Good Afternoon Community Partners,
Here is your newsletter on offshore wind and related interests. It is a long one!
In memoriam:
Many of you may have worked with Andrew Meredith in his role as Director of Labor Relations with RWE. We were sorry to learn of Andrew’s sudden passing earlier this month and respectfully share the following memorials with recognition and gratitude for all he did for workers rights in the state of California (and he was a really cool human):
Policy and planning updates:
- The CORE Hub and partners recently submitted comment letters to the California Energy Commission to inform their scoping and literature assessments for an upcoming Seaport Readiness Plan (due to the legislature 12/31/26) and a report on instate offshore wind assembly, workforce and supply chain (due to the legislature 12/31/27). The Energy Commission is required to develop these two policy and program tools under Assembly Bill 3 CA Offshore Wind Advancement Act . The comments have been submitted to the docket. Thank you to all who collaborated on these efforts!
- Seaport Readiness comments – Network partners created and submitted in collaboration with THE Impact Project and other partners across the state
- Workforce and Supply Chain comment letter – submitted by CORE Hub
- Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District Board of Commissioner’s August meeting
- August 14, 2025
- meeting agenda packet
- meeting recording
- Rob Holmlund shared that the CEQA draft for the wind terminal won’t be out until the end of 2026 or early 2027. Discussion and presentation of delayed project timeline starts at minute 21:40 of recording. The Port of Long Beach shared that they anticipate publishing their draft environmental impact report in Spring 2026.
- Expert presentation on Floating Foundation Assembly by Tom Hickey of Moffat and Nichol starts on minute 25:00 of the recording
- Next meeting takes place on Thurs 9/11 at 6pm and will include a wind terminal presentation with speakers from Moffat and Nichol and GHD on green terminal analyses, electrical load, solar, and utilities.
- Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District Board of Commissioner’s July meeting
- July 10, 2025
- meeting recording
- meeting agenda packet
- Expert presentations from Brett Vivyan (GHD) on roadway access, Tom Singer (Moffat and Nichol) on the staging part of staging and integration, and Chris Mikkelsen (HBHCRD) on phase 1 site contamination and cleanup. Expert presentations start on minute 18:20 of the meeting recording.
- Humboldt County Board of Supervisors passed an outdoor lighting ordinance at their August 19, 2025 meeting
- Outdoor Lighting Ordinance
- This ordinance will apply to the heavy lift marine terminal project.
- Lost Coast Outpost Reports
- The ordinance loosely follows the “Five Lighting Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting” issued by the International Dark-Sky Association that require all nighttime outdoor lighting to be useful, targeted, low-level, controlled, and warm-colored.
- Onshore Offshore Wind Transmission Update:
- In June, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) announced that they selected California Grid Holdings LLC (CalGrid), a wholly owned subsidiary of Viridon Holdings LLC, as the approved project sponsor to finance, construct, own, operate, and maintain both the i) New Humboldt 500 kV Substation, with 500/115 kV transformer, and a 500 kV line to Collinsville [HVDC operated as AC] project, and ii) the Humboldt to Fern Road 500 kV Line. The projects must be in service no later than 06/01/34.
- CalGrid/Viridon’s proposal included potential routes that would parallel existing PG&E lines near Highway 36, with a portion not being directly adjacent to existing transmission lines. Their proposal also identified a general area to consider for the new Humboldt substation – at near the southeast of Freshwater Corners (which is easterly of Eureka).
- Viridon will likely wrap up this initial phase of work with CAISO in September. They will then start heading toward the path of CEQA and other permitting processes. The CA Public Utilities Commission will be the CEQA lead, and anticipates a permitting application being submitted in 2027.
- Viridon will need to notify CPUC 12 months in advance of filing permit applications
- 6 months before filing (at minimum), CPUC will review draft permitting materials
- CPUC is working on more robust pre-filing process; their permitting process guided by General Order 131-E; More on CPUC and CEQA
- For the full list of anticipated permits (13 for each project; total of approx. 26), check out the Project Sponsor Selection Reports posted here.
- Oregon Offshore Wind Roadmap Process
- In Oregon, House Bill 3963 extended the completion deadline for the Offshore Wind Roadmap to January 1, 2027. The deadline for the roadmap was extended due to delays in the federal leasing process. This moves the timeline back from the original September 1, 2025 deadline set by House Bill 4080.
