Communities along the Oregon coast have responded with increasing alarm to the rapid push toward offshore wind farms by the federal government in 2022. That reaction occurred in part because previous commitments by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to an inclusive, collaborative process was revealed to be a hollow gesture when call areas were identified as possible sites for expansive turbine farms.
Individuals who served on the BOEM Intergovernmental Rewenable Energy Task Force, meant to provide a regional perspective, said they weren’t meaningful engaged in the process. Instead, the existence of a task force allowed BOEM to claim they were working with communities when, in fact, they weren’t.
Elected officials from counties, cities, ports and tribal organizations have all passed formal resolutions urging BOEM to slow the process, consider test sites, consider moving turbines farther offshore, and generally take a more collaborative approach to finding solutions. Even though the organizations and communities they represent continually search for job-producing, economic development opportunities, these elected leaders are worried that a rush toward offshore wind energy might negatively impact the Oregon coastline and the coastal economy for the foreseeable future.
To read the resolutions passed by each of these governmental organizations, open this PDF and then click on the name to read their request of BOEM.
We thank them for their concerns and for lending their collective voice to this important issue.