• Following the Trump administration’s announcement that Morro Bay’s Golden State Wind project will recover $120 million in taxpayer dollars as part of its cancellation arrangement, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) issued a statement on April 28. “I am outraged by this backwards decision to sabotage the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area. In Congress, I championed these projects because they represented a clear win-win-win for the Central Coast,” Carbajal stated. “Because of a bizarre personal vendetta against wind energy, Donald Trump’s administration is turning a historic opportunity into a historic failure. Beyond the strategic failure of this policy decision, today’s announcement also represents a staggering waste of taxpayer dollars.” According to Carbajal’s office, the Morro Bay Offshore Wind Energy Area is the product of negotiations conducted by Carbajal’s Offshore Wind Working Group, created in 2019 to coordinate between federal, state, and local partners. The group includes representatives from the offices of Carbajal and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of the Navy, and California Energy Commission (CEC).
• On May 1, Assemblymember Dawn Addis (D-Morro Bay) issued a statement in response to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to reinstate in-person dispensing requirements for mifepristone, ending telehealth and mail delivery options nationwide. Mifepristone is a drug that blocks a hormone called progesterone, which is needed for a pregnancy to continue. “Today’s ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is an attack on women, plain and simple. By seeking to gut access to mifepristone and strip away telehealth and mail delivery options, this court has sided with ideology over science, and politics over patients,” Addis stated. “These restrictions are not just dangerous, they are an attack on every woman who deserves safe, effective, and essential care. While the federal administration wages its relentless war on reproductive freedom, we refuse to be silenced. We will continue to fight until every woman has their rights to make our own medical decisions fully restored and permanently restored.”
• Authored by state Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), Senate Bill 963 recently passed the Senate with unanimous bipartisan support, advancing the legislation to the Assembly. If passed, SB 963 will require the California Coastal Commission to provide permit applicants with a complete list of any additional information needed within 30 days of determining that an appeal raises a substantial issue, among other mandates. “SB 963 is about making sure the process works clearly and predictably for everyone involved,” Laird said in a May 1 statement. “California’s coast is one of our state’s greatest assets, and the Coastal Act has played a critical role in protecting it for nearly 50 years. … With the Senate’s passage of this bill, we’re taking an important step toward providing greater certainty for local governments, project applicants, and community stakeholders while continuing to uphold the protections and values of the Coastal Act.”
• On April 30, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) led 12 of their colleagues in reintroducing the Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act. According to Padilla’s office, this legislation responds to the Trump administration’s weakening of housing resiliency standards and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hazard mitigation programs. Legislators’ intention behind the Housing Survivors of Major Disasters Act is to make it easier for survivors to access aid by codifying and expanding acceptable forms of documentation that can be used as proof of residence for establishing disaster assistance eligibility—including a pay stub from an employer, a driver’s license or state-issued identification card, and school registration.
This article appears in May 7 – May 14, 2026.
