In early April there were two major leaps forward in offshore wind development in California. On April 6, 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), a bureau within the U.S. Interior Department, released a Draft Environmental Assessment for the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area (WEA) off California’s Central Coast. The next day, the California Coastal Commission removed a key barrier to the first offshore wind development, voting unanimously to conditionally concur with BOEM’s federal consistency determination that proposed leasing and lease activities within the Humboldt WEA off California’s Northern Coast are consistent with the California Coastal Management Program (CCMP).

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