American Military News May 26, 2021 Rosanna Xia - Los Angeles Times and Anna M. Phillips - Sammy Roth - Los Angeles Times
The federal government plans to open California’s coast to offshore wind development, the Biden administration announced Tuesday. The move could provide the state with a major source of renewable energy and cut its climate-warming emissions.
Under the plan, the administration would allow wind power projects to be built in a 399-square-mile area in federal waters off the coast of Central California northwest of Morro Bay. A second location west of Humboldt Bay has also been chosen as a possible area for future wind development. Officials estimate that the two areas combined could generate 4,600 megawatts of electricity — enough to power 1.6 million homes.
The announcement comes amid a surge of interest in offshore wind power, which European countries have been using successfully for more than a decade, but which the United States has been slow to adopt. Despite wind energy’s appeal — it produces no greenhouse gas emissions and has a minimal environmental footprint — it hasn’t made progress in California.
Both of the country’s two existing wind farms are in the Atlantic Ocean and plans for the nation’s first commercial-scale wind development, which the administration recently approved, center on coastal waters off of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Another dozen wind projects along the East Coast are under federal review.
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https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/05/biden-admin-unveils-offshore-wind-plan-for-california-that-dod-previously-opposed/