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SLO County’s pie in the sky pipe dream

May 24, 2026

OPINION by ELLIE RIPLEY

This offshore wind endeavor is not a probability, but a highly difficult, costly, dangerous, experimental delusion. The plan involves installing over 350 wind turbines, each 1,000 feet tall, anchored 3,000 feet deep and located 20 to 30 miles off our Central Coast.

These proposed turbines would be twice as tall as the stacks used at the now retired gas fired plant in Morro Bay.

What’s behind all this is an opportunity to gain large financial profits from tax credits by taking a huge gamble that will interfere with and greatly change the lives of the people and wildlife who call this beautiful and historic coastal area home.

At this point the idea of this far offshore wind project situated in frighteningly deep waters is pure speculation: Which means without firm evidence and without considering dangerous risks.

Infrastructure for offshore wind is a highly intensive and costly process. Mining for raw materials, procuring construction materials, adding transporting all that is needed, plus maintenance and operation in every case all add up to a considerable number of emissions.  Also, the construction industry contributes greatly to CO2 during production and transportation.

Wind driven generation requires replacement of the turbine blades every 15 to 20 years or less as appears to be happening. These 1,000 foot tall blades weigh up to 500 tons each.

Conventional recycling techniques do not work on wind turbine blades. What will happen is another ugly part of this equation that is in time much of our open land will be covered for miles of broken offshore turbine blade trash.

When all materials have been delivered, when constriction is complete, an accounting of all the CO2 that was created even before all the emissions that will continue to be part of operations still adds up to the fact this endeavor creates more CO2 than any hopes this enormous nightmare could eliminate.

Ellie Ripley is an Arroyo Grande resident.

 


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15 Comments

The people pushing this thing know full well that it will never work. It’s not intended to work. It’s a scam. Just like the giant solar projects that destroy thousands of Joshua trees and kill desert tortoises, or the late unlamented Tonopah incinerator which vaporized untold numbers of birds and pollinators and was subsidized by rate payers, this is all about raiding the public purse in the form of tax credits, and steering contracts to those firms which play the game and cycle money back to the ones making the decisions. See the choo-choo train, the water infrastructure bond money which went to actually dismantling dams, etc. We now have a class of sociopathic grifters in charge who fear no electoral or legal consequences, thus they inflict these things on us and laugh all the way to the bank. Corruption is part of human nature, unfortunately. I suspect that palms got greased on every public project from the Pyramids to the Brooklyn Bridge, but at least in the olden days the grifters, either through some vestigial integrity or fear of public condemnation, still delivered on the projects. The Pyramids are still there, and the Brooklyn Bridge is still carrying daily traffic. Nowadays, we watch as billions go down rat holes with nothing to show for it. I despair of this state ever turning around. I fear that we have not hit bottom yet, and it isn’t going to be pretty when we do.


28

Yet another example of “feel-good failure”. The damage far exceeds the intent. And let’s not forget all the wildlife ruined with this debacle…. the very things so called environmentalists claim to support. Insane.


58

Any wildlife harmed by offshore wind is far less than the impacts of climate change on marine animals. Walk along any of our beaches and it won’t be long before you come across a dead seabird, a victim of starvation with the ocean off our coast at its hottest on record and these birds literally starving to death because the fish they feed on have gone to depths below their reach. Likewise, gray whales are washing up on Washington beaches because the food they eat has been so impacted by warming that they are no longer as nutritious as they once were.


-32

Libocrats have ZERO self-awareness (about anything they ignorantly blather on about).


13

There was a very slim chance of it actually being viable. If the financial perks weren’t available from the government, it’s highly unlikely that any viable corporation would attempt such a risky endeavor.


24

“When all materials have been delivered, when constriction (sic) is complete, an accounting of all the CO2 that was created even before all the emissions that will continue to be part of operations still adds up to the fact this endeavor creates more CO2 than any hopes this enormous nightmare could eliminate.”


These are oil industry talking points. I suggest that further research reveals that offshore wind is indeed worth it but not without challenges. In my opinion, the oceans will suffer far more if we ignore clean energy technologies. I remember a time in this nation that we accepted a challenge, met it head on and usually succeeded.


Start here:


https://weatherguardwind.com/how-much-does-wind-turbine-cost-worth-it/


https://www.edf.org/common-disinformation-about-offshore-wind-power


https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-truth-about-offshore-wind-busting-oil-money-myths-and-misinformation/


https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12046635/


-19

“I remember a time in this nation that we accepted a challenge, met it head on and usually succeeded.”


