New York Cancels Three Major Offshore Wind Projects, Joe Biden Hardest Hit

Joe Biden’s green energy plans just took another hit as three large New York offshore wind projects were scrapped Friday after the state was unable to reach “final agreements” with General Electric despite the fact that the three proposed developments had received provisional awards in October 2023.

NYSERDA, the state authority in charge of the deals, announced Friday that no final agreements could be reached with the three projects that received provisional awards in October 2023. Those bids were all linked to major supply chain investments by General Electric and a larger turbine it planned to build that was aimed at boosting the region’s renewable energy portfolio.

[The cancellation is] a major hit to the industry in the state and the nation. The decision is another setback to New York’s aspirations to achieve 70 percent renewable energy by 2030 and be a hub for the nascent industry in the United States. It will also be another challenge for President Joe Biden’s already likely out-of-reach 30 gigawatt goal for offshore wind by 2030.

Such highly-hyped offshore projects have been running into more headwinds as of late: The offshore wind industry is stumbling despite the availability of generous tax credits contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s signature climate bill. Inflation, higher borrowing costs and logistical problems are gumming up projects and contracts that appeared lucrative and viable around the time that Biden signed the IRA into law.

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Teacher Wins Lawsuit After Being Fired for Not Giving Unearned Grades, Now Running for School Board

After winning a significant legal battle against her former employer for wrongful termination, a former elementary school teacher in Henry County, Georgia, is setting her sights on a new goal: a seat on the school board. Sheri Mimbs was fired from Cotton Indian Elementary School in 2017 for refusing to give passing grades even if students had not earned them.

She says back in 2017 an assistant principal wrote a note to her telling her not to give students grades less than 60, even if they didn’t turn in any work. “I went to the assistant principal and she was like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You need to change those grades. Kids can’t have less than a 60,’” Mimbs described. Mimbs says after she complained, her contract wasn’t renewed. She sued and won. “I knew I was being retaliated against,” she said.

The jury ordered the district to pay her six figures in monetary damages for retaliation. It has to pay her attorney’s fees and most importantly it had to reverse her non-renewal. She says that non-renewal was keeping her from getting teaching jobs. Now after the court victory, Mimbs hopes to get a victory at the polls.

Teacher and whistleblower Donna Telles says the grades of an estimated 50 students from Vista Grande and Casa Grande high schools will be changed to ‘P’ or passing. Telles, who teaches at Vista Grande High School and serves as a union representative, says teachers are being asked to change the grades against their will. “Teachers are being required to do things that they know are not right. They’re afraid of not doing it for fear of being termed insubordinate and terminated.”

Unfortunately, it appears many who are in positions of leadership in the school system are more concerned about making their schools look good than they are about actually making sure they are providing the level of education necessary to equip kids for adulthood.

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