Proponents of offshore wind have had little to celebrate this year, as economic contractions and outright antagonism from the Trump administration have cast a pall of uncertainty on the industry. A technology that, just two years ago, the Biden administration said would generate 30 megawatts and power 10 million homes by 2030 appears to have fallen out of step with the political moment.Some local leaders have said that what once seemed like an imminent influx of clean, renewable energy may now be a decade or more away. Still, projects like the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project are diligently moving forward, according to sources interviewed by the Times-Standard. And offshore wind’s supporters are challenging the administration’s efforts to curtail wind energy development.“Offshore wind is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the North Coast’s rural economy,” California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) told the Times-Standard via email. “Estimates project over 1,000 new jobs for port development alone here in Humboldt. But now thanks to President Trump’s deranged love of coal and fossil fuels, all this investment in rural America and smart climate policy is in serious jeopardy.“But California is fighting back and taking the President to court to stop this idiotic action. A huge amount of capital has already been invested off the Humboldt coastline, and we’re going to keep leading the charge combatting our climate crisis and growing this nation-leading economy.”This month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he joined a coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia in filing a complaint challenging the legality of the Trump administration’s “unlawful Presidential Memorandum halting federal approvals of wind-energy development.”A coalition of environmental groups joining the AG’s complaint characterized that “temporary cessation” as a “government-wide ban on new wind energy projects.”EPIC, along with nine other environmental groups, filed an amicus brief supporting the states’ lawsuit. The brief notes that “onshore and offshore wind power are critical to meeting U.S. energy needs” and that “wind power has enormous public health and climate benefits.” It also notes the Trump administration is weaponizing ostensible environmental concerns to enact what is, effectively, a ban on the development of renewable energy.“This (executive action) is impermissible in our view, and also seems to kind of intentionally mislead the public about the impact of offshore wind and then weaponizes that misinformation and … environmental laws in order to throw hurdles in the way of offshore wind development … and this has caused a lot of ripples,” Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC), told the Times-Standard.Jennifer Kalt, executive director of Humboldt Waterkeeper, told the Times-Standard that, while efforts to support offshore wind via the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal Project are moving “full steam ahead,” she has, for some time, been skeptical of the timeline for offshore wind development in the region, recalling plans for “a lot of big impactful projects” proposed along the northern Humboldt Bay “that never came to be.”“A lot of studies are going to have to happen over the course of the next many years,” Kalt said, noting that the fate of — or at very least the timeline for — wind energy development in Humboldt County “might just depend on what happens in the next set of elections.”Still, she said, if it’s a zero-sum equation — offshore wind or offshore oil drilling as the Trump administration has perhaps implied — offshore drilling will happen “over our dead bodies.”In late April, RWE CEO Markus Krebber delivered remarks as part of the German energy company’s annual general meeting, stating: “In the U.S., … we have stopped our offshore activities for the time being.”“We remain cautious given the political developments,” Krebber said. “We have introduced higher requirements for future investments in the U.S. All necessary federal permits must be in place. Tax credits must be safe-harbored, and all relevant tariff risks mitigated. In addition, onshore wind and solar projects must have secured offtake at the time of the investment decision. Only if these conditions are met will further investments be possible, given the political environment.”Keep Reading
