California, a state celebrated for its climate ambitions and renewable energy targets, is facing a mounting crisis over its ability to actually deliver on those promises. Despite enacting a 2022 law designed to streamline the approval of solar and wind projects, the state’s own permitting process has fallen victim to the very delays it was supposed to eliminate. The Fountain Wind project in far-Northern California, envisioned as a 71-turbine wind farm capable of powering thousands of homes, has become the emblem of this struggle—a saga of local pushback, bureaucratic inertia, and legislative tinkering that now threatens California’s clean energy future.
The story begins in June 2022, when Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 205, a major budget trailer bill, into law. The measure created an optional permitting process for large renewable energy projects, allowing them to bypass local obstacles and seek approval directly from the California Energy Commission (CEC). The law’s marquee promise was speed: once a permit application was deemed complete, the CEC would have to make a final ruling within 270 days. For developers and climate advocates, it sounded like a breakthrough. But as Politico and other outlets have reported, the reality has proved far more complicated.
Fountain Wind was the first project to test the new process. Its developers, ConnectGen (now owned by Spanish energy giant Repsol), filed their application with the CEC in January 2023 after facing rejection from Shasta County officials. Local concerns ran deep. Mary Rickert, a member of the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, recalled the devastation of the 1990s Fountain Fire and worried that the proposed 679-foot-tall turbines would hinder aerial firefighting if another blaze erupted. “The last thing we want is something that hampers us in fighting a fire,” Rickert told Politico. Her fears resonated with many residents, and the county’s planning commission ultimately denied the project, a decision upheld by the board of supervisors.
But the state’s new opt-in process offered a second chance. Fountain Wind’s developers quickly turned to the CEC, betting that state authority would override local resistance. Yet the process was anything but swift. It took the CEC until October 2023—about nine months—to declare Fountain Wind’s application complete, only then starting the 270-day review clock. Meanwhile, local officials in Shasta County made their opposition clear by changing zoning laws to prohibit large wind facilities in unincorporated areas. Even more crucially, the Burney Water District, which had initially agreed to supply water for the project, quietly rescinded its permission in November 2023. “As a community whole, we just didn’t want to be taken advantage of just so we would have the windmills in our backyards and no real benefit to the community,” said David Barry, president of the district’s board.
In March 2024, Fountain Wind’s developers scrambled to submit an alternative water plan. But for the CEC, the change was a game-changer: it triggered an extension of the review timeline, pushing the process far beyond the promised 270 days. By March 2025, CEC staff issued a recommendation to deny the project, concluding it did not meet the standard of public convenience and necessity and suggesting a battery energy storage system as a more prudent alternative. “While we respect the work of the [CEC] staff, Repsol disagrees with the recommendation in its Draft Environmental Impact Report regarding the Fountain Wind Project,” said company spokesperson Christi Shafer. “We believe the project offers a meaningful opportunity to safely and responsibly contribute to the state's and Repsol's clean energy commitments.”
The CEC is now slated to make a final decision at its October 2025 business meeting, nearly three years after the initial application. For renewable energy advocates, the drawn-out saga has been nothing short of infuriating. “Why champion a state permitting process that does authorize a local override if you’re not going to wield it?” asked Alex Jackson, executive director of the American Clean Power Association. “In the face of federal attacks on wind and rising demand, the case for grabbing every zero-carbon electron in California could not be stronger right now.”
The frustration isn’t limited to developers. Industry leaders warn that, at this pace, California will never meet its ambitious clean energy goals. Michael Rucker, CEO of Scout Clean Energy, questioned the viability of long-term investments in the state: “Do you think that I’m going to commit to a 10-year, multi-million-dollar development process with the risk that the county supervisors three elections down the road don’t think it’s appropriate?” he told Politico. “The CEC’s action puts the development prospects for wind energy, at a time when the state needs it very much, just on ice.”
State officials, however, defend their record. CEC spokesperson Stacey Shepard argued that the opt-in program is working as intended, pointing to the Fresno County Darden Clean Energy Project, which crossed the permitting finish line within 270 days. Shepard noted that three other projects have complete applications in the pipeline and five more are in prefiling, representing 2,800 megawatts of new generation and 4,800 MW of storage capacity. She emphasized that delays often stem from applicants taking time to provide required information: “Prior to the application being deemed complete, the onus is on the applicant to provide the information to CEC, and CEC has no control over how long an applicant may take to do so.”
Governor Newsom’s office, for its part, touts the administration’s progress. “Under Governor Newsom’s leadership, California has expedited more clean energy projects than ever before—helping the state add record energy capacity to our grid, at the fastest pace in our history,” said spokesperson Daniel Villasenor. “We’re not slowing down any time soon.”
Yet as the legislative session draws to a close on September 12, 2025, lawmakers are scrambling to fix what many see as a broken system. SB 254, a bill sponsored by state Sen. Josh Becker, would make it easier for projects to demonstrate their economic benefits to local governments, extend the application window deadline from 2029 to 2034, and give the CEC a 30-day deadline to request additional information from applicants. AB 531 would expand the CEC’s authority to certify geothermal power plants. Becker sees these efforts as part of a broader attempt to balance environmental protection with the urgent need to build clean energy infrastructure. “If we just have years and years of delays … it just adds costs to the system,” Becker told Politico.
Not everyone is on board with expanding state power. John Kennedy, a senior policy advocate with the Rural County Representatives of California, argues that local governments must retain discretion over projects within their boundaries. “When the state overrules county regulations, it can leave locals feeling ‘embittered by projects that come in and don’t take their concerns into consideration,’” Kennedy said.
The Fountain Wind episode, with its twists and turns, has exposed the deep tensions between California’s climate ambitions and the realities of local democracy and bureaucracy. As the CEC prepares for its October decision, the outcome will reverberate far beyond Shasta County, shaping the future of renewable energy development across the state.
