Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news with.
Speaker 2: Five projects representing twenty eight billion dollars in committed capital,
Speaker 2: several billion of those in the state of Connecticut, which
Speaker 2: is why we're glad to be joined by the Governor
Speaker 2: of Connecticut, Democrat Ned Lamont. It's great to have you
Speaker 2: here with us on Bloomberg TV and radio. If in
Speaker 2: fact this is halted here the Mayor of New London,
Speaker 2: Michael Picerro, says, the Grinch has just stolen Christmas?
Speaker 3: Is he right? Not a heck of a Christmas present?
Speaker 4: Was it? Look you just heard the President say he
Speaker 4: doesn't hike wind power, but he's not going to interrupt
Speaker 4: things that were permitted a long time ago. Our Win
Speaker 4: Revolution Win was actually permitted under Crump one back in
Speaker 4: twenty eighteen nineteen, so a long time ago. So this
Speaker 4: was a real shock to our system. They did it
Speaker 4: to us over Labor Day as well. Remember they had
Speaker 4: a stop work order, no ordering it all this time
Speaker 4: they pull the impermanits and we've got to quite a
Speaker 4: like heck to come back, because you're never going to
Speaker 4: bring down the price of electricity in New England unless
Speaker 4: we get more generation, and that's what wind power.
Speaker 1: Does Governor in September your state successfully one. It's been
Speaker 1: in courts to lift the moratorium that the Trump ininstration
Speaker 1: put in when it first took office on wind power.
Speaker 1: Now the administration is going out again and raising national
Speaker 1: security concerns. Some analysts are looking at that and saying
Speaker 1: this could be a more durable way to essentially do
Speaker 1: the same thing. What's your taken. Do you think those
Speaker 1: national security concerns are legitimate?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: I think the President said I don't like wind power,
Speaker 4: come up with another way that I.
Speaker 3: That you can shut it down.
Speaker 4: And it was only very recently they came up with
Speaker 4: these national security concerns. I talked to the Secretary of Interior,
Speaker 4: Doug Bargom. I'm known them for many years. I said,
Speaker 4: I'm not sure this is for real, but if you
Speaker 4: want to, we'll come down. We'll talk to you about it.
Speaker 4: We'll bring down the folks building the wind power, the engineers,
Speaker 4: but don't stop us in mid construction for the second
Speaker 4: time in three months.
Speaker 3: Get us blowing a hole in.
Speaker 4: Our efforts can bring down the price of electricity in
Speaker 4: New England.
Speaker 2: You know, we understand that this project is about eighty
Speaker 2: five percent complete, it would power some three hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand homes across Connecticut and Rhode Island. What will
Speaker 2: happen to electricity bills without the wind farm.
Speaker 3: More likely to spike.
Speaker 4: We can't put pipes in the ground to get natural
Speaker 4: gas and oil. We're just not that type of a state.
Speaker 4: We don't have that capacity. It's very rare that we
Speaker 4: can create our own generation. Offshore wind is one way
Speaker 4: we can do that. And the more generation we have,
Speaker 4: the less spiking energy during very cold periods, and that
Speaker 4: means we can save money for electric rape payers.
Speaker 1: We want to welcome our viewers joining us from the
Speaker 1: TV side, TV colleagues, and we are here with Connecticut
Speaker 1: Governor Ned Lamont talking of course about this new announcement
Speaker 1: out of the Department of Energy today putting a halt
Speaker 1: on those five major wind farm projects, including the one
Speaker 1: that's being assembled in your state. Governor, I'm curious how
Speaker 1: this is going to play with constituents, not only in
Speaker 1: your state, but across the country. As energy prices are expensive,
Speaker 1: it's cold, and they're looking to spike. You know, the
Speaker 1: energy crisis is something that's constantly talked about. This is
Speaker 1: also an administration that is trying to remove barriers to
Speaker 1: other forms of energy, including nuclear. President has said he
Speaker 1: wants to restart coal, so why not add wind energy
Speaker 1: to that. Why is this specific mechanism of generating power
Speaker 1: in his crosshairs?
Speaker 4: It is contradictory. I've talked to the President about this.
Speaker 4: He cares very strong about breaking down the price of electricity,
Speaker 4: especially in New England where we don't have a lot
Speaker 4: of our own generation and gets expensive. I said, we'll
Speaker 4: work with you on a nuclear power, work with you
Speaker 4: on natural gas and other sources, but don't pull the
Speaker 4: plug on a plant that's already eighty five percent complete,
Speaker 4: ready to turn on in just a few months.
Speaker 3: That makes no sense at all. I thought we had
Speaker 3: an agreement they weren't going to do that. Then we were shopped.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I want to get back to the
Speaker 2: justification from the administration here, Governor, and I know you
Speaker 2: commented on this briefly, but I'd like to hear more
Speaker 2: about the national security concerns or a lack thereof knowing
Speaker 2: that the Interior Department says these turbines may interfere with
Speaker 2: radar systems. We understand, however, according to the Attorney General,
Speaker 2: William Tong, The project's already gone through federal review, he says,
Speaker 2: fully vetted, permitted, state, federal, up and down, inside out,
Speaker 2: every which way you can.
Speaker 4: Is that correct, William's absolutely correct, And actually it went
Speaker 4: through a very strong national security.
Speaker 3: Review over the last few years.
