Clean Energy and Conservation Collide in California Coastal Waters
A wind-energy dispute highlights the intense opposition large renewable power projects often face, even in states committed to the fight against climate change.
Morro Bay and Morro Rock.
Photographer: George Rose/Getty ImagesTwo of President Joe Biden’s biggest priorities — conservation and the switch to clean energy — are colliding in the ocean off California’s quiet Central Coast.
Located halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Morro Bay boasts a rich ecosystem of fish, otters and migrating whales that the Indigenous Chumash people want to protect with a new marine sanctuary. But 20 miles (32 kilometers) out, developers plan some of the West Coast’s first offshore wind farms, where 1,100-foot-tall turbines (335 meters) tethered to the seabed will help California cut its carbon emissions.