This week, Invenergy became the latest wind energy company to end its lease agreement off the northern San Luis Obispo County coast.
The company will receive a $765 million refund from the federal government for four lease sites across the United States.
Invenergy's Senior Vice President of Development, Daniel Runyan, told KSBY News in a statement, "At a time of unprecedented energy demand, Invenergy is focused on delivering reliable, affordable energy for our customers and supporting disciplined investment at scale. That is why Invenergy, with our affiliates and on behalf of our various stakeholders, will deploy additional capital into projects that can be delivered on a commercially reasonable timeline and meet customer demand while continuing to evaluate opportunities as market conditions evolve."
A person close to the project told KSBY News that what they’re getting is a partial refund that doesn't consider any of the development costs that they’ve incurred since then. They added that these funds will go to a number of natural gas projects across different states and to geothermal projects in the Western U.S.
Representative Salud Carbajal said that New York is suing the Trump Administration over the use of funds for the lease purchase.
“The Department of Justice fund that this president is using to get these companies to relinquish their offshore wind leases that they’ve purchased is likely illegal,” Rep. Carbajal said.
Back in April, a study by a consulting company showed that converting the Morro Bay harbor to support the offshore wind project would not be feasible but it showed that it would be possible in Avila Beach.
WATCH: Morro Bay offshore wind infrastructure study
Mandy Davis, President of REACT Alliance, said that having wind turbines in the ocean could be damaging to wildlife.
“Those wind lease areas were right in the middle of migration routes, both marine mammal migration routes and bird migration routes," Davis said. "So they couldn’t have placed them in a worse place.”
But Carbajal says that the wind energy industry would not only add to California’s portfolio but bring massive jobs to the region.
“This industry will outlive this president and as soon as this president is out of office, we will recalibrate and continue with investments in offshore wind, including here off of Morro Bay,” Carbajal said.
The only leasee left on the Central Coast is Equinor Wind. KSBY News reached out to the organization to see what its position is on its lease site but has yet to hear back.
