Posted on July 5, 2022
Last week, Representative Peter DeFazio (OR-04) and Oregon Sen. Wyden sent a bicameral letter to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) about their significant concerns with the ongoing siting process for offshore wind facilities off the southern Oregon coast.
BOEM has issued Call Areas for potential offshore wind leasing off Coos Bay and Brookings. These Call Areas are the first step in the leasing process and are meant to assess commercial interest and public input on offshore wind leasing activities in the designated areas. However, stakeholders have raised critical issues that need to be addressed before the process should move forward.
In the letter, DeFazio and Wyden urge BOEM to prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for wind energy off the entire Pacific Coast to address critical data gaps on environmental impact, to move the Oregon Call Areas beyond a 1300-meter depth to minimize the impact on sustainable fishing operations, formally consult with all relevant stakeholders throughout the siting process, and fully collaborate with federal partners. The letter calls on the agency to take a thorough and collaborative approach to ensure that economic, environmental, and safety impacts of the nascent technology of floating offshore wind facilities in the Coos Bay and Brookings Call Areas are understood and mitigated before moving any further in the siting process.
“I strongly support the use of renewable energy alternatives, like wind, solar, wave, and thermal energy, to address the climate crisis, but the installation of these alternatives cannot be to the detriment of vitally important fisheries, mariner safety, near- and on-shore habitat, and endangered marine species. Any offshore wind leasing near Coos Bay and Brookings will have a significant impact on these coastal communities and the Pacific Coast ecosystem, but BOEM has a troubling history of ignoring the most immediate stakeholders on this issue,” said Representative Peter DeFazio. “BOEM needs to seriously revise its decision-making process to ensure that stakeholders have a full seat at the table and that the cumulative impact of Pacific coast offshore wind leasing is understood and mitigated before moving forward.”
“Fishing is an integral and iconic part of the coastal economy with job-creating benefits that ripple into communities throughout Oregon,” Senator Wyden said. “That’s why I’m working to make sure federal officials listen to concerned coastal officials and don’t inadvertently damage this core Oregon industry so it can continue to provide economic and recreation opportunities for generations to come.”
“Oregonians and coastal users have spoken, calling for more comprehensive analysis to address data gaps for wildlife, fisheries and user conflicts with the call areas. It’s important that BOEM’s process meets these concerns and builds trust and transparency through opportunities for engagement and collaboration at the ground level,” said Charlie Plybon, Oregon Policy Director, Surfrider Foundation.
“It does not make sense to risk an environmental catastrophe and create a food security issue trying to solve the climate crisis. BOEM must slow down this process and the environmental and economic impacts must be known and understood upfront before leases are issued – at the end of the process, which is the current plan, is too late,” said Heather Mann, Executive Director, Midwater Trawlers Cooperative.
The Oregon members also call on BOEM to consult with all relevant stakeholders and federal partners including NOAA, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, and the United States Coast Guard to make sure the most relevant expertise is included in each step of the decision-making process.
Dear Director Lefton,
We write to express our significant concerns about the siting process for floating offshore wind facilities in federal waters, especially the Calls for Information and Nominations (Calls) off the coast of Oregon, near Coos Bay and Brookings. We urge BOEM to take a thorough, systematic, fully-inclusive, and collaborative approach to ensure that economic, environmental, and safety impacts of floating offshore wind facilities in the Coos Bay and Brookings Call Areas are understood and mitigated before moving any further in the siting process. Specifically, we request that you complete a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for wind energy off the entire Pacific Coast, move the Oregon Call Areas to minimize impact on sustainable fishing operations, and formally consult with all relevant stakeholders in the full siting process.
The California Current, in the Pacific coastal waters, is a unique and exceptional ecosystem that provides immeasurable environmental and economic benefits to the region. It is critical to conduct a Programmatic EIS before continuing the current leasing process to evaluate the cumulative impact of all siting, design, and operation of energy projects on this rich and rare natural resource. It is short-sighted at best and negligent at worst to develop floating offshore wind projects along the Pacific coast piecemeal without studying and planning for the system as a whole. A thorough Programmatic EIS for floating offshore wind facilities off the entire Pacific coast is necessary to provide clarity on unanswered questions on this nascent technology, make informed choices about the best course of action (including considering a no action scenario), and develop mitigation strategies before it’s too late to make meaningful adjustments.
Additionally, we urge you to move the Coos Bay and Brookings Call Areas beyond the 1300-meter depth in critical areas to minimize displacing current sustainable fishing activities to the greatest extent possible. The seafood industry is economically critical to Oregon as a whole, and especially Oregon’s coastal communities. Coastal communities rely on the jobs and economic activity that come from the seafood industry, including sport and commercial fishermen, seafood processers, related marine user businesses, and many other jobs that come from that economic activity. Fishing grounds have been steadily shrinking for decades and coastal communities up and down the Pacific coast continue to suffer economic and cultural loss. Further limiting Oregon’s fishing industry from the productive fishing grounds in the current Call Areas could spell economic disaster for these towns that have relied on access to fish for generations.
We also call on BOEM to consult with all relevant stakeholders to fully evaluate the wide-ranging impacts of these proposed developments along the Pacific coast. Currently the BOEM Oregon Intergovernmental Energy Task Force is comprised exclusively of government employees, without industry and stakeholder representation, and closes official meetings before taking public comment. BOEM should revise this task force to include a range of relevant non-governmental stakeholders, such as the task forces within the Marine Fish Advisory Committee at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Additionally, we request that BOEM consistently provide a publicly-accessible lay interpretation of scientific analysis throughout the process to help Oregonians better understand the complex issues at hand and BOEM’s rationale for its siting decisions.
Finally, BOEM should fully coordinate with federal partners including NOAA, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, and the United States Coast Guard to make sure the most relevant expertise is included in each step of the decision-making process. These agencies are well-versed in implementing federal law and have valuable insight into furthering science-based decision making, finding consensus among stakeholders, and ensuring navigational safety in federal waters. Although BOEM is charged with ocean energy management, federal partners need to be guaranteed input at the table.
Thank you for your work to move our country toward a renewable energy future. The federal government must lead the way to combat the climate crisis rapidly and aggressively. We appreciate that the Administration has prioritized deployment of offshore wind energy to achieve those goals, but we need an offshore wind strategy based in science and thoughtful planning that will ensure a basic level of economic security for the fishing industry and help protect ocean ecosystems.
