ICYMI: Rex Richardson “Wants to Bring Wind Energy to an Oil City”
Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it… POLITICO interviewed Long Beach, CA Mayor Rex Richardson about his innovative efforts to develop California’s wind energy industry as he leads a city in “the center of California’s ongoing energy transition.”
CLIMATEVILLE USA: A century ago, the discovery of the Long Beach Oil Field set off a fossil fuel boom in a Southern California community south of Los Angeles. Now, Long Beach’s mayor is hoping to make his city a hub for a new energy bonanza.
“We believe in offshore wind … we are going to play our part to make sure it becomes a reality in California,” Rex Richardson said in a speech kicking off the Pacific Offshore Wind Summit on Monday evening.
The Port of Long Beach is developing Pier Wind, a 400-acre terminal to assemble the giant turbines that California energy leaders hope will one day spin off the state’s coast. But there’s more than offshore wind on the mayor’s mind. His city, a major transportation hub that’s home to one of the busiest ports in the nation and surrounded by significant oil infrastructure, sits at the center of California’s ongoing energy transition.
POLITICO caught up with Richardson to learn more about how he and the city of Long Beach are navigating California’s rapidly changing energy landscape. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?
Yeah, 100 percent. But I’m a pragmatist too. My philosophy is you make progress when you bring many people in and you can build at the point of intersection. If we all back into our corners, then we just kick the decision down to future generations.
Long Beach is a city that is addressing almost every issue related to climate, it’s like a microcosm of everything. You’re talking decarbonization of a port, local green shipping corridors, Pier Wind and a city transitioning post-oil, creating a new economy. All of it in one place.
Long Beach is an energy hub, with oil production happening on man-made islands off the city’s coast. How do you feel about the idea of increasing offshore drilling?
I don’t support increasing it. And I think if there’s a transition, it needs to be thoughtful of the communities who have borne the burden for many years.
I’m transitioning our general fund off oil revenue for the first time in 100 years in our city. If we know that [some of the oil revenue] may not be here in two or three or five years, and we know a police officer could be here 25 years, then maybe we shouldn’t budget [for paying that officer] based on that [oil] revenue. If [the oil money] manifests, spend it on one-time solutions. Pave more streets, plant more trees, but don’t fund your general fund structural budget with those resources.
So our strategy is to grow in the industries that we either know will be here in a century, or the industries we want to be here in a century.
You said during your speech at the Offshore Wind California conference that there’s a threat to offshore wind. What’s the threat?
In order for a project of this scale and magnitude to take place, you need participation from the federal government to ensure that you can move rapidly, that you have a spirit of collaboration, approvals, all of those things.
So if it’s not a priority for the federal administration, that is certainly a roadblock here in California. But let’s be real, this project will take more than one administration. This is many years out, so I don’t know who the next administration will be, or what their attitude toward energy diversification will be, and so you don’t stop the progress when you’re still in the planning and coalition building and assembling of resources phase.
We’ve got enough momentum in California … to advance as far as you can locally here.
Tell me about Long Beach’s green shipping initiative.
Shipping is a [major] contributor to greenhouse gasses around the world. Tap on your phone, order something from China, and it arrives in front of your place. That had to get on a ship, and the whole time it was coming from Asia to here, it was burning bunker fuel [the fossil fuel used to power ships].
So LA and Long Beach formed a [memorandum of understanding] with Shanghai and Singapore and agreed on testing new alternative fuels. Now, the infrastructure around it has begun to be built out. If this works, it scales around the world. It starts with local decision making, and collaboration between cities on the global stage.
