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Whelp, that was fast. America’s incoming president surely won some votes from workers in and around the US wind industry when he swept into office on November 5. He did not waste time throwing them under the bus just two months later, at a press conference on January 7 — oh, wait. Never mind. He said he will stop all windmills, not wind turbines. Those are two different things. Maybe a few farmers and ranchers will be upset about the windmills, but nobody else will care…
The US Wind Industry Does Not Manufacture Windmills Any More
Windmills deploy wind energy for mechanical tasks, like grinding grain. Here in the US, windmills were once widely used for pumping water. In contrast, wind turbines use wind energy to generate electricity. In a turbine. That’s what turbines do.
As for whether or not the US windmill industry employs a lot of voters, the short answer is not many. Some windmills are still in operation but their heyday was long gone by the 1930s.
Here is the National Park Service on the topic of windmills in the US:
“The business of windmills faltered following World War I. Electricity and gasoline became cheaper while agricultural commodity prices deceased. People could not buy new windmills and they had cheaper alternatives. The situation worsened for windmill manufacturers with general economic depression during the 1930s.”
By the 1970s, only three windmill manufacturers remained in the US. They had a brief respite from irrelevancy when the oil crisis occurred, but by then the US wind industry was turning attention to new wind turbine technology.
“In the 1980s, significant research went into wind power becoming a commercial source of electricity. Wind turbines became the new face of wind energy leaving water-pumping windmills to a niche market,” the Parks Service observes.
“Today, water pumping windmills continue to be used on rural ranches and small-scale farms,” they added, in an article posted in 2019. That was five years ago and not much has changed since then.
Sure, Let’s Stop The US Wind Industry
I kid, I kid. Obviously the President-elect didn’t really mean to pick on windmills, let alone farmers and ranchers. Clearly he meant that the entire US wind industry as it exists today should be brought to a grinding halt, meaning, of course, wind turbines.
“President-elect Trump signaled Tuesday that he would oppose all new wind energy production in his second term in remarks to reporters,” observed reporter Zack Budryk for The Hill on January 7.
As reported by Budryk, Trump said that his administration will “try and have a policy where no windmills are being built,” further claiming that “they don’t work without subsidy. … You don’t want energy that needs subsidy.”
“Data from the International Energy Agency indicates fossil fuel subsidies reached an all-time high in 2022, with oil subsidies increasing 85 percent,” Budryk noted for the record.
US President Picks On Farmers And Ranchers
Actually, the President-elect did pick on farmers and ranchers. Once the modern US wind industry began picking up steam in the early 2000s, farmers and ranchers began to reap the financial benefits of leasing their land for wind turbines, bringing in a steady, significant source of income.
By 2020 the connection between the US wind industry and US agriculture stakeholders was firmly established. According to a survey by the US Department of Agriculture, as of 2020 90% of the wind turbines in rural areas were located on farmland, including rangeland as well as crop and pasture land.
Farmland loss due to suburban sprawl and commercial development is a critical issue, but stories about wind turbines saving the family farm abound. USDA emphasizes that wind turbines and farm activities can coexist on the same land. “Because the amount of land cover directly affected by wind turbines was small relative to the amount of farmland, and because farmers and ranchers can typically continue agricultural production near wind turbines after they are installed, land cover changed on only 4.8 percent of sites after installation,” USDA notes, further adding that some of the cover change as of 2020 involved switching between crop and pasture land.
Entire US Wind Industry Grinds To A Halt
Considering the President-elect’s remarks on January 7, it’s case of you snooze, you lose for farmers and ranchers who were thinking about leasing their land for wind turbines. If the US wind industry is stopped in its tracks, there goes that opportunity.
Of course, that’s a worst-case scenario. Realistically, the chance that the President-elect will follow through on his pledge is limited to offshore activities, where the US wind industry relies on federally controlled areas leased from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (see lots more offshore wind lease background here).
In yesterday’s press conference he was already hedging. After all, “try and have a policy where no windmills are being built” is quite a step down from an earlier statements back in May, in which he indicated that he will issue an Executive Order “on day one.”
That particular pledge was issued at a campaign rally hosted by a coastal community in southern New Jersey where sentiment runs hot against offshore wind development, indicating that the primary target is the offshore part of the US wind industry, not the whole kit and kaboodle.
US Wind Workers Left Holding The Bag
Or not, as the case may be. CleanTechnica has spilled plenty of ink on the President-elect’s well known vendetta against wind turbines, offshore and on. It’s quite possible that the entire US wind industry will be impacted to one degree or another over the next four years.
A reversal in the US offshore wind industry alone will put thousands of workers out of work, including workers in the boat-building and seaport construction industries as well as the offshore wind industry supply chain, which stretches all across the US.
“Of the $40 billion in new [offshore wind industry] investment, $24 billion consists of “direct investments towards manufacturing, vessel-building and shipyard upgrades, port infrastructure, transmission planning, and workforce development across 39 red and blue states,” emphasized Liz Burdock, President and CEO of the offshore wind advocacy organization Oceantic Network President, in a statement issued on November 6.
Be that as it may, voters can’t say they weren’t warned. If the President-elect fails to follow through on his threats against Greenland, Panama, and Canada, he can always turn attention to US shores, where the domestic wind industry makes a convenient target.
If you work in the US wind industry, or are seeking work, or are interested in training for a job in the US wind industry, drop a note in the comment thread and tell us what you’re thinking.
Image: The modern US wind industry deploys many different kinds of wind turbines, none of which are anything like the windmills of olden days (courtesy of National Parks Service).
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