Why can’t we build our own damn billion-dollar wind farms?

Photo Above - prototype of the French designed offshore wind turbine planned for NY. It was cancelled this week.

When I hear the word wind turbine, I automatically think of China. Or maybe some Scandinavian country unafraid of North Sea maelstroms. But France? France? They just pulled the plug on their project off the coast of New York. Hold the tears, please. The first footer hadn’t been poured yet. And wasn’t scheduled to be finished until 2029 anyway. See links below.

Over the past 12 months wind farms off the Atlantic coast have been cancelled by Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands); Orsted (Denmark); Iberola (Spain); and now TotalEnergies SE (France). Do you see a pattern here?

Government grants? Who just said that? You bet your life that’s today’s secret word. None of this would even be worth discussing without US tax dollars getting forked over. I only wish that if billions are going to be spent, and nothing get done, the money could be thrown at US companies, rather than foreigners. Europe didn’t discover electricity. That would have been Ben Franklin 300 years ago while flying his kite in a thunderstorm. America was also the first to build large scale electric plants. Now we have to buy wind turbines from . . .FRANCE?

Of course, when America throws a wad of taxpayer cash on the table, like a tinhorn gambler, that money has an aroma which draws corporations like flies. Not only in the USA, but all the way across the Atlantic too.

This week's French wind farm cancellation is getting blamed on Trump, of course. Which is total BS, since the other projects listed above were cancelled in 2022 and 2023, when everyone was convinced democrats would occupy the White House until judgement day

There are even Wind Farm projects in the Great Lakes getting cancelled. Unclear if DC money was lost there too. Those nearby states are pulling the plug because lakeside wind turbines are “not economically viable at this time”. Sheesh . . . and they call Chicago the windy city?

I’m sure all the companies planning to make big(er) fortunes from AI, which needs billions of gigawatts electricity, are going to scream bloody murder. Those AI systems collectively use more gigawatts than the state of California already. An entire wind farm off the coast of Britain was just hijacked for AI use, screwing over the UK taxpayers who had helped fund it.

Let’s be clear about this. I have no issues building wind farms. I have no issues with crappy projects getting cancelled. I just don’t think America should be adding to the $35 Trillion national debt to subsidize European companies which have sky high ambitions but few installed turbines.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

$4.4B wind farm project off New York coast ‘on pause’ after Trump election victory

TotalEnergies’ Offshore Wind Power Portfolio Worldwide at the End of 2022 | TotalEnergies.com