Good morning and happy Friday,

Well, the subject of climate change emerged within the first 20 minutes of Wednesday night’s Republican showdown. 

The GOP presidential hopefuls offered a creative array of takes on the global emergency; Gov. Ron DeSantis avoided addressing human-caused warming, Nikki Haley acknowledged that climate change is “real,” while blaming China, and GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said the “climate change agenda is a hoax. Let the games begin!

Read on for more from this week’s headlines. 

Who can say no to renewable utility siting? Most developers know it depends on where your project is. As projects increase, so does the scramble to speed up–or slow down–the process. Governments continue to test the waters:

• In Texas, the provisional Attorney General wrote an opinion deciding that Texas counties lack the power to ban solar farms, or even to place a moratorium. 
• The state of Illinois recently decided to copy off the Lone Star State’s paper and passed legislation that will put a stop to local government’s ability to kill solar and wind projects.
• New York is like this too–three years ago it created a siting agency for renewables and established a shot clock for the approval process.
• So, is California one of those preemption states? Yes. Last year, it preempted local jurisdictions’ ability to site large-scale renewables.

Who’s next?  It could be that because of what we’re seeing with an uptick in preemptive legislation, the increase in local obstacles to renewables, and the ever-expanding timelines, the pressure will cause some action on a national scale. We may see federal steps to regulate some of the larger moving pieces, much like 5G co-location imposed shot clocks and other mandatory pieces to speed up 5G equipment placement a few years back.

Co-founded in 2009 by Allen Estrin and talk show host Dennis Prager, PragerU (short for Prager University Foundation) is an advocacy group that promotes conservative content on a range of topics ranging from race to climate change. It is also attempting to bring its controversial content “into classrooms nationwide.” Here’s today’s lesson on climate denialism:

• Despite its name, PragerU is not an accredited university, nor even an approved educational vendor in states like Texas, where it claims it has brought materials “introducing conservative lessons” to classrooms. “’Not quite,’ officials say.”
• PragerU has already made inroads in Florida and New Hampshire, where the curricula it produces for children ranging from kindergarten through high school include “cartoons that promote climate denial and the benefits of fossil fuels.”
• The organization’s “educational resources” include videos with titles like Is There Really a Climate Emergency?, The Real Climate Crisis, and Do 97% of Climate Scientists Really Agree?, hosted by Steve Koonin and Alex Epstein, author of “The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels.”

Fallacious “facts.” The vice president of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, a former teacher, observed that many educators will be able to discern that PragerU’s materials present “what we would refer to as a logical fallacy, meaning the material that you're reading or listening to might sound like it makes sense, but if you are educated on that topic, you would know that they came to a conclusion that's not based on fact." That’s reassuring, but what about the educators – and students and parents – who can’t make that distinction?

• First of its Kind: $1.5 billion U.S. wind power deal in bag
• Bigger in TX: Flush With Tax Credit Promises Projects Are Booming in Texas 
• Fast & Cheapr: Accelerating permits drives down solar price tags
• 1 + 1 = 1: Engie acquires BESS business

• Mahoning County, OH holds vote for wind and solar ban next month
• Fauquier County, VA BOS blocks construction of 80-megawatt solar project 
• Yakima County, WA Commissioners extend solar moratorium another six months
• Pennsylvania State Senator Doug Mastriano introduced bill to ban solar on farmland

Headquartered in Norway, Equinor is a state-owned multinational energy company with a primary focus on the petroleum industry. However, with 47% of the world’s operating capacity, it is also the largest developer of floating offshore wind – and its second project is now fully online, powering the company’s offshore drilling operations in the Norwegian North Sea.

At 88 MW, Hywind Tampen is the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, and also the first built specifically to power offshore oil and gas installations. The project has 11 turbines and is situated about 87 miles off the coast of Norway in depths ranging from 260 to 300 meters. It first produced power in November of last year but became fully operational this month.

Hywind Tampen is expected to cover about 35% of the annual electricity demand of five offshore drilling platforms...good news, to be sure, but something that surely has some climate advocates wondering if this win is overshadowed by its implicit costs.