The California State Lands Commission and the port officials of Long Beach and Humboldt announced an agreement Dec. 18 for “a comprehensive framework” to advance upgrades to port infrastructure that would support offshore wind power development.
California and Northeast U.S. state governments are ardent backers of offshore wind projects to replace aging nuclear and fossil fuel generation on land – and affirming their support, in the face of president-elect Donald Trump’s threat to shut down the wind energy industry.
“Offshore wind energy is poised to transform the way California generates energy. It will help the state meet its goal of transitioning to 100% renewable energy by 2045, with up to 25 gigawatts of that energy coming from offshore wind,” according to a joint statement from the State Lands Commission and port officials. “Staging and integration sites, waterfront areas where floating turbines are assembled, are critical for offshore wind energy development off the California coast.”
In deep West Coast waters, wind turbine arrays would be deployed on floating, anchored platforms. Long Beach and Humboldt port planners are developing terminals to assemble those turbines and platforms, for towing 20 to 30 miles offshore and installation on developers’ federal lease areas.
“We thank the State Lands Commission for focusing on a multi-port strategy that allows the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Humboldt to serve as turbine assembly sites in California’s floating offshore wind industry,” said Mario Cordero, CEO of the Port of Long Beach.
The commission and ports agreement aims to “align staging and integration site development with broader offshore wind considerations, such as transmission, power purchasing, workforce development, manufacturing, and other supply chain developments, science and technology innovations, and sea space leasing.”
The joint announcement Dec. 18 followed news media reports that Equinor is pausing survey work on its Atlas Wind lease in the Morro Bay wind energy area. Other developers appear to be proceeding there. On the East Coast, developer TotalEnergies SE put its Attentive Energy project in the New York Bight on pause, amid escalating costs and threats that an incoming Trump administration could derail permitting.
Television station KSBY 6 reported Dec. 17 that Equinor had made its decision during the summer to prioritize its East Coast projects. The company is also developing its U.S. flagship Empire Wind project, a major turbine array near the approaches to New York Harbor.
Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization Vice President Jeremiah O’Brien told KSBY his group was told of the move by the Atlas Wind fisheries liaison.
“They’re pulling back on the whole operation, and they said they might be here in 2026 or 2027,” O’Brien told the station