- The Oregon Offshore Wind Roadmap process is being led by the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). It was initiated by HB 4080, which was signed by Governor Tina Kotek in March 2024. The bill mandates that the roadmap define standards for considering offshore wind development. The process is guided by a Roadmap Roundtable that advises the DLCD on the roadmap’s content and engagement.
- California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment Announcements
- The CA Governor’s office of Land Use and Climate Innovation conducts assessments every five years to provide updated climate science and data to help communities and decision-makers in California respond to the impacts of climate change.
- Leveraging expertise throughout the state, the Fifth Assessment will contribute to the scientific foundation for understanding climate-related vulnerability throughout California. It will support on-the-ground implementation and decision-making at the local, regional, tribal, and state levels, focusing on the needs of communities most vulnerable to climate change impacts.
- The state is seeking responses to an RFI requesting potential partners provide input on community engagement, Tribal engagement, and public rollout of the Assessment in 2026.
Opportunities for leadership and learning:
- What is Central Procurement and Why Is It Being Used for Offshore Wind in California?
- North Coast Offshore Wind FAQs, July 31, 2025
- ‘There is a critical reason why the state established a new process to buy these long lead time resources, like offshore wind. The state determined them to be essential components of decarbonizing the electricity grid and fighting climate change. California wanted to buy down the risk of the more expensive projects, and determined that the state providing a centralized solution would help bring down prices and keep the projects affordable. This is why this process is called “Central Procurement”.’
- Tribal Energy Summit 2025
- The Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians (ATNI) is hosting an Energy Sovereignty Summit, September 3 – 5, 2025
- Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel, Snoqualmie, WA
- Hosted by ATNI’s Energy Program, the event is aimed at bringing together Tribal leaders, staff, young professionals, and key partners to identify challenges, funding options, workforce development, and new opportunities that may be addressed through strategic planning with partners who support Tribal Energy Sovereignty. The ATNI Energy Program goal is to share information, explore potential partnerships, and encourage collaboration to build a strong and sustainable future.
- Information and Registration here
- Job opening: student research assistantship in offshore wind policy
- The Schatz Energy Research Center has an opening for an undergraduate student research intern to join their policy team to conduct offshore wind energy policy research. This paid internship position is expected to start in October 2025 and continue into the Spring Semester 2026.
- In this position, the Student Research Intern will support research on policies affecting OSW projects and related infrastructure, such as battery energy storage systems and transmission lines. The Student Research Intern may also explore opportunities for Tribal co-management, co-governance, or co-ownership of offshore wind-related infrastructure—for example, by analyzing case studies of Tribal involvement in transmission projects.
- Applications are due September 8, 2025. To apply and for more information, visit the Schatz Energy Research Center job posting.
- Schatz is also hiring an undergraduate student with an engineering or technical background to develop entanglement mitigation strategies for offshore wind turbines. More information on that position is available here.
- Oregon Seagrant: State of the Coast
- 2025 State of the Coast Conference save the date: November 14-15 in Coos Bay
- State of the Coast is a chance to have fun and learn while listening to informative talks on current marine science and policy issues, participate in hands-on activities, and network with research, industry, and community leaders.
- learn more here
- Pacific Offshore Wind Consortium (POWC) updated list of internship and professional development opportunities related to the offshore wind sector
- As part of the POWC’s initiative to advance university-level workforce education and professional development, they have developed an internship database that catalogs workforce development opportunities related to offshore wind.
Webinars:
- Permitting for Offshore Wind Port Infrastructure Projects webinar recording
- Webinar by Schatz Energy Research Center, July 10, 2025
- For offshore wind energy projects to be developed in California, specialized port facilities—known as “staging and integration” sites—must be built to stage, assemble, and integrate massive floating offshore wind turbines before they are towed out to the designated offshore wind energy areas. This webinar describes the key findings from Schatz’s recently published report, Permitting for Port Infrastructure to Support Offshore Wind in California, and discusses permitting requirements for staging and integration sites, including those relating to Tribal consultation and public engagement. The presentation is followed by a panel discussion with staff from the California State Lands Commission and California Coastal Commission to discuss each agency’s role in permitting these types of projects.
- Redwood Coast Energy Authority: Community Conversation: Battery Energy Storage
- On July 23, 2025, Redwood Coast Energy Authority hosted a free public workshop on grid-supporting battery energy storage at the D St. Neighborhood Center in Arcata.
- This event featured a presentation and panel discussion that explored how large-scale utility battery storage works, its role in supporting California’s grid, and how storage projects can differ in purpose, safety, size, and benefits.
