Manipulation, hype and floating offshore windmills

A sharply worded opinion piece published by CalCoastNews on Aug. 24 has reignited debate on the Central Coast over the future of floating offshore wind — an industry that, by the author's own account, is already unraveling before a single turbine touches the water off San Luis Obispo County.

Mandy Davis, a Morro Bay resident and president of the REACT Alliance, a local group formed to educate the public about offshore wind issues, argued that the withdrawal of three of the five companies holding California offshore wind leases proves what opponents have said all along: that floating wind technology in deep Pacific waters is speculative, uneconomical and unlikely to deliver energy to Californians anytime soon.

Her piece, titled "Manipulation, hype and floating offshore windmills," takes aim not only at the industry but at the politicians defending it.

What the op-ed claims

Davis writes that three leaseholders have voluntarily abandoned their offshore wind leases, accepting partial repayments of their lease payments and, in her words, "considerable losses in the process." She characterizes the exits as rational business decisions by companies that recognized "a bad investment made on incomplete and faulty information and a dependence on subsidies."

She also cites a statement attributed to Equinor/Atlas Wind — described in the piece as the one leaseholder that has not yet taken a repayment — that the company has "no plans to pursue further (new) offshore wind projects in the United States." Davis predicts the remaining California leases could similarly fall by the wayside.

The technical hurdle is substantial: the Morro Bay and Humboldt wind energy areas sit in water roughly 4,000 feet deep, requiring floating turbines and floating electrical substations that Davis notes "have not yet been developed and proven" at commercial scale in U.S. waters.

The political fight over lease repayments

The op-ed's sharpest criticism is reserved for elected officials. Davis names Rep. Salud Carbajal, state Sen. John Laird and Sen. Alex Padilla as having publicly opposed the federal government's return of lease payments, framing the refunds as a Trump administration effort to pressure companies and "buy off" leases. Davis calls that characterization misleading, arguing the companies exited on their own because the projects no longer penciled out.

She also criticizes a lawsuit — initiated, she writes, by Padilla, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild — contesting whether the federal government has the legal authority to refund lease money. Davis puts the cost of the litigation at $120 million, a figure attributed only to her op-ed and not independently verified by 805.life. She further alleges the California Energy Commission and California Coastal Commission have shown bias in favor of the industry.

Spokespeople for the named officials did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

What it means for Port San Luis and SLO County

Locally, the stakes are tangible. Davis specifically calls on state agencies to stop issuing grants to ports supporting a "non-existent industry, as is the case with Port San Luis." The Avila Beach port has been eyed as a potential staging and maintenance hub for offshore wind development on the Central Coast, and state funding for port upgrades has been part of the broader strategy to build out the industry's supply chain.

For San Luis Obispo County residents, the lease withdrawals raise questions about whether public investments in port infrastructure, workforce training and planning processes — years in the making — will ever bear fruit. Davis argues they will not, writing that "floating offshore wind has no future in this state."

Supporters of the industry, including labor groups and environmental organizations that Davis criticizes in her piece, have long countered that offshore wind is needed to help California meet its clean energy mandates and that early-stage setbacks are typical of emerging industries.

A community still divided

The Central Coast has been divided over offshore wind since the federal lease sales for the Morro Bay area were first held. Commercial fishermen, coastal tourism businesses and some residents have raised concerns about impacts to fisheries, views and marine life, while boosters have pointed to jobs and economic development.

Davis is urging residents to engage. The REACT Alliance is hosting a forum, "It's All Just Smoke and Mirrors… exposing the offshore wind hype," at 2 p.m. on Nov. 7 at the SLO Botanical Gardens, and the group is encouraging residents to contact state officials and the California Energy Commission to voice opposition.

Reaction to the piece in the CalCoastNews comment section was largely supportive, with one commenter advocating nuclear energy as an alternative and another praising the op-ed.

What happens next depends largely on the outcome of the state's legal challenge over the lease repayments and whether the remaining leaseholders follow the three companies that have already exited. Readers can read the original op-ed in full at CalCoastNews. 805.life will continue to follow the story as it develops.