There are currently no offshore wind turbines in California. To build enough of an uncontroversial experiment, the state will need to do something it hasn’t done in decades: complete a major public works project.
The 20th century “we make it” mentality of the nation continues to clash violently with 21st century reality. There, grand plans are dragged down by onerous environmental laws, intrusive labor regulations, a growing labyrinth of regulations, bureaucratic dysfunction, and low-level initials. Cost forecasting and third-rate leadership.
However, California continues to move forward as if the infrastructure boom of the 1960s under Governor Pat Brown is still going strong.
Today is,”small is beautiful“California’s offshore wind plan is a big hit,” said James Temple, senior editor at MIT Technology Review.bold” and poses “a daunting geological challenge.”
Cost is another hurdle that impedes progress. Near the coast, the ocean floor is close to the surface, but just a few miles away, the continental shelf drops off sharply. Building a wind farm on a structure anchored to the ocean floor deeper than 200 feet would be “prohibitively expensive,” Temple said. Because of this, nearly all turbines would have to be floating, located about 20 miles away, an alternative that itself is “very expensive” and “speculative,” Temple said. says.
“California is pinning a lot of hope on an industry that barely exists today,” he says.
Across the country, customers are already seeing their electricity bills soar in other blue states where policymakers are recklessly and shortsighted in their efforts to phase out fossil fuels.
“The costs to consumers of two offshore wind projects expected to support New York State’s self-imposed climate change goals were high to begin with, more than double their original estimates. ” To tell Energy Research Institute.
Due to a lack of funding, rising costs have put a damper on the state’s ambitions to produce 9,000 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035.
“While New York City has secured eight offshore wind development contracts, energy experts say there is not enough investment in the port infrastructure needed to assemble and deploy wind turbines offshore. “,” City Limits said. report In late December.
Inflation caused spending to rise breathtakingly from the beginning. Some developers contracted to build offshore wind farms on the East Coast have bailed out, citing unexpected costs. One person, Orsted, chose: $4 billion writedown Instead of continuing.
In an effort to reel these companies back, Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul has given them the opportunity to review their budgets and rebid their contracts, according to City Limits.
And they did. But what can you do to stop them from rising when the next wave of adversity hits?
Meanwhile, leaders in Sacramento continue to demand that Californians hand over a network that cannot be delivered on a set schedule. So now might be the time to prepare for the upcoming power outage. Because in four years, the gasoline-powered backup generators that keep the lights on will be banned by the same people trying to bring back the Stone Age.
Kelly Jackson is the William Clement Fellow for California Reform at the Pacific Institute.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
