California’s “jealous guardianship of the ocean” could slow offshore wind development off the Golden State, say developers and regulators.
Offshore wind is on a much slower development curve off the US west coast than off the northeast, in large part because the continental shelf drops off rapidly along the Pacific coast compared to the shallower Atlantic waters. But things got interesting in January 2016, when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) received its first-ever lease request for a commercial offshore wind farm off California, from Seattle-based Trident Wind.
