Greenlight is interfering with Morro Bay, time to call them out

June 23, 2025

OPINION by MANDY DAVIS

For such a small town, and with Morro Bay’s relatively low population density we sure as hell have a lot of folks from out of town, with lots of money and questionable ethics and tactics, interested in us!

Case in point; the Washington D.C. based Greenlight America non-profit. They are politically and ideologically motivated to focus on our small coastal towns by the desire to influence public sentiment on utility scale “clean energy” projects.

In the past, they have donated tens of thousands of dollars to influence the public on the A-24 ballot measure that if defeated would have opened the door for the much contested proposed Vistra BESS project on the Morro Bay National Estuary and at the entrance to the Morro Bay Harbor. Even with the canvassing, direct mail projects and costly marketing, their efforts failed and sanity and conservation won the day.

Now, Greenlight America is interfering again in our local issues and attempting to influence our local citizens’ opinions regarding offshore wind and the “necessity for our county to embrace the industrialization of our oceans and coastal communities by the offshore wind industry.”

With canvassing and social media posts they are presenting themselves as concerned local citizens which they are not!

It’s time we let these well funded East Coast corporation and think tank employees know that we do not appreciate their interference and insinuation into our local environmental and economic affairs. We have a lot to lose if offshore wind is successfully established on the coast of Central California.

We cannot allow this kind of outside interference without a fight and the recognition that we see them for who they are – politically and economically motivated outsiders funded by huge investors with a stake in the success of offshore wind nationally and here in California.

Let’s “redlight” Greenlight. Call them out! Tell them we see them for who they are and shut the physical and metaphorical door in their faces.

Let’s say a resounding no to offshore wind and its development here on our beautiful and “Old California” Central Coast. We don’t want outside influencers here and we sure as shit don’t need an industry here that will decimate our oceans and coastal communities for decades to come.

Mandy Davis is the president of REACT Alliance and a Morro Bay resident. REACT Alliance is a local organization established to educate and inform the public about the issues involved with offshore wind.