Environment California presents Offshore Wind Champion award to Assemblymember Rick Zbur

Community members, local leaders and environmental advocates gathered on Saturday to honor Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur’s leadership in helping California harness the abundant renewable energy potential of offshore wind. Environment California presented Asm. Zbur with an Offshore Wind Champion award in honor of the Assemblymember’s dedicated support of this crucial technology that will help ensure California meets its ambitious climate and clean energy commitments.

Speakers included representatives from Environment California, California Environmental Voters, and the Port of Long Beach, along with Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock and Asm. Rick Zbur. 

Offshore wind energy will play an incredibly important role in helping our state achieve a future powered by 100% clean energy and transition completely away from dirty fossil fuels that pollute our environment and fuel climate change. California set a goal to power up to 5 million households with offshore wind by 2030, and up to 25 million households by 2045. Asm. Zbur’s leadership is helping us responsibly meet those ambitious goals so that we can realize all the benefits of offshore wind development from the local to the state level. 

In 2023 Environment California was proud to sponsor Asm. Zbur’s AB 3, the California Offshore Wind Advancement Act, which passed with strong bipartisan support and will create a seaport readiness strategy to facilitate offshore wind development. This year Environment California is fighting alongside Asm. Zbur to include $1 billion for critical port infrastructure upgrades that will enable offshore wind development throughout the state.

There’s still much to do to make sure we take advantage of California’s offshore wind potential, but with the leadership of champions like Asm. Zbur we’re in a great position to keep offshore wind momentum growing. Thank you, Asm. Zbur, for helping us go big on offshore wind!