Offshore wind needs to work with local stakeholders
As California aggressively pursues the development of offshore wind power, tribes, commercial fishermen, conservationists and others worry that its development will come at the expense of their jobs, their culture, the environment or marine life.
Their concerns need to be taken to heart. The transition to clean energy needs to be an equitable process. Those who are impacted must also share in the benefits. Cooperation, transparency and communication with all stakeholders are necessary ingredients for offshore wind success in California.
Failure is not an option. Burning fossil fuels to generate energy in California and the U.S. is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which are heating up our planet with devastating results; heat domes, wildfires, ocean-level rise, species depletion and extinction and more.
Clean and renewable offshore wind can be a GHG antidote while helping our state meet its mandate to reach 100% clean energy and carbon neutrality by 2045. And when the sun sets and solar power shuts down, offshore wind continues to produce energy.
The California Energy Commission has set offshore wind planning goals that, if reached, will generate enough electricity to power 25 million homes by mid-century. With 100% clean energy, carbon-fueled power plants that cook our climate and pollute our air — especially in low-income, underserved neighborhoods — will be a thing of the past.
In December, the Biden administration held the first offshore lease sale on the West Coast. Five companies made successful bids totaling $757 million for five sites about 20 miles off Morro Bay and Humboldt County.
The lease sale provided a 20% credit to bidders who pledged monetary contributions to support workforce- and U.S. supply-chain development programs and initiatives for the floating offshore wind industry. The Biden administration estimates this credit will generate more than $117 million for these “critical programs and initiatives.”
Bidders also received a combined 10% credit for committing to two kinds of community benefit agreements (CBA): one for communities, tribes or other stakeholders whose use of resources harvested from the lease areas is expected to be impacted; the other for those affected by potential impacts to marine, coastal or human environment from lease development.
Winning leaseholders also stipulated to engage with tribes, ocean users and communities that might be affected by their lease activities and allow for “early and active information sharing, focused discussion of potential issues, and collaborative identification of solutions.”
Still, skepticism persists in some quarters.
In a recent guest column in
CalMatters, Frankie Myers, vice chair of Northern California’s Yurok tribe, complained that the Yuroks have yet to hear from RWE Offshore Wind Holdings, LLC, which submitted the winning bid to lease 63,400 acres of federal waters off Humboldt County.
“So when the offshore wind industry tells us about all the great opportunities their projects will provide Native people, we’ve heard it before,” Myers wrote.
In comments in a printed response to the lease sale, Humboldt Area Foundation CEO Bryna Lipper acknowledged excitement about job creation and climate benefits. Unfortunately, Lipper said, the CBA and lease stipulations are inadequate to ensure that local communities and tribal nations have the resources “needed to address the impacts of this new industry, or actually benefit from it.”
As California’s legislative session gets underway, lawmakers and the Newsom administration need to reduce or eliminate any headwinds that could slow the development of offshore wind, including increasing assurances to those who see offshore wind development as a threat rather than a solution.
At the same time, it’s also important to recognize that offshore wind will bring clean-energy benefits to all Californians for generations. Let’s remember that as we work to stave off the horrible impacts that we know climate change has and will bring.
Rocky Jaramillo Rushing is a policy consultant with Sacramento-based Eco Equity and is a Sacramento resident.