- Video recording here
- The Renewable Energy Wildlife Institute (REWI) hosted the second webinar in its Wind-Wildlife Webinar Series, “BOEM Environmental Studies Program – Bat Activity Throughout the California Coast and Offshore Environment”, on August 27, 2025 at 10:00am PST. This webinar discussed recent updates on spatial and temporal activities of migratory and non-migratory bat species along the California coastline and offshore.
- UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment (CLEE) is hosting a negotiations webinar training on September 10th, from 9:30 to 11:30
- intended for advocates and organizers who will be engaging in offshore wind port development and other clean energy projects in 2026 and beyond. Special guest Ingrid Brostrom, Climate and Sustainability Program Director at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center, has deep experience in both environmental justice law and developer negotiations will be conducting this virtual training.
- This session will offer an overview of negotiations strategies and hands-on exercises to practice negotiation skills. Register here; a zoom link will be sent out to registrants closer to the event.
- Labor Unions and Offshore Wind 101
- Clean Energy States Alliance, September 16, 2025, 11:00am
- Information and Registration here
- Labor unions play a critical role in the construction of offshore wind projects. Through advocacy by unions and other worker rights organizations, many states have prioritized the use of union labor through their clean energy standards, procurements, and incentives. This Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) webinar will explore the role of labor unions in offshore wind projects, discussing how trades and unions are involved in construction, how unions train workers for future projects, and how state governments, unions, and offshore wind developers work together to ensure projects get built with high road labor standards.
- The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) is hosting a webinar series to support better data stewardship and highlight emerging tools, standards, and approaches in marine data.
- Information and Registration here
- Webinar 2: Interoperability in Action: Data Standards and Marine Applications takes place September 25, 2025
- The Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy Hub is hosting a webinar, “Real World Marine Energy Testing – the Benefits and Challenges”, on September 30, 2025 from 1:00-2:00pm.
- This session will explore the current landscape of the marine energy industry in Wales and a deep dive into the practical experience of at-sea testing.
- Register here.
In the news:
- Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups
- New York Times, August 25, 2025
- A law firm representing opponents of offshore wind farms is demanding that Brown University retract research that details links between the fossil fuel industry and anti-wind groups. The firm, Marzulla Law L.L.C., which has close ties to the conservative legal movement, called the research “false and injurious” and said it would complain to Brown’s public and private funders, including the Energy Department, the National Science Foundation and the Mellon Foundation. A spokesman for the university, Brian E. Clark, did not comment directly on the law firm’s demands but said the university intended to uphold its principles of academic freedom. “Scholars shape their own research and course of instruction at Brown,” Mr. Clark said in a statement. “One principle that is core to research at Brown is the ability for scholars to discuss contested topics and themes and to have those topics openly debated.”
- America Isn’t Pivoting To Natural Gas
- Distilled Earth, August 25, 2025
- Renewable energy has no shortage of challenges today. President Trump is doing everything he can—including breaking the law—to slow their development. His tariffs, big tax bill, and executive orders are all threatening to slow clean energy’s growth and jack up all our electricity prices in the process. But there’s a difference between slowing growth and an outright abandonment of renewables. Trump understands, more than maybe anyone, that there’s tremendous power in narrative. To create the vibe of a thing can bring it closer to reality. The headlines and vibes all point towards a huge pivot to gas. But the data suggests a very different story.
- Trump to Halt Development of Another Offshore Wind Farm
- Bloomberg, August 25, 2025
- The Trump administration is working to halt development of an offshore wind project planned near Maryland, in the latest escalation of the president’s war on the clean energy source he loathes.
- further reporting here
- The Hill, August 26, 2025
- To learn more: Trump’s Total War on Wind Power
- Heatmap, August 5, 2025
- In the past week, a series of Trump administration actions has presented fresh threats to wind developers seeking everyday sign-offs for things that have never before presented a potential problem. Renewables developers and their supporters say the rush of actions is intended to further curtail investment in wind after Congress earlier this summer drastically curtailed tax breaks for wind and solar.
- Trump halts work on New England offshore wind project that’s nearly complete
- AP news, Aug 23, 2025
- The Trump administration halted construction on a nearly complete offshore wind project near Rhode Island. Danish wind farm developer Orsted says the Revolution Wind project is about 80% complete, with 45 out of its 65 turbines already installed. Despite that progress and that the project had cleared years of federal and state reviews the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued the order Friday, saying the federal government needs to review the project and “address concerns related to the protection of national security interests of the United States.”
