22-05-2025
Offshore wind is waiting out the Trump storm in California
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With help from Annie Snider
SAFE HARBOR: It used to be that proponents of California offshore wind energy lamented being behind their East Coast brethren. But now that the technology is in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump, it's a luxury.
While offshore wind developers on the East Coast are reeling from Trump's antipathy for the technology — including a stop-work order for New York's Empire Wind project that the Trump administration reversed on Monday — construction in California is still conveniently at least a presidential term away, even under the most optimistic timelines.
So instead of worrying about Trump, California's offshore wind industry is instead focused on quietly plodding along to hit the ground running under the next president, building ties with unions and tribes for political goodwill and securing millions in state money for port upgrades.
Tony Appleton, the offshore wind director for energy firm Burns & McDonnell, captured the sentiment at the Pacific Offshore Wind Summit in Sacramento on Wednesday, telling developers, state and tribal officials and union reps the technology's development over the next few years 'has to be coordinated by the state.'
'That's the opportunity that California has got over the next, two, three or four years, without involving Washington,' Appleton said. 'There's so much to do locally.'
California energy officials see the writing on the wall. With its ability to provide energy into the peak evening hours when solar power generation declines, offshore wind is essential to California's goal of being carbon-neutral by 2045. Accordingly, they are aiming for a massive growth in offshore wind from zero percent of California's energy today to 13 percent by 2045, when they're hoping the technology will provide enough power for around 25 million homes.
California Energy Commission chair David Hochschild is optimistic. His agency is asking lawmakers to appropriate money to hire 11 permanent workers dedicated solely to advancing offshore wind. 'Offshore wind, I really believe, will prevail,' he told the summit audience Tuesday.
But the true test of the state's commitment to the technology will be how much money it can rustle up in the next few years.
The turbines themselves wouldn't start spinning for years, with the state facing a 2037 deadline set by the California Public Utilities Commission to buy its first 7.6 gigawatts of offshore wind. But the turbines won't exist unless California's ports are ready to build and ship them out to the ocean, an upgrade California energy officials have estimated would cost $12 billion.
The Port of Long Beach, for example, is proposing to build a new $4.7 billion pier beyond its bridge to build and ship the turbines, which are expected to be as tall as the Eiffel Tower, to waters off of Morro Bay the federal government has already leased to an offshore wind developer. The port's chief harbor engineer, Suzanne Plezia, said her priority over the next three years is finishing the design work — and getting more state and private money.
'We're really focused on the things that we can do right now,' she said in an interview this week at the summit.
She sees Gov. Gavin Newsom's revised budget proposal last week as a tenuous win for offshore wind amid a broader state deficit and cuts to federal spending. The proposal avoided major cuts to planned spending on port upgrades, like the $228 million Newsom proposed in January to allocate this year from the $10 billion climate bond. But she'll need way more, and she's refining her message.
'It is a very large sum of money,' Plezia said. 'And it is a very small amount of money when it's compared to the value of 25 gigawatts of power.'
Chris Hannan, the president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, gestured to the broader political stakes on Wednesday when he told the summit he was looking forward to working with the next governor on offshore wind jobs.
'The message that's been sent from the federal government doesn't inspire a seamless buildout of offshore wind, but it shouldn't be a distraction,' he said. 'Here in California, there's so much port work to do.' — CvK
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CAP-AND-WHAT: It doesn't look like Newsom's proposal to reauthorize the state's landmark climate program without major reform (and rebrand it 'cap-and-invest') is going to get smooth sailing through the state Legislature.
'I think one of the key things is that we use that money more effectively. I'm not sure the governor's proposal does that right,' Sen. Josh Becker, the chair of the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, said at the Pacific Offshore Wind Summit on Tuesday.
Lawmakers, especially in the Assembly, seem to have more appetite to reform the carbon credit trading program, in line with the demands of environmental groups for changes like reducing the number of free allowances to businesses. Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee Chair Cottie Petrie-Norris said on the same panel that she expects her chamber's proposal for the program to include 'refinements.'
Lawmakers also aren't thrilled about Newsom's idea to spend $1.5 billion in revenues from the program on Cal Fire to backfill general fund cuts and growing state spending on firefighting.
'We should really think carefully about taking an essential government service like Cal Fire … and not fund it from a far more permanent funding stream,' said Assemblymember Steve Bennett during a budget hearing.
Environmental groups, meanwhile, are working to build a big tent behind reform. In a Wednesday letter shared exclusively with POLITICO, 29 groups urged leg leaders to reject Newsom's proposal. — CvK
FLOODING THE CORPS: Lawmakers from California are livid over cuts to their Army Corps of Engineers construction funding — and over the explanation that the Corps is giving them for it.
During a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Robyn Colosimo, the acting head of the Army Corps' civil works program, pushed back on the idea that there had been politics involved in the decision to entirely eliminate fiscal 2025 construction funding to the state of California and make deep cuts to construction funding in other blue states, including Oregon.
Colosimo said the decisions were made by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
'They wanted to prioritize life, safety, flooding and American prosperity,' she said. 'That was what they prioritized within the funds that they had discretion to allocate.'
Rep. Mike Levin was left incredulous. 'I find your testimony to be completely unbelievable,' he shot back.
Meanwhile, on the Colorado River, Interior Department official Scott Cameron assured lawmakers that Secretary Doug Burgum remains committed to a seven-state solution. But, he said, 'In the unfortunate — we hope unlikely — circumstance that the seven states can't reach an agreement, he'll exercise his authority as water master in the Lower Basin,' he said. — AS
SPINNING WHEELS: The California Air Resources Board is switching up its IT after a botched rollout of electric bike incentives.
The agency said Wednesday it's rescheduling the application window for the second tranche of $2,000 vouchers to May 29, after its website 'experienced a high volume of traffic and detected suspicious activity' during the first application period on April 29.
'We had over 150,000 people trying to get into the waiting room for the program, and we only have 1,000 vouchers,' said Lisa Macumber, head of CARB's equitable mobility incentives branch. 'It's challenging, right? It's like getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert.'
It's also bringing on new contractors — Akamai Technologies and Queue-it — to help manage the demand. This comes after the San Diego Union-Tribune's deep dive earlier this month into the existing tech vendor, Pedal Ahead, which is under investigation related to its management of San Diego's e-bike program, as SDUT reported.
'We're confident things will work out better this time,' Macumber said. — DK
COASTAL CHAIRS, CONT.: Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire has appointed Hermosa Beach city Councilmember Ray Jackson to the South Coast seat on the Coastal Commission, spokesperson Lisa Murphy told POLITICO on Wednesday.
'From serving as a combat medic and then a dedicated Army lawyer, to becoming a selfless leader on the Hermosa Beach City Council, Mr. Jackson has shown tremendous commitment for his country, his community, and now his state,' McGuire said in a statement.
The appointment ushers in the the fourth new commissioner on the hot-button agency's 12-member board since March.
— Sen. Adam Schiff isn't pleased about the Trump administration cancelling $33 million in federal funds for earthquake retrofits in California.
— Shasta County supervisors and residents came out to a California Energy Commission field hearing to oppose the proposed Fountain Wind project.
— In a very longshot bid, California's state Senate GOP is asking the state's two Dem senators to vote to overturn the state's ability to set its own vehicle emissions rules.
