Offshore wind will grow jobs, clean our air, mitigate climate change and meet state goals

Op-ed by Igor Tregub Berkeley City Council Member

While state budget discussions are underway, I urge the legislature to honor its commitment of $228.2 million for port infrastructure upgrades to support offshore wind (OSW) from the Climate Bond voters overwhelmingly passed last November.

We’re on the vanguard of a new industry that will capture clean energy in large quantities spurring significant economic development in our renewable energy transition from dirty global warming fossil fuels. That transition is key for our health, security, and prosperity.

Wildfires are no longer seasonal. We deal with them all the time. But now they are increasingly bringing death and upheaval to communities throughout the state. Last January, the world watched in horror as firestorms raged across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, leaving destruction that resembled a war zone. For survivors, friends and families, the trauma and anxiety can’t be measured, but the financial cost can.

The devastation from those fires alone is estimated to exceed $250 billion, and yet the fossil fuel giants fueling the flames continue raking in profits, untouched and unaccountable.

Add drought, and torrential rains to the list of extreme weather the state has been experiencing and there is no doubt we are living inside a climate crisis of epic proportions. Between 1980 and 2024, 46 extreme weather and climate disaster events affected California, resulting in losses exceeding $1 billion each. We need to take more actions to decarbonize the electric power sector so we can begin to hold back these extreme weather events.

Here in Berkeley, we’ve already felt the toll of extreme heat and infrastructure strain. Our local communities deserve real investment in resilience, which includes state investment in renewable energy like OSW.

We can transition our entire economy to run on 100 percent renewable energy with floating offshore wind turbines off our coast feeding the grid. OSW represents a massive, untapped resource just beyond our shores in federal waters.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates California has 200 GW of OSW potential. Currently the state has more than 25 GW in five existing leases. The floating wind turbines off the coast of Humboldt and Morro Bay will be different than those on the east coast as they will be located in deep waters where they cannot be fixed to the bottom. They will be positioned on floating platforms tethered to the seabed. This method has been used in Europe successfully. The turbines will barely be visible on their floating platforms 20 miles off the coast and are not threatening to whales.

Offshore wind clean energy can improve the reliability of electricity and provide substantial co-benefits, reducing ordinary air pollution as well as greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The air quality in environmental justice communities, whose residents suffer from illnesses caused by fossil fuel extraction and processing, will increase dramatically with OSW. Those living next to refineries and/or pumpjacks will no longer have to suffer from chronic asthma, or cancers.

OSW is a never-ending clean energy resource that blows even more at night, when solar energy can’t be collected. With battery storage, California can be powered day and night to meet our energy needs as OSW will easily augment solar and other renewables.

The equitable buildout that is projected and planned for by the California Energy Commission will provide tangible avenues for local Tribes, communities, and California workers. This new industry will bring opportunities for businesses to support it up and down the coast while adding thousands of good paying union jobs. Local economies will flourish as more is spent in their communities.

Reports show deploying 25 GW of OSW can create thousands of jobs, supply 15-20 percent of the state’s new clean energy, offer ratepayers affordable, reliable clean power, drive economies of scale, and generate enough competitively priced electricity for up to 25 million homes. 

A study co-authored by Adam Rose, Professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy synthesized findings from 153 previous studies. It estimates that the OSW industry in California could create up to 450,668 jobs overall in construction and 17,273 jobs per year in operation and maintenance. Building enough OSW to help the state meet its goal of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045 could contribute up to a total of $54.5 billion to California’s gross domestic product. Operations and maintenance would top out at another $2.3 billion in GDP annually.

I’m encouraged by the voters who passed the Climate Bond. They know we need to take action now. No matter what happens at the federal level, here in the world’s fourth largest economy we can and are able to transition to 100 percent clean energy with OSW.