Offshore wind would help retire local fossil-fuel power plants that emit air pollution and greenhouse gases.

In May 2023, local environmental activists started a campaign to ask for the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Multipurpose Heavy Lift Terminal to be a zero-emission or “green” port. The Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District adopted Resolution 2024-01, committing to the development and adoption of a Green Terminal Strategy for its Heavy Lift Multipurpose Terminal.

Lifecycle emissions analysis (1) of wind turbines typically measures the climate impacts in terms of grams of carbon emitted per kilowatt hour of electricity generated. This allows comparison between the carbon emitted to manufacture a wind turbine with that emitted during fossil fuel-powered electricity generation. Importantly, however, all research agrees that offshore wind power produces considerably less carbon dioxide than almost all other forms of electricity generation

Producing the materials required to build an offshore wind turbine does require resources and produce environmental impacts — particularly from steel mining and smelting. However, offshore wind has considerably fewer environmental and climate impacts per watt of energy produced compared to other forms of energy production—fossil fuels in particular.

Not only do we need to replace existing dirty energy with renewables, but we need even more renewably-generated electricity to offset fossil fuels in newly electrified sectors.

All forms of energy production have associated environmental impacts, and offshore wind energy is no different. For all environmental impacts, our goal is to avoid, minimize, and mitigate (AMM) them to the extent possible: first by fully understanding them, and then by advocating for avoiding project impacts, minimizing impacts that may occur, and mitigating impacts that do occur — in that order.

Wind energy is particularly helpful for reducing greenhouse gas emissions because it complements solar energy.