Speaker 4: Voted on on a biparison basis in Congress just a
Speaker 4: year and a half ago, where they said it is
Speaker 4: the administration just making this already issues?
Speaker 2: Is the administration just making this up?
Speaker 4: Then?
Speaker 3: I think so. But look, I'm willing to give them
Speaker 3: the benefit of the down. Get us down there.
Speaker 4: We'll bring the very best engineers from Warsteed who's a developer.
Speaker 3: We'll talk it through.
Speaker 4: But there's not a students for shutting this down in minstride,
Speaker 4: not in the ninth ending of the ballgame. Look, they're
Speaker 4: seeing drones has changed the world dramatically. They want to
Speaker 4: take a second look. And you know on shore radar
Speaker 4: it didn't change the world in the last twelve months.
Speaker 1: Also, this is not to a point you mean earlier.
Speaker 1: This is not a new technology. These wind turbines have
Speaker 1: existed in Europe, Munch to the president chagrin for quite
Speaker 1: a few years now. We haven't previously heard of it
Speaker 1: having big impacts on NATO or Europe's military readiness and
Speaker 1: offshore areas there. We've also got some reporting from Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and analyst it and James saying I'm skeptical that there's
Speaker 1: any new information about the military concerns all of a
Speaker 1: sudden that single handedly warrants these projects being halted. So
Speaker 1: do you think this is an esthetic not necessarily an
Speaker 1: economic or national security decision? Do?
Speaker 3: I mean?
Speaker 4: Last time around it was birds in Wales. This time
Speaker 4: around it's radar. I don't know what it's going to
Speaker 4: be next time. I got to tell you, I come
Speaker 4: out of the business world, but I thought the Trump
Speaker 4: administration had a lot of business folks and it was
Speaker 4: going to be a pro business administration. But this hurriky
Speaker 4: jerky on again, off again. First they didn't terrif, then
Speaker 4: they didn't snap. Now they're doing wind power. Makes it
Speaker 4: very difficult to do business with this administration.
Speaker 3: Very difficult.
Speaker 2: Well, I'd like to hear more about that, just from
Speaker 2: your view in Connecticut, you mentioned snap. We can add
Speaker 2: Obamacare subsidies that are about to expire, sending people's bills higher.
Speaker 2: How much are you and other governors working to fill
Speaker 2: affordability gaps are being created by the administration.
Speaker 4: I can tell you hearing tonight that we've set aside,
Speaker 4: you know, five hundred million dollars just to at least
Speaker 4: protect the most vulnerable. But the idea that you were
Speaker 4: going to yank food support from a working families when
Speaker 4: food branches have almost doubled in the last five years
Speaker 4: made no sense. Then, as NASA pointed out, when it
Speaker 4: comes to the healthcare subsidies in the exchange, people are
Speaker 4: going to see their bills go up one or two
Speaker 4: thousand dollars. That's a heck of a Christmas president, and
Speaker 4: that's a real shock for the system. So we made
Speaker 4: sure that we protected all of our families up to
Speaker 4: about one hundred and twenty eight thousand. Then we softened
Speaker 4: the blow for everybody else.
Speaker 1: Guvernor you said you've been talking to the Trump administration
Speaker 1: throughout this process and about this decision, how they're treating
Speaker 1: it previously. I'm wondering did you get any kind of
Speaker 1: a heads up. Have you spoken to the president since
Speaker 1: this decision came down, and if not, what do you
Speaker 1: want to tell him now?
Speaker 4: This really came out of left field. At the very
Speaker 4: last moment. We had had a conference call all the
Speaker 4: governors with Secretary's Berghaman right just a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 4: talking about pipelines and natural gas.
Speaker 3: This did not come up at all.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I think this was a problem, a
Speaker 4: solution looking for a problem, and it's the wrong solution.
Speaker 2: Just lastly, then, Governor, what would you tell people driving
Speaker 2: to work today in Putnam, Connecticut who are already looking
Speaker 2: at expensive electric bills. They're worried about the data center
Speaker 2: that might be coming in next door. Do they need
Speaker 2: to brace for higher prices and what will they look
Speaker 2: like in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4: Well, we're saying a pause on data centers just because
Speaker 4: they suck so much electricity and drive them costs. But
Speaker 4: one of the things we need is more generation. I
Speaker 4: think those ratepayers and Putnam know all too well that
Speaker 4: we're doing everything we can to add more electricity generation,
Speaker 4: bring down costs for you and your family and cold
Speaker 4: in applog and revolution should.
Speaker 3: Win in the ninth inning makes no sense at all.
Speaker 2: Well, this is something that we're going to keep talking
Speaker 2: about here. It sounds like you might not have a
Speaker 2: sense or be able to quantify how much those bills
Speaker 2: are going to rise. Governor, is that fair to say?
Speaker 4: I can tell you that it's going to go up,
Speaker 4: and it could go up dramatically during very cold times
Speaker 4: when wind power is generating the most.
Speaker 3: So we're going to have a spike and energy demand.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm trying to protect you from.
Speaker 2: I hear you, and right when heating oil season kicks
Speaker 2: in in New England. Governor, it's great to have you.
Speaker 2: We appreciate your insights today on Bloomberg. Joining us live
Speaker 2: from Connecticut. That's Democratic Governor Led Lamont with us