Jackalope Wind Project Hops onto Ash Heap of Green Energy History
As the windfarm dreams burn down to cinders, it’s worth remembering that from honest reckoning with failure, sound energy policy can actually rise from the ashes.
As I am writing this on Ash Wednesday, I decided to take a look at the now mountainous pile of windfarm projects that have been tossed onto the ash heap of Green Energy history…thanks to President Donald Trump and his insistence that American energy sources be dependable, efficient, and as inexpensive as reasonably possible.
Last week, I noted that Now Wyoming’s top land officials moved to rescind the state wind leases underpinning the Pronghorn H2 and Sidewinder projects, effectively putting both projects on a path toward cancellation. It turns out that these projects were being constructed to support another untested and untried technology, and were unpopular with local residents.
Now, an amusingly named Jackalope Wind project in that state has hopped onto the Green Energy ash heap.
NextEra Energy (NEE) has canceled its 600 MW Jackalope wind farm project in Wyoming, The New York Times reported Wednesday, in the latest casualty of President Trump’s efforts to slow or stop federal approvals for wind and solar projects.
A key environmental review of Jackalope Wind by the Interior Department was stalled for months, and the project is now effectively dead, the report said.
The project, which was expected to be operational by summer 2027, signed an agreement in late 2024 with Idaho Power (IDA) to sell energy produced by the farm over 35 years.
In September, the Idaho utility canceled its contracts with Jackalope Wind, citing “uncertainties related to the federal permitting process,” and has since accelerated plans to install nine engines that burn natural gas.
Kudos to the Trump administration for stalling "hundreds of wind and solar projects nationwide":
"A week before the 2024 election, Idaho’s largest electric utility struck a 35-year deal to buy power from a wind farm under development in Wyoming. The Jackalope Wind project would…
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 5, 2026
Given that the jackalope is a mythical creature that may be the result of jack rabbits being infected with a nasty virus that results in facial tentacles, perhaps the name is fitting. Green energy scams and pseudoscience have infected the American economy, and funding tentacles sprouted that are only now being treated.
Given that the jackalope is a mythical creature that may be the result of jack rabbits being infected with a nasty virus that results in facial tentacles, perhaps the name is fitting. Green energy scams and pseudoscience have infected the American economy, and funding tentacles… https://t.co/lnswgWGmET
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) February 18, 2026
Next, after a cold snap so frost Lake Erie froze, New York State is clearly rethinking its “NetZero” goals.
New York State on Friday cited “federal disruptions” and “market uncertainty” in canceling its latest and largest request for new offshore wind energy, months after several bidders had already pulled out of the process.
Nixing the solicitation puts an end, for now, to a plan that foresaw potentially thousands of new wind power arrays in deep waters off New York and New Jersey.
In a statement Friday, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, which administers the state’s clean energy programs, said it “would not be prudent” to move ahead with its prior request for proposals for upward of 4,000 megawatts for offshore wind “given the current level of uncertainty” in the nascent, and troubled, U.S. offshore wind market. The bidding closed without an award “at this time,” NYSERDA said.
NYSERDA in its statement said “federal actions disrupted the market and instilled significant uncertainty into offshore wind project development.”
As Beege Welborn of Hot Air notes, Trump is being used as an excuse to begin walking away from wind-driven eco-insanity.
No doubt this ongoing industry turmoil has been playing into NY’s looking for a graceful exit, and Trump is that guy who gives them one.
But I’d bet there’s even more to it.
People aren’t falling for the renewables-in-the-tailpipe anymore. They’re simply no longer willing to be gullible – they can’t afford it. And especially worrying to Mid-Atlantic and New England governors, their core voting demographic is feeling ‘misled.’
And The New York Times is all too happy to push the Trump-blaming narrative.
While Mr. Trump’s attacks on offshore wind have been highly visible, his administration has also been hobbling solar and wind energy projects on land by halting or delaying federal approvals that were once routine.
More than 60 large wind and solar farms under development on federal lands, such as Jackalope Wind, are being stymied. But the administration is also holding up hundreds of wind and solar projects on private land that require federal consultations. Many projects are facing potentially fatal delays, according to interviews with more than a dozen energy companies, industry groups and analysts.
The extra layer of scrutiny for wind and solar contrasts with actions by the Trump administration to make it easier and cheaper for companies to produce oil, coal, gas and nuclear power.
I will simply point out, as I often do, that nuclear power is the most efficient “Net Zero” option on the table. If the NYT were serious about carbon concerns, it would be happy with the Trump administration’s push for nuclear.
Meanwhile, enjoy the climate cultist tears and the cheap fuel prices. That is, unless you live in California.
From the ashes of “NetZero” fantasies, a clearer path is finally emerging that is built on sound engineering and science, not climate-hysteria-pushing slogans.
On this Ash Wednesday, as the windfarm dreams burn down to cinders, it’s worth remembering that from honest reckoning with failure, sound energy policy can actually rise from the ashes.
