Laura Deehan
State Director, Environment California Research & Policy Center
[email protected]
Statement: Gov. Newsom taps into offshore wind as part of climate plan
Media Contacts
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday an ambitious plan to reach California’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2045, with initiatives to expand offshore wind power generation and to electrify buildings to eliminate fossil fuel usage.
As California’s state agencies develop their climate and energy plans for the next five years, the governor urged decision makers to set key goals to ensure California mitigates its climate crisis. Newsom proposed:
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A goal of deploying 20 GW of offshore wind by 2045, the largest goal of any state. That’s enough to meet the needs of 14.5 million homes, or more than a third of California’s current energy needs. President Joe Biden has set a goal of 110 GW by 2050 nationwide.
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Planning for 3 million “climate-ready” buildings by 2030 (and 7 million by 2035) through deployment of 6 million heat pumps by 2030.
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Planning to meet the state’s energy needs without building any new fossil fuel-powered plants.
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Reducing methane emissions from infrastructure near residential neighborhoods.
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Setting goals to remove 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — the annual carbon footprint of small European countries such as Bulgaria — from the atmosphere by 2030, and 100 million metric tons by 2045, through a combination of natural and engineered methods.
As the impacts of climate change intensify, Gov. Newsom has spearheaded the adoption of a $54 billion climate and energy budget.
Environment California State Director Laura Deehan issued the following statement:
“At a time when climate action from the nation’s capital seems out of reach, this news from California is a powerful tonic. Governor Newsom just set the fifth-largest economy in the world on a fast track to tap into offshore wind at a scale that actually meets our needs. And he’s making a significant down payment on other climate action as well.
“We support this historic investment by the state to strengthen California’s burgeoning clean energy infrastructure. And we are committed to making sure carbon removal plans don’t perpetuate the use of fossil fuels in our power mix or create obstacles to a future of 100 percent renewable energy.
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