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Wind farms off of Morro Bay approved by Biden Administration

May 26, 2021

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

The Biden Administration announced Tuesday it has launched an effort to advance two wind energy projects off the coast of California, one of which is located near Morro Bay.

Currently, California does not have any offshore wind farms. A new agreement, though, between the federal government, state officials and the offshore wind industry is expected to change that.

The federal Department of the Interior, in coordination with the Department of Defense, identified a 399-square-mile area northwest of Morro Bay as a location that will support three gigawatts of offshore wind, according to a White House statement. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management plans to offer a lease sale within a 399-square-mile zone as soon as early 2022, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

In addition to the proposed Morro Bay wind farm, the Biden Administration and Newsom’s office announced they are advancing a wind energy project located offshore of Humboldt County.

Castle Wind, which is a joint venture between Trident Winds and EnBW North America, is developing a proposed 1,000 megawatt, or one gigawatt, floating wind farm in the Central Coast offshore zone, which officials have dubbed the “Morro Bay 399 Area.” The Castle Wind project would consist of approximately 100 floating turbines.

The wind energy company has been working for more than five years with commercial fishermen and other stakeholders in Morro Bay in order to advance the project. The company has already reached a mutual benefits agreement with commercial fishermen.

Following the Biden Administration’s announcement, Castle Wind released a statement applauding the efforts of the White House and the governor’s administration.

“Castle Wind stands alongside our industry partners in applauding the Biden-Harris Administration and Newsom Administration for advancing a landmark agreement to support the development of offshore wind projects in the Pacific,” Castle Wind CEO Alla Weinstein. “This historic agreement will bolster Castle Wind’s specific mission of providing lasting economic, energy and environmental benefits for California’s communities by developing a commercial scale floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Morro Bay in Central California.”

Likewise, Central Coast Congressman Salud Carbajal also applauded the agreement.

“It’s official: offshore wind is coming to CA!” Carbajal wrote in a tweet. “I’ve spent years working with my Offshore Wind Working Group to bring offshore wind to the Central Coast and today’s announcement is the result of those efforts. We can tackle climate change and create good-paying jobs at the same time.”


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And how long will Morro Bay be inundated with construction mess and traffic?…who will clean it up and cover the cost of lost revenue from tourism…


19

Dare I say that on another day your post would be anti-tourism?

If I am wrong, I apologize in advance.


15

These windmills are made in China and Germany…I think this is a huge mistake…offshore windmills are going to be so expensive to build and maintain that I can’t believe we are even considering such a thing….what about the Carbon footprint to manufacture these things ship them over here and build them via ship and platform rigs…..I don’t get it….just drive through the palm desert and look at them…many are not working and they made a beautiful landscape ugly….WHY?…we have natural gas…more than any other nation…we can be energy independent with just our natural gas deposits…someone is not thinking or are just thinking with their bank accounts….


39

GE is in the mix.


0

Windmill manufacturing, installation, maintenance = jobs. The windmills will be 34 miles offshore — we won’t even know they exist.


Wind is infinite. It never runs out. It doesn’t ruin the environment to extract it.


Natural gas fracking is a mess. Google “fracking sink” for a worst case scenario. Not too mention, natural gas deposits are finite.


Let’s play the long game, stimulate jobs and head towards zero emission energy generation.


1

The hatred from the far right is astounding. Here’s a good project that accomplishes a reduction of pollution while producing energy and just because it comes with the support of democrats all you people can do is hate on it. This really shows your ignorance to take something like this and make stupid false claims about it and bash the democrats. Yawl forgot to mention Hillarie’s emails and the pizza gate pedophile ring while your at itj, Jeez!


-48

The Hillary fiasco was pushed aside while Trump was impeached for hear say. Also maybe you can list 5 good things the Biden Administration has done since taking office that has helped the country


30

Just another example of how common sense has departed from the United States. You can bet that many politicians and their heirs are getting their pockets well stuffed over this boondoggle.The dead birds are the least of the problems with this. Solyndra ring any bells?


30

Great. These fake environmentalist are going to take a pristine beautiful coast and pollute it with oily man-made bird killers not to mention the other environmental destruction that will come to sea life. Carbajal is all giddy and patting himself all about while bringing sight pollution, ocean water contamination, and death to sea life. What financial ties does he have to this project? He tweeted, “I spent years working with my Offshore Wind Working Group”? The complete hypocrisy of the Biden Administration, Carbajal, and Newsom on the environmental front, is nothing less than insanity on steroids. Maybe Newsom and Carbajal can both take up residence on these polluting/bird killing machines when completed.


43

All for a drop on the bucket!


This project – 1 GW of power

Diablo Canyon – 18,000 GW of power per year


6

And you thought the smoke stacks looked ugly. A view of a hundred or so wind turbines.


41

Yes, Biden sucks, but just because the title says his administration approved this doesn’t mean you immediately have to talk s*** on it. See the following…


“Based on the Coast Guard Light List volume Vi, Pacific Coast and Pacific Islands, 400 feet tall structures will not be visible by an observer at the sea level at distances greater than 23.4 nautical miles – Castle Wind Offshore will be more than 30 miles offshore, and thus, out of the projected visibility range.”


-12

“At sea level”. Now, get off the beach, go to the top of San Luis St in Avila, where it curves.


Or, coming up the 3 lane hill on 101, just north of Shell Beach.


Guess what you’ll see? It won’t be whales spouting…


4

Too much risk for so little power.


6

Isn’t this smack dab in the middle of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary? You know, where they pretty much outlawed simple commercial fishing off the central coast? Where looking wrong at a sea otter will get you jail time? Where every ignorant leftist has pined and wailed about offshore oil drilling?


I would think they would want to complete the blanketing of the highly sensitive Carrizo Plain with inadequate solar panels, before they float less adequate windmills in the delicate ocean…


3

Isn’t this smack dab in the middle of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary?


No. The Southern most border of MBNMS is Cambria.


3

Three Gigawatts how often? A year? A day?


And how will the construction not affect the environment, let alone migrating whales? Not to mention bird deaths.


6

That’s far worse than an oil rig.


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