Defying Trump, California continues to bet big on offshore wind

8 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. While the Trump administration takes extraordinary measures to halt the development of offshore wind power in the United States, Southern California is advancing a $4.7-billion plan to deploy hundreds of towering wind turbines in waters off the state’s coast. The proposed Pier Wind project at the Port of Long Beach is a 400-acre terminal for the positioning, storage and assembly of some of the world’s largest offshore wind turbines, which would be towed north to federal wind lease areas some 20 miles off Morro and Humboldt bays. Offshore wind is a key climate solution and officials say the project is crucial to helping California reach its goal of 25 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2045. The Port of Long Beach is one of only two areas primed for the assembly work; the other is Humboldt Harbor near Eureka. The port will create the land for the project through a massive dredge-and-fill operation in the water. This is the second in an occasional series on the state of the energy transition in California amid opposition from the Trump administration. California’s approach is to push forward with offshore wind preparations that fall within its jurisdiction, readying the ports and the power grid to eventually take on electricity from 1,000 turbines in federal waters. The aim is to wait out the current administration, which is notoriously hostile toward a form of renewable energy that is booming elsewhere in the world. “We’re just moving forward with all the things in our control because the port infrastructure has a long lead time,” said Suzanne Plezia, managing director of engineering services with the Port of Long Beach, on a recent catamaran ride around the harbor’s cranes and cargo towers. The work is supposed to be completed within a decade. “We’re in it for the long haul because we do believe offshore wind is part of our energy future,” she said. In the second such highly unusual move, the Trump administration is paying to make wind power go away The state’s work is in some way an act of defiance against the Trump administration, which has taken more than two dozen actions against offshore wind power since the president’s second term began in January 2025, including canceling half a billion dollars in funding for port preparations in Humboldt. Most recently, the White House struck a series of unprecedented deals with energy companies that held offshore wind leases in federal waters, paying them nearly $2 billion to abandon their plans and instead invest in U.S. oil and gas projects. Wind lease areas are stretches of ocean designated by the U.S. government for potential offshore wind development. One of those deals was with Golden State Wind, which held one of the five leases off the coast of California. State officials are investigating that deal, including a subpoena from the California Energy Commission seeking details about the payout. “The operative word is not ‘resist’ — it’s ‘create,’ ” California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild told hundreds of attendees at the Pacific Offshore Wind Summit in Long Beach recently. A rendering of the proposed Pier Wind project at the Port of Long Beach. (Port of Long Beach) Among them were regulators, lawmakers, investors and industry representatives from the U.S. and abroad who said they remain optimistic about offshore wind’s prospects and vowed to keep to their plans. They point to the United Kingdom, where nearly one-fifth of electricity generation now comes from offshore wind. But the question of whether President Trump’s actions are succeeding at slowing California and U.S. progress also percolated throughout the summit. Much of the uncertainty surrounds financing, whether investors still see offshore wind as a smart place to put money. “We are asking ourselves, do we want to do offshore wind at all?” said Sean Boyd, executive director of EY Parthenon, an arm of Ernst & Young that advises investors and companies, during a panel discussion. While California is still moving toward its 2045 target, it is not on track to meet its 2030 goal of 2 to 5 gigawatts of offshore wind. Readying California for offshore wind power will require a perfect concert of major port upgrades, hundreds of miles of new transmission lines and wind turbines as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom released about half of a $475-million tranche of Proposition 4 funding for offshore wind projects, but has so far not released the rest. The latest draft of Newsom’s 2026-27 budget would defer the remaining $241 million to a future year — and by default, a future governor. But California’s efforts are also unprecedented. While much of the world’s offshore wind power is affixed to the seafloor,

Defying Trump, California continues to bet big on offshore wind

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