When those challenges made the country and/or society stronger, smarter, safer, and more prosperous, yes indeed we met it head on and at full steam.


You cannot honestly tell us, that 400 square miles of wind turbines, in the middle of whale migration routes, smack dab in the best fishing grounds of the West coast, and requiring millions, if not billions of dollars annually to maintain, clean up, recover from the ocean floor, or declare an emergency when 100’s of gallons of oil and plastic spills into the ocean, or catches fire.


At least when an onshore windmill fails catastrophically, the fire, oil, grease, toxins, and myriad other pollutants from the burning plastic blades, remain close to the disaster site. Not so with wind, currents, and the tendency for things to sink 3000′ down to the bottom of the ocean.


When that happens, who and what did we “save”?


10

Also oil industry are not taking huge taxpayer funded subsidizes to make their business viable, if anything they are being taxed and permitted to death enough to leave the state


9

Factually wrong. California provides billions in tax breaks and subsidies to the fossil fuel industry, with environmental groups estimating the annual value of these breaks at roughly $8 billion to $9 billion.


-1

I looked through your sources. The EDF article is disingenuous in a couple of respects. It says there’s no evidence conclusively proving a link between offshore wind and whale deaths, but there’s no evidence conclusively disproving it, either. There are, however, a lot of dead whales all of a sudden. It also says that it’s “unlikely” that offshore wind will be placed in sensitive fisheries. I think the fishermen might have some input on that. The first one states that offshore turbines are $12 million per unit on the low end; that’s about $4.2 billion for 350 turbines. What’s the payback time frame for that, and what do rates have to be to cover it. Lastly, please explain what you plan to use for insulation on all the wiring we’ll need if there’s no more fossil fuel production? Why can’t we also explore ways to improve extraction and use of gas? The big “green” projects are anything but, and it’s plants and animals paying for it. I examined your sources, have you the fortitude to examine contrary sources? Try Range and Basin Watch, they’re voices in the wilderness

https://www.basinandrangewatch2.org/home


8

Continuing to burn fossil fuels will be far more harmful to marine life in the ling run if we do not transition away from it very soon. And far more whales will be killed by climate change than any offshore wind project.


https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/22-gray-whales-found-dead-washington-researchers-warn-rising-strandings/281-40a57c6d-70d7-4145-893f-84881d4ebc3d


-1

An oil company put solar in all the local school parking lots years ago. Rigging and platform companies like Chicago Bridge would be big beneficiaries of offshore wind and they are Oil company aligned.

My point is Big Oil isn’t opposed to offshore wind . They too want to profit…..from captive rate payers and taxpayers . What big business wouldn’t?

I feel the whole ‘ Big Oil’ bad thing is a talking point in of itself.

California lacks the funds for these scam projects anyway and if the can’t finish a train to nowhere, they would never finish with this either.


10

Yes, indeed, big oil, especially in Europe, has invested heavily in offshore wind. Orsted, a leading offshore wind company, used to be Danish Oil and Gas. In fact, the oil companies have developed many of the technologies that are used in offshore wind. But, you’re missing the point. The problem is that the burning of fossil fuels is warming this planet at an untenable rate and we need to transition to using renewable energy to heat and cool our homes and to power our vehicles. That big oil would invest in clean energy simply shows they know it is the future and that future needs to include offshore wind because of its potential.


-7

I and many other dispute the core “ settled science” as sold to us by corrupt and rent seeking individuals and institutions.

A look back- not of a mere hundred years – but thousands reveals a very dynamic climate here.

From the beginning of the interglacial period we are currently enjoying we have gone through 2 warming periods that pre- date fossil fuel use. The Medieval and Romantic Climate Optimums.

We have also – more recently experienced’The Little Ice Age’ It all rises and falls with or without input from humans on scales uncomprehendable.

Recently even the IPCC had to walk back it’s alarmist predictions. The models they use have never gotten it right- always erring on the side of doom.

Their mission isn’t to ‘ save the planet’ – its to capture and control energy and the populations dependent on all forms allowed.

It’s what the wars in Ukraine, and Iran are about too. Controlling energy is what the Big Money and power is about these days.

Next piggie at the trough- Data centers.


2

How dare you bring facts with third-party support into the discussion? Surely big daddy oil will take care of everyone if we continue to let them do whatever they want wherever they want to and never pay a dime in taxes. If Orange Mussolini’s latest foray has taught us anything, it is that gas prices here in the states are immune to outside factors and we should just continue to love oil–not to mention “clean coal”.


-11