Republican and Democrat lawmakers advanced Assembly Bill 525 last week, which requires the Energy Commission to submit a strategic plan for offshore wind projects near the Pacific Ocean to the Natural Resources Agency and the legislature on or before June 1, 2022.
But some energy experts don’t see wind power as a reliable source.
“The big problem is that nothing in this bill is going to do anything to ameliorate the potential environmental effects, fiscal effects, and financial effects,” said Robert Michaels, a professor of economics at California State University-Fullerton. “There's nothing there other than a wish that somebody else will pick up the tab for making the power reliable and it’s only going to happen ultimately if that tab is paid for by the ratepayers.”
Before offshore wind projects can be built, federal permitting is required, and under AB 525, state agencies would be required to secure those permits, according to media reports.
“California is thinking that we all want renewable energy as long as it's somebody else who has the proper incentive,” Michaels told the Southern California Record. “It’s a standard permitting boondoggle and all the complications that it brings.”
Assemblyman David Chiu, a Democrat from San Francisco, co-wrote the bill along with Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham, a Republican from San Luis Obispo.
“It’s probably a plan to put lots of renewable stuff in to replace the Diablo Canyon plant and the reasoning will be that there’s transmission infrastructure there already, which will be there after the nuclear plant itself is closed and therefore let's put in some clean energy sources, generate jobs on the Central Coast or something like that, which is basically just politicians looking for a handout,” Roberts said.
Operated by PG& E, Diablo Canyon power plant is located in between San Francisco and San Luis Obispo and is scheduled to close in 2024, as previously reported in UtilityDrive.
Roberts added that the idea that wind energy is a way to fight global warming and create green jobs is delusional.
“The thing about green jobs is there aren’t that many of them, they don't pay that well, and they are relatively semi-skilled trades,” he said. “You're going to be polishing mirrors on solar panels and things like that. The actual high-tech jobs are not going to be gotten from California and it's a pretty backward technology in a lot of ways.”
The Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee approved AB 525 unanimously and is heading next to the Assembly Natural Resources and Appropriations committee.
“This one's going to be no different from so many other attempts elsewhere in the country and the idea of doing this in California given the importance of the coastal protectionist lobby, I just don't see anything coming from it,” Roberts said.