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Putting lipstick on a pig in Avila Beach

July 19, 2025

Early site rendering of example of integration at Port San Luis.

OPINION by MANDY DAVIS

Now don’t misunderstand me, I love piggies (especially the little baby oinkers) as much as anyone, but you have to admit, the phrase “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig” is really apropos when it comes to the offshore wind industry and their efforts to bamboozle the public into believing that its good for the economy, totally benign for the environment, and will be California’s answer to its future energy needs.

There have been countless instances of this “adorning of the beast” in the past in the form of industry dog and pony shows and bought-off NGO’s railing on the necessity of the technology to save us from climate change. Bull pucky! Not to mention our governor himself, who has made offshore wind proliferation in California his pet (yes, he does seem to like projects rather beastly in nature) project.

But recently, I have been noticing the efforts by local politicians to skirt the real issues that offshore wind presents,. They have disavowed themselves as longtime proponents of offshore wind energy in our state, and told the public that nothing is decided, nothing is clear, that it’s all just up in the air.

This paints the ugly face of port industrialization with not just a nice rosy hue of lipstick, but one step further by adding a nice foundation of concealing powder and goo.

San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg happens to be one of the first public issue cosmetologists that comes to mind. She’s been taking lessons from the folks at the Pacific Offshore Wind Conference yearly.

Just recently, in an Avila Valley Advisory Council (AVAC) meeting regarding the pending industrial marine terminal, folks were apprised of not just the cosmetic changes to their community but the traffic, economic, environmental and safety impacts that they would be experiencing.

At the end of the meeting, Ortiz-Legg demurred holding the position that it had nothing to do with all the folks at AVAC and the community they represent, and that it was nothing to be concerned about and that studies were in process. Not once have I ever heard her be transparent enough to affirm her definite position as a longtime supporter and active proponent of the industry, and that she is catering to a handful of union workers that will get good paying, temporary jobs constructing an industrial port.

Ortiz-Legg is not sufficiently representing the community as a whole, instead she is adeptly painting the pig and side stepping her role as a responsible leader in the process.

It’s about time the communities of Avila Beach and Port San Luis realize the misrepresentation they have unwittingly been part of. It is time for their communities to inform themselves and find out what having an industrial port in their small community will do to everyone for decades to come.

Look it up online – industrial offshore wind ports ain’t pretty, no matter how much paint and powder you put on ’em

Do yourselves a favor, check out the REACT Alliance website, and investigate on your own. What is under all the hype and lipstick is appalling!. Its time to strip the deceptive makeup off the pig and realize, what Ortiz-Legg is selling is only a pig that’s been adeptly sold to the public to embrace.

Its as simple as this – a beautiful, vibrant and healthy home is what we all really want, and offshore wind has no place in that picture, even if the pig smiles real pretty at the camera.

My sincerest apologies to my porcine friends. I hope you will forgive me for referring to you in such unlovely ways. It was done in the spirit of making a most valid point. Alas. It could be that in the final analysis, you are the better of our two species.

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.

 


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I would like to see Ortiz-Legg and Carbahal prove to us all how they will NOT benefit financially from these “Green” projects, before they push their “Green” agendas. Anything else is an outright Betrayal to the people.


17

Industrialization of Port San Luis and destroying our pristine coastline is total insanity. BTW where is the Coastal Commission, Surfrider Foundation and all the Environmentalists on this?


67

Long ago…Long, long ago…an article in Surfer magazine has stayed loudly and in technicolor in my head.


The young and new Surfrider Foundation, was extolling their goal of keeping the beaches clean of pollution and promoting legislation that would slow commercialization and crowding of beaches by building communities too close, ie Malibu.


Reading the article certainly had great influence on me. Who really wants dirty beaches and concrete shorelines, right? Of course, the photo’s used were of Cancun, the Pacific islands, North Shore and Maui Hawaii, with surfers catching epic tubes and backsides.


But then, like a baseball bat to the head, was the last photo used.


The Surfrider Foundation members celebrated their “love of the environment”, by stacking their old and busted surfboards….you know, made from scads of petroleum products and highly toxic chemicals… into a makeshift teepee, splashed on copious amounts of gasoline, and ignited the plastic mess for a beach bonfire, complete with massive blackened smoke columns rising into the sunset, beautifully framed by the photographer.