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Comments
a win for the left by any measure
billions plus funneled to the mostly black matriarchy aka dnc
then when they retake powers ( more than they have now)
they will say
ohhh we had alll that equipment but your guy got rid of it
crank up the 503 c whatever the freebie code is and start re spending to purchase more
IMO even musk made out great in this whole ev wind sun solar drain on our pocketbooks
long live the national debt!!
Leave it to the NYT to complain that Trump is killing scams by not funding them as gullibly as Biden did
“If the NYT were serious …” Pigs would fly. Beggars would ride.
Anybody who couldn’t see the failure coming doesn’t know what a “jackalope” is.
A jackalope is a cross between a jack rabbit and a pronghorn antelope, hence if appears to be a jack rabbit with antelope horns.
They exist. I’ve seen a mounted specimen at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.
“hence it”
They do not exist. The “specimens” are jokes.
Humor is not a talent you possess
Milhouse, Milhouse, Milhouse: who you gonna believe – some University Professor our your own lyin’ eyes.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Unlucky_Jackalope_4891624513.jpg
And don’t go tellin’ us that “The science is settled.”
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!
Male bunnies will hump anything they can get to stay still for 30 seconds, so the jackalope is a rare but unsurprising crossbred consequence.
I blame the parents.
Wyoming is loaded with natural gas, more than enough for its small population, and with much to export to other states. Wind turbines make no sense there. Wind turbines are blight on landscape and generate negative cash flow.
And murder so many birds including our American Eagle
Marine. Life
They are horrible!
Having the gas makes it ironic, certainly… but if wind turbines make sense anywhere, it’s in Wyoming, as anyone who has driven I-25 will confirm.
I participated in a magic act once, in which DW was driving our RV down the first lane when suddenly we found ourselves in the second with no recollection of how or when.
Also, our awning had been removed as efficiently as Lovely Assistant’s underwear.
The trouble is, wind turbines can’t work in actual high winds, so all those high mph breezes are simply wasted.
Another “whodathunkit?”
Wind turbine operations must be shut down during high winds. Yet another limitation.
Wyoming also is a major coal producer, with unit trains moving Wyoming coal to power plans throughout the Midwest and other places. Many of the mines are in Campbell County.
Yes indeed coal and natural gas are found together same geology. Nat gas is generally considered cleaner.
Each of those towers generates between 200 million and 900 million kWh per year. A lot of kinetic energy is being allowed to just pass by.
I lived through the Energy Crisis of the 1970s, in the Global Freeze portion of the climate change issue. The point of generating power from wind was to not need to be subservient to any other country. In the age of wars with oil producers and seizing tankers on the high seas, I still think harvesting wind energy is good risk management and good business.
I realize sellers of hydrocarbons will suffer. I predict the fuel-cost-free solar and wind energy will become tools for owners of buildings and factories.
Just because we have natural gas doesn’t mean we should burn it on a windy day.
I am not opposed to nuclear. I hope you pay attention when the nuclear people say their product will be ready. It is not now.
I hope you pay attention to how much solar-sourced electricity is being generated. It is a lot.
I’ve noticed the same people who scoff at wind and sun are silent when it comes to hydropower or geothermal power.
Of course. What is there to talk about? There just isn’t much opportunity for hydropower in the US. And geothermal is expensive to install. Both work better at a small residential scale than a large utility scale. It’s about science and physics, things the emotional left disregard.
There aren’t any rivers left to be dammed. The major ones have already been dammed. The few remaining minor ones are considered protected habitat with dam construction blocked. There will never be enough hydro power for growing energy demand. Good luck tapping old faithful geyser for your geothermal experiment.
You can’t see the chief difference between solar and wind compared to geothermal and hydro?
It’s pretty simple.
Consistently predictable output.
Grundoon:
Without the massive taxpayer subsidies that wind power gets, NONE of them would exist. Every time those subsidies come up for federal government cash-cow-time, the IWEA shrieks (correctly) that not having the subsidies would kill every single bird-chopper project in the US.
According to the US Treasury statements, bird-choppers will have received around $31 BILLION in FY24, while providing a minor (10% by the most favorable estimate) amount of actual power. They are intermittent, unreliable, short-lived, and environmentally disastrous. According to the EPA the actually-produced energy is typically about 1/3rd of the “nameplate” capacity…so they would actually need to build 3 times as many choppers as they are now building to make as much power as they claim. Compare this to the 99%+ reliability and availability of nuclear and gas turbine power plants.
And yet, neither large scale solar or wind power generation is cost effective enough to dispense with those enormous subsidies from various government bodies.
Certainly there are niche markets for both technologies, but at present they are mostly subsidy farms rather than actual economic energy sources.
True, but technically they are subsidies from you and me (assuming you pay taxes).
maybe now NEE will divert its cash towards the development and placement of SMRs
Meanwhile, in Massachusetts Comrade Healey still pushes net zero with full force, and the electric rates continue to soar.
and lefty is loving this
they want to trap the AI crowd into paying for the
soon-to-be national income scheme
Except there is no ash heap. The turbines are essentially indestructible. They can only be buried as landfill. A waste of manpower and energy comes full circle.