Energy: Voluntary Offshore Wind and Coastal Resources Protection Program: community capacity funding activities and grants.

Assembly Member Stefani and Senator Rubio frame a measure that places capacity funding for local and tribal communities at the center of California’s offshore wind program, while strengthening transparency around donor activity. The proposal expands who can receive capacity funds to local communities, local governments, California tribes, nonprofit organizations chosen by tribes to represent their interests, or coalitions of these entities, and ties eligibility to geographic, cultural, or economic impact from offshore wind. It preserves the program’s overall aim to support activities that align with federal offshore wind goals and coastal resource stewardship.

The bill broadens the program’s funding portfolio to include capacity funding alongside post-lease assessments, environmental monitoring, infrastructure readiness, and workforce development. Specifically, it authorizes allocations for capacity funding activities and grants within local and tribal communities, with grants restricted to eligible entities as defined above. It also adds explicit support for environmental data collection and analysis, regional data integration, and the deployment of technical experts to assist state and federal reviewers in monitoring, adaptive management, and best practices for floating offshore wind. A prohibition remains on using program funds for costs that are recoverable from project proponents through regulatory or entitlement processes.

The transparency framework is substantially enhanced: offshore wind entities must report to the commission every 90 days with aggregated donation totals, the number of recipient groups or tribes, the counties involved, and the types of eligible recipients. The commission must publicly disclose records of donations received by the commission or by eligible entities from offshore wind entities, and must annually post a report detailing donor activity and allocations. The commission may enter into donor-use agreements, and the director of finance’s approval of donations is not required. In addition, the commission is tasked with annual and ongoing reporting to the Legislature on fund use and the effectiveness of capacity funding, with content and timing drawn from established government reporting requirements.

Together, these changes reorient the program toward targeted community and tribal capacity-building while embedding a structured, recurring reporting regime to track donor flows, fund allocations, and program outcomes. The measure contemplates an appropriation and requires legislative oversight through regular public reporting and accountability to reflect federal-state coordination on offshore wind development and coastal resource protection, with implications for eligible communities, tribal partners, donor entities, and state agencies involved in monitoring, infrastructure, and workforce initiatives.