Oregon fishermen and tribes angered by surprise federal announcement of offshore wind energy sites

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The federal government has finalized two wind energy areas off the Oregon coast, opening the door to the sale of offshore wind leases in the state.

The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced on Tuesday that the two wind energy areas total approximately 195,000 acres and have the potential to generate 2.4 gigawatts of clean renewable energy – enough to power about 830,000 homes.

The Coos Bay wind energy area, about 61,000 acres, is 32 miles from shore and the Brookings one, more than twice as large, is about 18 miles from shore.

Offshore wind is a critical part of the Biden administration’s clean energy transition. Federal officials plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of fixed offshore wind energy capacity nationwide by 2030 and 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind energy capacity by 2035. The first type secures wind turbines to the ocean floor and can be placed only in shallower water, while the floating type can be installed further offshore in deeper water where the winds are typically stronger.

The U.S. Department of Interior has thus far approved six commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects across the U.S. – all of them on the East Coast.

In December 2022, the federal government held the first West Coast lease auction for five offshore wind areas in California, drawing several dozen companies who competed for leases to build massive floating wind farms in deep ocean waters off Morro Bay and Eureka in Humboldt County. The winning companies have yet to propose specific projects.

Federal officials say Oregon’s wind energy areas were developed “following extensive engagement and feedback from the state, Tribes, local residents, ocean users, federal government partners, and other members of the public” and are based on reducing conflicts with ocean users, particularly commercial fishermen. The areas avoid 98% of the locations recommended for exclusion due to their importance as commercial fishing grounds, they said.

But local groups representing fishermen and Indigenous communities said that narrative is inaccurate and the federal government’s engagement with local communities was perfunctory at best, failing to take into account suggested effects on local fishing areas, the environment and views that are sacred to tribes.

The groups said the announcement caught them by surprise since Gov. Tina Kotek had asked the federal agency last June to pause identifying and leasing offshore wind areas so the state could fully evaluate potential impacts on the environment and economy.

“We are furious with this surprise announcement, literally stunned,” Heather Mann, executive director of Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “None of our concerns have been addressed.”

Mann said the final wind energy areas are very similar to the draft areas proposed earlier by government officials. Wind energy projects developed in those areas are likely to restrict fishing for trawlers that travel up and down the West Coast, forcing fishermen to waste more resources and hurting local communities that rely on the fish, she said.

The announcement also undermines the process that local and regional stakeholders have been working on to develop an Oregon offshore wind roadmap that would serve as a framework for state visions and policies around offshore wind, Mann said.

“BOEM wants offshore wind come hell or high water and they don’t care who they harm to get it,” she said.

Local tribes, which have called the coast home for centuries, also said in a statement that they were “extremely disappointed” in the decision. In November, The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw tribal council unanimously passed a resolution opposing offshore wind energy development off the Oregon coast.

The tribal confederation said that, despite a federal obligation to consult on a government-to-government basis, its leaders had learned of the federal government’s decision Monday from officials with the Oregon governor’s office.

The federal government “states that it has ‘engaged’ with the Tribe, but that engagement has amounted to listening to the Tribe’s concerns and ignoring them and providing promises that they may be dealt with at some later stage of the process,” tribal council Chair Brad Kneaper said in a statement. “The Tribe will not stand by while a project is developed that causes it more harm than good – this is simply green colonialism.”

Kneaper said the tribe has consistently raised concerns that federal officials have failed to provide evidence that future offshore wind farms would not harm its fisheries, the environment and the sacred views essential to tribal cultural practices.

Kotek did not address those concerns, but said offshore wind energy is part of Oregon’s future.

“Offshore wind is likely to play an important role in meeting our state’s growing energy demand and goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040,” Kotek said in a statement. “It also presents a significant economic development opportunity for the Oregon coast.”

Kotek said Oregon would continue with developing its own evaluation process to ensure coastal communities and tribal nations continue to be consulted throughout the process.

The public has 30 days to comment on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announcement, starting Wednesday when the official notice is published in the Federal Register. The federal government next plans to prepare an environmental assessment of the potential impacts from offshore wind leasing in the two designated Oregon areas, followed by another public comment period.

And later this year, federal officials will establish an offshore wind leasing process for the two areas, followed by a lease auction.

But it will be many years until turbines actually start spinning.

Of the six already-approved offshore wind farms in the U.S., just two are under construction – South Fork Wind off the coast of New York and Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts. The first turbine of the South Fork Wind project started to spin and generate electricity in December, a milestone for the wind industry on U.S shores.