Good morning and happy Friday,

This week, Rocky Mountain Institute highlighted the potential benefits of Michigan passing an aggressive 60% clean energy standard, noting that if implemented, “the state would be 78 percent of the way to its [2030 climate targets]. That’s the single biggest leap any policy we’ve analyzed could make for Michigan.”

Things were less rosy in the offshore world, however, as inflation and supply chain issues prompted South Coast Wind to terminate contracts with three utilities for power from an offshore wind facility it’s developing in Martha’s Vineyard (it plans to rebid), and the first-ever auction of offshore wind development rights in the Gulf of Mexico produced somewhat soggy results.

Read on for more.

A new report from the Roosevelt Institute looks at the twin – and overlapping – challenges of building out renewable energy infrastructure and the need for permitting reform. In particular, it seeks to disentangle the myriad of issues at stake and find a path forward that ensures protections for the environment and communities. Here are some points to ponder:

• While some clean energy advocates may call for blanket “permitting reform,” environmental justice advocates say that the “reviews mandated by key permitting laws are crucial, if imperfect, safeguards protecting communities.”
• “Permitting” is used inconsistently and can refer to a wide variety of things – sometimes including transmission and interconnection issues, which typically address matters that are pretty different from, say, reforming the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
• The result is “an unfocused conversation about ‘cutting red tape’” instead of a discussion about how public policy can enable the energy transition in a timely manner while also incorporating “robust public input.”

Renewables roadmap. The report authors note that the goals of expanding renewables and protecting communities and the environment are aligned, and the fossil fuel industry has "leveraged the permitting discussion as ‘a decoy for ramping up gas.’” They offer a roadmap for a “progressive approach to permitting reform” that ensures key protections aren’t weakened in the name of “energy security.”

The decline of the U.S. Rust Belt began decades ago, the result of falling productivity and increasing competition. Today, U.S. steel production faces yet another challenge: a shift away from fossil fuels, especially coal. A new report from the Ohio River Valley Institute makes the case for the “rebirth of a clean, green, steel industry.” Here are some key points:

• The report focuses on Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley, home to Pittsburgh – which at its height produced 60% of America’s steel. Demand for steel slumped in the last decades of the 20th century but is rising again – along with “pressure to decarbonize its production.”
• “Green steel” refers to steel made using green hydrogen, i.e., hydrogen produced using wind energy. Transitioning to green steel production could reverse the 30% in expected job losses by 2031, and instead “grow total jobs supported by steelmaking in the region by 27-43%.”
• The study identifies western Pennsylvania as the perfect spot to make this seismic shift because of “its proximity to clean water, an experienced workforce, and 22,200 watts of wind and solar energy potential.” As such, the transition would likely increase jobs in renewable energy, in addition to the steel industry.

Get off the dime. The report's authors emphasize the urgency of taking action to get in on the ground floor of this new approach: “The quest for green steel isn’t just an ideological matter, but a question of global economic power.” And whereas “Historically, you would have built a steel plant near a coal mine, now you’re going to be building it where you have clean power.”

• Dual Use: Agrivoltaics supporters and emerging farmers join forces
• ROI: Value of wind power exceeds costs
• More Boom, Less Bust: Onshore Wind Is Poised to Grow
• Hitchhiking: CA counties could power 270,000 homes installing solar along highways

• Twin Falls County, ID pauses county permit process for large-scale energy on private land
• Huntington Town, NY weighs moratorium on battery energy storage system facilities
• Winnebago County, IL Zoning Committee discusses solar energy farms
• Project to add over 100 wind turbines near the Iowa Great Lakes faces opposition
• Dickinson County IA Supervisors Hear Continued Discussion on Wind Energy

“Carbon Sequestering Pebbles” may not sound quite as appealing as “Fruity Pebbles,” but Post Consumer Brands may want to consider creating a new line of cereals and marketing them as “The Breakfast of Climate Champions.” A new study looked at the potential for locking away carbon by spreading crushed rocks on farmland. Surprisingly, the numbers are “enormous.”

How enormous? “Scattering carbon-absorbing rock dust across global farmland could sequester 217 gigatons of CO2 by 2100,” which would make it possible to keep global temperature increases below 1.5 °C. Holy Cheerios!

Here’s how this potential lucky charm works: when rain falls, it captures CO2 from the atmosphere. The CO2 then “reacts with rock to form carbonates which capture the carbon. From here, the carbon either precipitates into the soil or flows into the ocean where it can then be sequestered for centuries in marine sediments.” This process is called “weathering;” crushing the rock increases the surface area available to interact and capture carbon. It’s magically delicious!