That was the last Surfer magazine, and any other surf styled periodical, I ever read. I also have never any thought better of the Surfrider Foundation, than a bunch of hypocrites, liars, and grifters.


The so-called environmentalists cannot be believed, because this project puts them into a very difficult hole: Do they fight for the environment directly, or do they fight for industrialization that only they claim is somehow good for the environment.


The CCC is only interested in how much money they will be able to extort from the state, city, county and private companies, by fees, taxes, or heavy lawsuits. Their scheme has been locally witnessed by the Pismo Dunes fiasco, and more recently by the cute little house in Cambria, that will soon be a big ugly house used for commercial purposes.


The people who have historically claimed to be “looking out for the environment”, haven’t been, at all.


30

Offshore wind farms are just the next high speed rail… a hole for government to toss money into and wash it… our money…


79

I sensed the fix might be in when cash strapped Caltrans started putting the roundabout in by 101.

With everything else they needed to shore up, this was a low priority. Unless? …This has nothing to do with “Climate”. Wind farms will never put a dent in “Climate” . It’s all about folks in power moving money around. Unfortunately for many of them, the public is waking up from the all the years of slumber – dreamily believing that politicos were serving The People who live here.

Avila is fine the way it is. It doesn’t need to be improved with ANY new industry.

Please go find a more gullible host community somewhere else.


70

Fortunately, a certain little lady from SoCal recently lost her bid to sit on the Port San Luis Harbor Commission. Thank goodness, because her only purpose IMHO was to be the hatchet woman for ramming this boondoggle through. Now she’ll have to dig into her own wallet for her new house down the road….


12

To be fair, the rounder, or at least something MUCH more efficient than the existing stop signs, was sorely needed there. Of course, it wouldn’t have been needed at all, had Avila been rebuilt just as before the big dig, as promised.


3

Are you attempting to make a coherent point about something? Politicians being political is somehow surprising.?


Morro bay and San Luis Bay are ports for commerce. That has always been their purpose.

Union jobs are good things to have in our community. Unless you are rich and an elitist.


I REACT poorly to transplants closing the door behind them.

Morro By an San Luis Bay could use more of these types of jobs.


-69

Yeah , I think we the people are supposed to decide what these area uses are for. Not just living behind some slogan that commerce is “their purpose” . Interesting take for a environmentalist!

The “ Rich and Elitist” are the money and power brokers behind this junk industry to nowhere.

Every time I hear “ the good paying jobs “ line,

I know it’s part of a sales pitch that’s losing traction.


25

Sorry, there aren’t any dock builders in SLO county and you cant expect Port maintenance to build it. Therefore, no local jobs. The Union jobs you speak of will be imported from LA and Washington State. Im not rich, elitist, or transplant and I want the door shut on this.


26

Sorry, I’ve been around a long time too. Long enough to remember The Wine Street Inn, Chocolate Soup, Time and Treasures, and the drive-in in Paso. I don’t want this freakiin’ thing to go in. It’s absurd on its face. The carbon inputs just creating the staging infrastructure will outweigh years of electricity production, even if we assume the best-case production projections. Others have mentioned the Train to Nowhere. I think it’s time to reevaluate our acceptance of these Green Boondoggles. There’s always been a certain amount of grift and graft in large projects. People made “extra” money during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, or even the Pyramids. But at least in the old days the Grifters had a sense that they ultimately had to produce a working product. Now they just burn through money like a fire in dry grass, and never actually deliver anything. If this project goes through, and it probably will because grifting and grafting, it’ll never, ever live up to its promises, and eventually will be quietly removed at additional expense. It’s a scam. Peace.


15

Anti-wind is pro-oil and ya’ll are actively inviting the real devil into our midst with this kind of uninformed rhetoric :/ There’s some work to do with wind technology but it’s certainly worth investing in imo.


-85

Us-all will fight oil too.


-21

Convince us why 5 or 6 more Diablo sized plants, right next to Diablo, isn’t a good idea to provide over half the state needs for electricity.


PG&E already controls the property, so acquiring new land is not a thing. Prior to Diablo, it was a private ranch, so the public couldn’t use it, so nobody “lost” their self-alleged “right” to coastal access.


Nobody will see it from anywhere, and a massive industrial pier and infrastructure does not need to be built. Avila and Morro Bay can just go on being Avila and Morro bay, and people can drive their toxic electric cars to both for vacation.


7