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Will Trump’s win end Morro Bay offshore wind energy projects?

November 14, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end offshore wind energy projects his first day in office, a promise opponents of the proposed Morro Bay offshore wind farms hope he fulfills.

Trump ran on lowering housing and energy costs. During his campaign speeches, he described offshore wind energy as “the most expensive energy there is.” He noted environmental concerns such as whale and bird deaths.

“We are going to make sure that that ends on day one,” Trump said during a campaign speech. “I’m going to write it out in an executive order. It’s going to end on day one.”

In Dec. 2022, an auction for three offshore wind energy sites located off the coast near Morro Bay netted over $400 million to the federal government. The plan is to have the wind turbines float in the ocean more than 20 miles off the coast, with the electricity sent ashore via cables along the ocean floor. The goal is to have the windmills in the water by 2030.

While the majority of San Luis Obispo County residents initially supported the “green energy” project, sentiments changed as information regarding plans to industrialize Port San Luis near Avila Beach and portions of the Morro Bay waterfront spread through the community.

Industrialization of the proposed Central Coast ports will have significant impacts on the local economy and its ocean-dependent ecosystems. The support systems on land will include massive piers, and could require new breakwaters and dredging.

The offshore windmills themselves are 1,000 feet tall, taller than the Golden Gate Bridge, and their platforms are the size of a baseball field.

Site rendering of example of integration at Port San Luis. Breakwater may or may not be required.

The plan to transform Port San Luis into an industrial port to support proposed offshore wind farms moved forward in July with the assistance of the Port San Luis Harbor District in a 3-2 vote, though most of the discussions were held in closed session out of public view.

However, one of the pro-industrialization candidates did not run for reelection. The public then voted against pro-industrialization candidate SLO City Manager Katie Lichtig and for local fisherman Richard Scangarell, who opposes plans for industrialization.

In Morro Bay, residents largely supported a measure requiring voter approval for changes to some zoning on the waterfront. Vistra Energy, the company behind a proposed 24 acre battery storage facility on the waterfront, decided to seek state approval while bypassing the city’s consideration shortly before the November election.

Morro Bay’s proposed battery storage facility

Even so, a large amount of the funding for the offshore windmill projects and onshore support infrastructure is slated to be provided through the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $369 billion in subsidies for renewable energy.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is anticipated to provide the opportunity to realize material benefits to Vistra with respect to its renewables and energy storage projects, as well as provide strong price support via the nuclear production tax credit for its nuclear facilities, including those acquired through the Energy Harbor transaction,” Vistra said in a first quarter 2024 press release.

With Trump in office, it is anticipated he will ask Congress to reduce or eliminate tax credits for offshore wind provided through the Inflation Reduction Act. Without the subsidies and tax credits, the future of offshore wind energy and battery storage facilities in San Luis Obispo County appear bleak.

“REACT Alliance, a local offshore wind opposition organization, is very supportive of the incoming administration’s opposition to offshore wind and hopes that the Trump Administration will get rid of it on day one as the president has pledged,” said Saro Rizzo, vice president of REACT Alliance. “It will be the best thing for the Central Coast’s environment and its ratepayers.”

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Regarding the new BOEM EIR (669 pages and 441 Appendixes) that has about 60 days left to comment on. Looking at the dissemination list the EIR did NOT go to the inland electric operations of the CAISO, WECC, FERC or even PG&E, which is disturbing. They seem to be only disseminated to ocean related factions plus tribal councils, CEC, CPUC and CCC, all which provided input.

Page 15 of the 441 page appendices about subsea cables. “The number of export cables is influenced by the total plant capacity, cable capacity, reliability considerations, and permitting. California Independent System Operator (CAISO) planning standards regulate the amount of generation that would be forced offline by a single contingency (e.g., an export cable failure); the maximum is currently 1.15 GW (CAISO 2023). Although it would be possible for an offshore wind plant with a capacity of 1 GW or less to export power via a single cable, a second cable would likely be used to provide redundancy in case of damage or failure. Typical HVAC export cables that are currently in use have a capacity of approximately 400 MW, which would result in a maximum of 8 cables for a plant capacity close to 3 GW. Fewer circuits could be used in an HVDC system, with cable capacities up to 2 GW; however, symmetric monopole or bipole configurations require two cables per circuit. In this report we assume each plant could use a total of 2 to 8 export cables. Assuming that export cables are developed independently by each leaseholder, this results in a total of 4 to 12 cables in the Humboldt region and 6 to 24 cables in the Morro Bay region. ” On Page 17 about number of offshore subs”2.5.2 Number of Offshore Substations An offshore wind plant with a capacity near 750 MW could operate with a single offshore substation. Leaseholders consider up to six offshore substations to be a maximum within the existing lease areas. In the Morro Bay area where there are three leases, and we estimate a capacity range of 2 to 9 GW for those 3 leases, we estimate between 3 and 18 substations in that area.””

My comment: So, a shared cable corridor exposes all 3 leasees to a single sabotage. As for Vistra leeching off the IRA subsidies, their stock has already doubled off the anticipation of new AI Data Center load.


-1

Was there any discussion in the EIR of the effects and impact of the enormous electric fields surrounding these energized undersea transmission cables on marine life?


0

“(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump hates wind power. John Thune may be poised to protect it.

Thune, elected Senate majority leader Wednesday by Republicans, has long championed wind energy, which provides about 55% of electricity in his home state of South Dakota. His powerful new role puts him in position to prevent Congress from repealing incentives that have made all those wind farms possible.

“He’s been a long-time advocate of renewable energy, especially wind development and biofuels,” said Todd Foley, a former senior vice president at the American Council on Renewable Energy, which honored Thune for his support of renewable power in 2019. “He’s been a very important part of the equation of a balanced energy policy.” ”


Trump will follow the money, if he gets some.


-41

Very unlikely, John Thune has already said it’s senate responsibility to get Trump’s cabinet confirmed through the senate. Here’s his quote.


“”The people in this country want change. He [Trump] wants to bring that about. And I always believe that you defer to a president when it comes to the people they want in their cabinet,” Thune said.”


29

Karen, Thank you for putting this report together.

I’m hoping we can turn the tide on these abuses of public trust by agenda driven ideologues and profiteers. For too long the propaganda has been drummed into everybody’s head.

Many might be able to afford the doubling or tripling of rates soon to come, but many young families and lower income neighbors cannot.

If allowed to continue , these projects would take forever to complete and cost a fortune- more than the advertised price. Do we really need another “Bullet Train” glamour project when government and individual finances are in such rocky shape these days?Another project that will crawl along and accomplish little more than moving money from one group to another? Also another project that won’t do anything to move the needle on “ Climate Crisis”?

Enough already! Let common sense return, please.


64

We all know Trump will kill any subsidy, project, or initiative in any way related to anything helping the environment, reducing pollution or being green. Instead, there will be more subsidies for fossil fuels and the like. Hell, if you dump toxic waste in a river or clear cut a forest, you’ll be far more likely to get a subsidy from Trump than if you did anything good for the environment. Homeowners, if you are planning on getting any tax breaks for energy efficient improvements, you better get it on the books for 2024.


-65

I hope you’re right about all that.


16

Can’t Katie just enjoy her 300k+/yr pension and leave us alone at this point? Apparently not. Dawn Ortiz-Legg, Adam Hill’s concubine, is no different, selling out and trumpeting development that she had only a PR/political fixer role in. Offshore wind is ridiculous and not viable absent billions of government subsidies.


47

And there is not much green about the offshore project, either.


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