b'28American Journal of Transportation ajot.comBiden Administration announcement will speed offshore wind in California and new wind port N orthA mericANBy Stas Margaronis, AJOT o ffshoreW iNdP oWerTheBidenAdministra- The Biden Administrationprovides access to the bulk of2021tion announced that the U.S.announcementalsoencour- Californias wholesale trans-DepartmentsofInteriorandages the California Public Util- mission grid.Defense have reached agree- ity Commission to work with ment on California sea-spaceCalifornia Independent SystemP roPosedw Indf arMandotherissues,clearingOperatortodevelopmoreP ort atn orthernCa sthe way to move ahead withtransmission resources to sup- h uMboldtb aydevelopmentofthestatesport offshore wind farms. OnMay14th,Governor multi-gigawatt (GW) offshoreTheCaliforniaIndepen- (SPEEDcontinued on windpowerpotentialonitsdent System Operator (ISO)page 29)Central and North coasts. This is the breakthrough Californiasoffshorewind industryandworkershave been looking for, said Adam Stern, executive director, Off-shore Wind California, a trade group of offshore wind devel-opers and technology firms.The announcement comes at a time when California Gov-ernor Gavin Newsom has ear-marked$11milliontomatch U.S. Department of Transpor-tation funding to build an off-shorewindportatHumboldt Bay in Northern California.Sternadded:Welook forward to partnering with fed-eral and state agencies to map out a path to achieve a mini-mum of 10 GW of clean, off-shore wind power for Golden State residents and workers by 2040 . An interim goal of 3 GWby2030willcontribute to President Bidens national goal of 30 GW by the end ofITS BACK LIVE & IN-PERSONthisdecadefromboththe East and West Coasts. An additional 1.6 GW is proposed for wind farms off the coast of Humboldt Bay.He added: We commend the Departments of Interior and Defense,withsupportfrom Governor Newsom, for reach-ingthisagreement.Tomeet theseambitiousgoals,well need to complete environmen-tal reviews, upgrade port infra-structure, build offshore windsSept. 28-30, 2021 supplychain,andstreamline federalandstatepermittingDiscover New Project Businesswhileprotectingwildlifeand cultural resources Responsi-ble development of offshore windwillbeessentialforGeorge R. Brown Convention CenterCaliforniatoreachitsclean energygoalsandreduceitsHouston, Texas, USAclimate risks, while also creat- americas.breakbulk.coming thousands of high-skilled jobsandprotectingmarine and coastal resources.C entralC alIfornIaStern told AJOT the agree-ment will expand the area that can be developed for offshore windinCentralCaliforniaRegister Now at Early Bird Ratesthat is based off of Morro Bay. This offshore power gen-eration can flow directly into the California grid because the region has an estimated 5 GW inunderutilizedtransmission capacity that can be upgraded without major cost to accom-modate offshore wind farms. This is significant because offshore wind developers can besurethatthefirst5GW generated by wind farms can be sold into Californias trans-mission system.'