{"id":382732,"date":"2025-06-11T10:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T08:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=382732"},"modified":"2025-06-11T10:26:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T08:26:26","slug":"dot-asked-to-terminate-illegal-floating-wind-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=382732","title":{"rendered":"DOT asked to terminate illegal floating wind grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"
AI generated<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By David Wojick<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have the honor and pleasure of co-signing a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, asking him to terminate a half billion-dollar grant made by the Biden administration to the West Coast wind industry. The short story is the grant was illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longer story is interesting because it takes us into the strange world of floating wind power, a technology still looking to prove itself. The idea is to put a huge offshore wind tower on a float that is so big that the tower does not blow over in a hurricane. Whether this can actually be done remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biden folks decided to charge ahead on this stuff, way ahead, to say the least. France just commissioned a 24 MW test facility, while Biden\u2019s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management sold leases for an incredible 5,000 MW of floating wind off California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fly in the floating wind ointment is the \u201cfloater.\u201d This is the huge contraption that holds the tower. There are over 100 floater designs that have been announced, some patented but none proven, which just measures the immaturity of the technology. Some are steel, weighing up to 5,000 tons. Some are concrete, tipping the theoretical scale at 20,000 tons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is that before you can build a floating wind power generation facility, you first have to build the factory that makes the floaters, which has to be nearby on shore. With fixed wind, there is just a single standard monopile holding the tower and these are made by several companies for use everywhere. It is the custom made floater and factory that make floating wind cost an estimated three times what fixed offshore wind costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to kick-start floating wind, the Biden Transportation Department decided to inject just under half a billion dollars to build a floater factory at Humboldt Bay in Northern California. But Congress never appropriated the money to do this, so DOT raided their INFRA program. which is supposed to fund improvements in the U.S. freight system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence our letter begins as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCall for rescission of INFRA Grant for The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District Grant Dated January 23, 2024, and a return of unspent disbursed funds (see article 13.5 of attached INFRA grant terms and conditions) connected with misappropriation of said INFRA Grant Funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The undersigned organizations call for the return to the U.S. Department of Transportation any unspent disbursed INFRA funds awarded to the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District in the amount of $426,719,810 on January 23, 2024 and to terminate the awarded grant as a misappropriation of federal funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our requests are legally justified based on DOT internal mandates associated with the INFRA grant structuring. According to the INFRA Grant eligibility guidelines grant projects must be \u201cprojects of national or regional significance to improve the safety, efficiency, and reliability of the movement of freight and people in and across rural and urban areas.\u201d Additionally, \u201cTo be eligible under INFRA, a project within the boundaries of a freight rail, water (including ports), or intermodal facility must be a surface transportation infrastructure project necessary to facilitate direct intermodal interchange, transfer, or access into or out of the facility and must significantly improve freight movement on the (National Highway Freight Network) NHFN.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, Humboldt Bay is not a designated national multimodal freight network facility and is as such ineligible for any INFRA Grant funds. The Humboldt Grant is clearly designed to accommodate a non-existent floating offshore wind industry, and is defined as a heavy lift terminal capable of assembling and handling wind turbine components. Obviously the project meets none of the INFRA guidelines for grant approval.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The signing organizations are CFACT and the REACT Alliance. I and several other individuals also signed. This all fits in with the President\u2019s executive order calling for agencies to assess deficiencies in prior actions related to offshore wind. This grant is a huge deficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It remains to be seen what Secretary Duffy does. Stay tuned to CFACT to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have the honor and pleasure of co-signing a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, asking him to terminate a half billion-dollar grant made by the Biden administration to the West Coast wind industry. The short story is the grant was illegal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":382735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818336,691819488,691835758,691835757],"class_list":{"0":"post-382732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-biden-administration","9":"tag-bureau-of-ocean-energy-management","10":"tag-floating-wind-power","11":"tag-sean-duffy-u-s-secretary-of-transportation","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-241.png?fit=1024%2C1536&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1Bz6","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":408761,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=408761","url_meta":{"origin":382732,"position":0},"title":"Taking action to defend America from the UN\u2019s first global carbon tax","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Joint Statement by Secretary of State Rubio, Secretary of Energy Wright, and Secretary of Transportation Duffy","rel":"","context":"In \"\u201cNet-Zero Framework\u201d (NZF)\"","block_context":{"text":"\u201cNet-Zero Framework\u201d (NZF)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=net-zero-framework-nzf"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNmohEhd5UIDIQfdJxr4PRDbBxoy6gRMtXINeIHSiDt7dtBTZwcR-WWQQAdax8ruxFeY6DjIkmHXzwZD1s3RJwfQK8n0kHJCJzuEx_WdN0TgbMmehmx6fB6XZcgiwM-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C701&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNmohEhd5UIDIQfdJxr4PRDbBxoy6gRMtXINeIHSiDt7dtBTZwcR-WWQQAdax8ruxFeY6DjIkmHXzwZD1s3RJwfQK8n0kHJCJzuEx_WdN0TgbMmehmx6fB6XZcgiwM-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C701&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNmohEhd5UIDIQfdJxr4PRDbBxoy6gRMtXINeIHSiDt7dtBTZwcR-WWQQAdax8ruxFeY6DjIkmHXzwZD1s3RJwfQK8n0kHJCJzuEx_WdN0TgbMmehmx6fB6XZcgiwM-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C701&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNmohEhd5UIDIQfdJxr4PRDbBxoy6gRMtXINeIHSiDt7dtBTZwcR-WWQQAdax8ruxFeY6DjIkmHXzwZD1s3RJwfQK8n0kHJCJzuEx_WdN0TgbMmehmx6fB6XZcgiwM-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C701&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/0AQNmohEhd5UIDIQfdJxr4PRDbBxoy6gRMtXINeIHSiDt7dtBTZwcR-WWQQAdax8ruxFeY6DjIkmHXzwZD1s3RJwfQK8n0kHJCJzuEx_WdN0TgbMmehmx6fB6XZcgiwM-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C701&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":370893,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=370893","url_meta":{"origin":382732,"position":1},"title":"The bell \u201ctolls\u201d for congestion taxes","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"19\/03\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Trump administration, specifically U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, last month rescinded the federal government\u2019s approval during the Biden administration of New York State\u2019s imposition of congestion pricing tolls for vehicles driving into the southern half of Manhattan in New York City. Secretary Duffy\u2019s February termination letter to Gov. Hochul\u00a0said\u00a0the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Manhattan-traffic.png?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Manhattan-traffic.png?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Manhattan-traffic.png?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Manhattan-traffic.png?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/0Manhattan-traffic.png?fit=1200%2C830&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":411832,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=411832","url_meta":{"origin":382732,"position":2},"title":"COP 30: Get U.S. out of this air travel UN offset scheme!","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/11\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Trump administration should pull America out of the ridiculous UN airline carbon-offset scheme known as \u201cCORSIA\u201d immediately.","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0Dollars-flying-airlines-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0Dollars-flying-airlines-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0Dollars-flying-airlines-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0Dollars-flying-airlines-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0Dollars-flying-airlines-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C750&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":292867,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=292867","url_meta":{"origin":382732,"position":3},"title":"\u2018We Never Had A Vote\u2019: Climate Expert Blasts Biden Admin For Bypassing Voters To Impose Green Agenda","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"28\/12\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Climate Depot executive editor Marc Morano blasted President Joe Biden for bypassing American voters to enact his environmental agenda.","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0Screenshot-2023-12-28-165530.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0Screenshot-2023-12-28-165530.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0Screenshot-2023-12-28-165530.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0Screenshot-2023-12-28-165530.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/0Screenshot-2023-12-28-165530.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":364199,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=364199","url_meta":{"origin":382732,"position":4},"title":"Trump Admin Moves to Toss Out Biden\u2019s Fuel Economy Rules","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/02\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Newly confirmed Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Sean Duffy is already moving to overturn the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s stringent fuel economy standards for vehicles.","rel":"","context":"In \"Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)\"","block_context":{"text":"Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=corporate-average-fuel-economy-cafe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0u.s.-president-donald-trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0u.s.-president-donald-trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0u.s.-president-donald-trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0u.s.-president-donald-trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0u.s.-president-donald-trump.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":334294,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=334294","url_meta":{"origin":382732,"position":5},"title":"Highway funds illegally used for floating wind factories","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"23\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Biden Administration is illegally redirecting hundreds of millions of dollars in highway grant money to fund construction of floating wind manufacturing facilities. The funding mechanism is the INFRA Grant Program in Biden\u2019s Transportation Department. To begin with, here is how the website describes the Program: \u201cWhat is the INFRA\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"INFRA (the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program)\"","block_context":{"text":"INFRA (the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=infra-the-nationally-significant-multimodal-freight-highway-projects-program"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Electric-vehicle-charging-wind-turbine-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Electric-vehicle-charging-wind-turbine-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Electric-vehicle-charging-wind-turbine-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Electric-vehicle-charging-wind-turbine-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0Electric-vehicle-charging-wind-turbine-scaled-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382732"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382736,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382732\/revisions\/382736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}