- ‘Come to America and lose $1B’: Trump drives more offshore wind pain
- Canary Media, August 19, 2025
- Ørsted, the Danish energy giant that constructed the first wind turbines in U.S. federal waters just five years ago, needs $9.4 billion to complete its two remaining U.S. offshore wind projects and to continue to be financially sound enough to build wind farms elsewhere, likely in places far away from the United States.
- During its Aug. 11 earnings call, Ørsted blamed its funding needs on “adverse developments” in the U.S. market, referring to the political risk, red tape, and tax credit changes created in recent months by Trump administration policies.
- THE ECONEWS REPORT: Talking CEQA Reforms
- Podcast: Lost Coast Outpost, August 23, 2025
- Hating on environmental laws is now a bipartisan activity. California Democrats have leaned into the “Abundance agenda,” a progressive case against regulations to build more housing, renewable energy, and other public goods,to take swipes at the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
- But to what extent does California’s landmark environmental law actually hold back housing production? And are proposed reforms actually aimed at the right targets?
- Electric Bills Are Up 10% So Far This Year—Why They Could Keep Getting Costlier
- Forbes, August 19, 2025
- Electricity bills have increased almost 10% since the start of the year and could rise another $170 per year for households by 2035 thanks to the repeal of clean energy tax credits, new tariffs and rapid expansion of electricity-hungry data centers to fuel a boom in artificial intelligence, multiple reports have shown.
- Texas think tank petitions to revoke permits for Vineyard Wind 1 project offshore Nantucket
- Utility Dive, Aug 5, 2025
- The Texas Public Policy Foundation petitioned the Trump administration to revoke the project’s permission a day after Nantucket, Massachusetts, leaders issued their own set of demands.
- BOEM Rescinds Designated Wind Energy Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf
- BOEM Newsroom, July 30, 2025
- The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced it is rescinding all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This action is being taken in accordance with Secretary’s Order (SO) 3437 – Ending Preferential Treatment for Unreliable, Foreign Controlled Energy Sources in Department Decision-Making – and the Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2025 – Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the OCS from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.
- WEAs were originally established to identify offshore locations deemed most suitable for wind energy development.
- By rescinding WEAs, BOEM is ending the federal practice of designating large areas of the OCS for speculative wind development, and is de-designating over 3.5 million acres of unleased federal waters previously targeted for offshore wind development across the Gulf of America, Gulf of Maine, the New York Bight, California, Oregon, and the Central Atlantic.
- OPINION: Offshore Wind Is Humboldt County’s Opportunity — and Responsibility
- Lost Coast Outpost Op Ed by Wil Franklin, July 14, 2025
- “Offshore wind won’t solve every problem we face. But it offers a chance to change the trajectory — from disinvestment to investment, from decline to revitalization, from despair to hope. With careful planning, community engagement, and a clear-eyed view of both the challenges and the potential, we can make this work for Humboldt. And we can do it in a way that our children — and the planet — will thank us for.”
- Nantucket Reaches $10.5 Million Settlement With GE Vernova Over Vineyard Wind Blade Failure
- Nantucket Current, July 11, 2025
- The town announced the settlement with GE Vernova, the manufacturer of the Haliade-X turbine that failed, nearly one year after the 300-foot-long blade collapsed 15 miles southwest of the island, littering Nantucket beaches with debris and scattering fiberglass and foam around the region.
- Under the agreement, Nantucket will establish a “Community Claims Fund” to provide compensation for economic harm caused by the blade failure.
- Notably, Vineyard Wind itself is not a signatory to the settlement agreement.
- Oregon legislature passes first-in-nation microgrid framework
- Facilities Dive, July 10, 2025
- Oregon lawmakers have passed two bills that experts say will make facilities more resilient as the state’s power grid faces rising electricity demand, more frequent extreme weather events, and repeated public safety power shutoffs to mitigate wildfire risk.
- HB 2065 and HB 2066 create “a first-in-the nation strategy to create a regulatory framework for building microgrids,” smaller-scale power networks that can operate independently from the main grid.
- “Oregon has passed the most ambitious microgrid legislation in the nation,” Dylan Kruse, president of nonprofit Sustainable Northwest, said in a statement. “These bills pave the way for clean energy innovation to support community resilience, energy independence, and cost savings across the state.”
Thank you for your collaboration, please reach out with any recommendations, questions, or materials you would like to include.
The CORE Hub Team