels’ cheapest offerings.

And this:

Going solar is a money-saver in the long term, even though startup costs are higher for the consumer. Electricity from fossil fuels costs between 5 cents and 17 cents per kilowatt-hour. Solar energy costs average between 3 cents and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour and are trending down, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Don't trust the source? How about Forbes?

Looks like your datapoint is out of date.
 
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Subjective, Trump may not have anything to do with the completion of the review,
just like he likely had nothing to do with stopping collecting the rent in the first place, at the end of 2018.


Quite possible. But we do know that Trump hates wind farms, especially if they are near his golf courses. November 21, 2016 right after the election he pressures a UK leader to oppose wind farms in their country. Kind of self serving use of his new found power. Don’t ya think!


Trump urged UK leader to oppose wind farm near his golf course: report | TheHill


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Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills - Reuters

(Reuters) - The Trump administration has ended a two-year rent holiday for solar and wind projects operating on federal lands, handing them whopping retroactive bills at a time the industry is struggling with the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak, according to company officials.

The move represents a multi-million-dollar hit to an industry that has already seen installation projects canceled or delayed by the global health crisis, which has cut investment and dimmed the demand outlook for power.

It also clashes with broader government efforts in the United States to shield companies from the worst of the economic turmoil through federal loans, waived fees, tax breaks and trimmed regulatory enforcement.

U.S. power plant owner Avangrid Inc, majority owned by Spain’s Iberdrola, received a bill for more than $3 million for two years of rent on its 131-megawatt Tule wind project on federal land near San Diego, according to spokesman Paul Copleman.
==========================================================
Coal is on the way out & now solar/wind renewables can't catch a break in the pandemic, where power demand has dropped. And in some states if you put solar panels on your roof to get free of the grid, the utility bills you anyway.

Why should they get a free ride? Another case of the federal government giving money to alternative energy schemes that will not provide enough energy to power the earth without carbon fuels.
 
One is a cash subsidie and one isn't. Without welfare, the green companies wouldn't exist. When did you become so fond of corporate welfare?

I can promise you the lobbyists prefer tax breaks, because people like you think there's a difference (spoiler - there isn't - a tax break is as good as cash), and tax breaks don't get appropriated every year like cash subsidies so they're under the radar. Pass the tax break one time and it's there forever, or until it gets zeroed out, which might be a decade or more.
 
Ahh! You're all for corporate welfare as long as it's something you like.

Yeah, that's kind of how life works in government. We subsidize things we want more of. If we want more strip mining, more mountain top removals, more filthy coal ash pits like the one that burst near my hometown, more air pollution, more lung disease, we can subsidize coal and other fossil fuels.

This is a house flooded with toxic coal ash. Nice work TVA!

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The good part about that spill is the clean up is going to kill 100 or so workers who were poisoned by the ash and were forced to work in the cleanup without adequate protective gear, while being lied to about the dangers of what was included in that ash they breathed for weeks or months. It just came out recently that the State of TN changed a bunch of readings on the nuclear elements in that ash - deleted them or reduced them by 97% or so, which was nice. I'm so proud of my state government for that.

MORE OF THAT PLEASE!!
 
If it woasn't for fossil fuels, most of the planet's population would starve to death

So if their product is life or death, why do they need subsidies?
 
What is left off....

The Interior Department had stopped charging the rents at the end of 2018 to review company complaints that former President Barack Obama’s administration had increased them too much, making them uncompetitive with rents on private property.

Also this seems relevant:

The rent bills landed around the same time the Bureau of Land Management notified oil and gas drillers on federal lands of the procedures they would need to follow to get relief from paying royalties amid an oil market slump.

The administration has also expanded the drilling industry’s access to economy-wide government lending facilities and is contemplating ways to pump additional billions of dollars into the sector through tax breaks.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, meanwhile, recently agreed to a 90-day fee deferral for nuclear power plant owners due to economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.

:confused:
 
Solar generated electricity costs twice as much per watt as fossil fuels.

Climate change: Coal now more expensive than wind, solar energy

- Prices per megawatt hour from electricity for coal-fired power plants range from a low of $60 to a high of $143..
- Wind is significantly cheaper: Unsubsidized, levelized prices per megawatt hour of electricity from wind range from $29 to $56, according to Lazard’s most recent figures.
- For solar electricity, unsubsidized, levelized prices range from $40 to $46, according to Lazard figures.

You got any figures for us, or are you a decade or so out of date with your talking points?
 
Why should they get a free ride? Another case of the federal government giving money to alternative energy schemes that will not provide enough energy to power the earth without carbon fuels.

It's not an either/or deal here. Until storage is solved in a big way, we will use fossil fuels, and/or nuclear energy (which wouldn't exist without subsidies). And no one is talking about a free ride for solar, but having fossil fuels pay the full freight. Fossil fuels have been subsidized for as long as they've existed as a power source in one way or another.
 
Does the same regulations apply to all the oil rigs, a d cattle ranchers on public land???


Show proof that it hasnt then.
 
Not surprising, Trump has gone full in on anything that benefits fossil fuel at the expense of everyone else.

There’s Wall Street. They have their own man in the Trump Administration. And his job is to keep teh bonuses flowing.
 
Show proof that it hasnt then.

I dont know but I doubt it.

With the Interior Department in the Trump regime entirely in the hand of openly corrupt oil and coal lobbyists, I doubt it.

Similarly, under cover of the COVID relief legislation, the Treasury Department has shifted money to the oil industry, particularly the flagging fracking business. Free Federal money so that the frackers could prop up the payments on the junk bonds that finance their business.

The Trump policy is essentially the same as the Harding Adminstrations. It gives away Federal land at bargain basement prices for oil and coal companies. That is one thing that the Trump regime has in common with the Bush and Reagan Administrations.

But times are different now. The rapidly falling cost of solar power generation, and electricity storage are changing the business model of the electric power industry. Which is a direct threat to coal and oil.

Rather than embrace the future, as our global competitors do, the Trump regime fights a well funded rear guard action to keep the fossil fuel industry subsidized and competitive.

Wall Street knows better. The money isnt going into big oil as it once did. Its going into technology.

Just another example of the way the Trump regimes obsession with their outdated vision of the future.
 
No comment on the government retroactively billing private businesses without oversight?

1. was there a lease

2. were the tenants using the property during said lease

3. why werent rents being collected WAY before COVID-19

4. if they are 2 years behind, they should have been out on their asses LONG AGO....covid or no covid

how many here live 2 years free with no mortgage payment or lease payments due?
 
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