This week we discuss New York's delayed/canceled offshore wind contracts and the effects on future electricity demands, new port facilities for wind manufacturing, and a US-based initiative to paint turbine blades black to reduce bird collisions. Joel Saxum, Rosemary Barnes, Phil Totaro and Allen Hall bring you the latest in wind energy news, technology, and science!

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Allen Hall: So I got this really cool swag. So if you're listening, you really can't see my new swag. Got this Drive Smart sweatshirt from my favorite race car driver, Kyle Weatherman. And in fact, Rosemary, if you go to the drivesmartwarranty.com website, you will see the Uptime logo on the race car that we were on this past year in Texas.

So this is going to be an exciting year for Kyle Weatherman and for Uptime and Drive Smart Warranty. Because we're expecting great things this season. Rosemary, want me to, I could, I can get one of these cool sweatshirts and send it your way if you'd like.

Rosemary Barnes: Yeah, I'll never, turn down a freebie like that.

Allen Hall: The only problem with this sweatshirt, it's not really a problem, is it has a Chevy logo, and I've never driven a Chevy. Now I feel obligated that I have to drive a Chevy. Joel, you, are you driving a Chevy right now?

Joel Saxum: GMC, same thing, same pot of money.

Allen Hall: There's someone on the uptime crew, because Phil is driving a scooter.

a very complicated scooter, nonetheless.

Philip Totaro: I used to, drive a truck, thank you very much, had a nice Dodge for 11 years, so I was part of the family.

Rosemary Barnes: We've got a Subaru.

Allen Hall: It's a very Australian car. There you go. We're expecting great things this year from, Kyle Weatherman and the DGM crew and from Drive Smart Warranty, so check it out, drivesmartwarranty.com.

European energy companies Equinor and BP have terminated their agreement to sell power from the proposed Empire Wind II offshore wind farm. To New York State, the company cited rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues as the reasons for canceling the contract. As Phil, New York recently launched a new offshore wind procurement to allow developers to exit these old contracts and to re offer projects at higher prices.

And that's supposed to conclude sometime in February. However, in this particular case, BP and Equinor also cancelled the substation build. So there seems like they've committed a little further down the line than just saying, hey, we're going to rebid. They've actually stopped production on a vital component of that wind farm.

This is in, in light of, obviously, Ørsted pulling out of the two projects. In New Jersey, so there seems to be a trend going on here. Equinor also had the problem, you and I were corresponding via, Slack or whatever it was the other day, and I, commented that Equinor has been pressured by the state quite a couple of times for a variety of different reasons.

One more recently is the New York state canceled the on shoring of one of their cables, and which was a last minute dig at, Equinor, I felt. Does this all seem to align? Equinor is getting the cold shoulder from New York State, and will they go back and try to rebid this?

Philip Totaro: I believe they will.

First of all, this, probably wasn't surprising that they were going to pull out after, Empire Wind 1, Phase 1, and,