It’s great to want things. In fact, there’s plenty we at AENJ want and have fought to get for years. But sometimes the things you want just aren’t possible to get given the circumstances. At least not in that moment (which we have dealt with for the last 8 years).

For the past decade much of our energy conversation in NJ has revolved around what advocates and elected officials touted as the “opportunity” that wind could present. But given all of the challenges and setbacks along the way leading to zero new wind energy actually developed through multiple Energy Master Plans, it’s time to take a step back and look at the reality of where we are today.

This includes considering the impact of the recent Presidential action to pause all current wind leases for what they say are security concerns:

This is not a question of whether people like the decision or the decision makers who made it. We will let others have that conversation and argue among themselves. It’s not even a conversation about whether or not people like wind as an energy source or not.

It is simply a recognition that with the current state of play, policy makers must understand the reality when planning energy projects for the next 3-5 years and longer. And the reality right now is that wind projects are not going to be developed in the near future, no matter how many press releases talk about them being the energy sources that are just waiting for the ok in the PJM queue.

So the question then becomes, what do we do next to meet our growing demand? Freezes of prices won’t be enough. The new administration is going to have to quickly figure out how they will support and develop feasible baseload energy projects (like natural gas and nuclear) to get more into the system or as we keep reminding people, this problem is only going to keep getting exponentially worse.