The assessment concluded that issuing the leases for the wind farms “would have no significant impacts on people or the environment.”
The two proposed Wind Energy Areas would cover roughly 195,000 acres and have the combined capacity to produce 2.4 gigawatts of energy—enough to power about 800,000 homes, according to BOEM.
BOEM is preparing a final sale notice and inviting qualified participants to a lease auction of the proposed areas in mid-October.
Any leases that might be issued from the sale would not authorize the construction or operations of an offshore wind energy facility, John Romero of BOEM’s office of public affairs told The Epoch Times. Rather, a lease provides the lessee with the right to submit a project plan for BOEM’s review.
For any future proposed offshore wind projects, BOEM will develop an environmental impact statement to analyze the specific effects of those projects before making decisions on whether to approve the proposed construction and operations plan.
“Should an auction be held and leases issued ... a lessee must [still conduct] a comprehensive environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Romero said.
The Oregon initiative has faced pushback from affected communities, as well as from elected representatives.
County commissioners in Curry and Coos counties agreed unanimously on Aug. 6 to place a nonbinding question on the November ballot.
Coos County Commissioner Rod Taylor said the advisory question will specifically ask voters whether they want the counties to work in opposition to the offshore wind energy projects.
“Anecdotally, I estimate that more than 90 percent of the constituents I’ve spoken with are opposed to offshore wind,” he told The Epoch Times.
Taylor said he expects at least 70 percent of the voters to vote in favor of the advisory measure.
Facing Head Winds
BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said the decision to move forward in Oregon is based on rigorous studies.“BOEM relies on the best available science and information for our decision-making regarding offshore wind activities,” she wrote in an Aug. 13 statement.
The environmental assessment further considered the potential effects of placing meteorological buoys in the area and of the use of acoustic instruments to map the seafloor to determine where to attach mooring systems and cables, including the potential effects on the habitat of marine mammals, birds, sea turtles, and fish.
It also analyzed the presence of threatened or endangered species (including whales, sea lions, and leatherback turtles) and the effect of site assessment activities on commercial and recreational fisheries.
BOEM stated that its environmental impact statements are prepared in consultation with tribes and appropriate government agencies and informed by input from stakeholders, ocean users, and the public.
“We remain committed to continuing this close coordination to ensure potential offshore wind energy leasing and any future development in Oregon is done in a way that avoids, reduces, or mitigates potential impacts to ocean users and the marine environment,” Klein said.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), an outspoken critic of offshore wind, disagreed with Klein.
“These wind farms threaten whales and other marine life as well as compromising national security,” he told The Epoch Times. “The recent Vineyard Winds incident shows the risks of industrializing our oceans.”
On July 13, Vineyard Winds, the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm experienced a catastrophic turbine failure, sending a massive fiberglass blade into the Atlantic Ocean and causing sharp fiberglass shards to wash ashore on Nantucket beaches at the height of the summer tourist season.
The incident brought the construction of the 62-turbine project to a temporary halt. The initiative, now back on track, is projected to build 30 gigawatts of fixed-bottom offshore wind energy infrastructure by 2030—enough to power more than 10 million homes—and another 15 gigawatts of floating wind turbines by 2035, enough to power 5 million homes.
“We already know from that catastrophe that fiberglass turbine blades are not going to hold up, and the industry has acknowledged that they expect repeated failures every year,” Van Drew said. “And when that fiberglass shatters, beaches become hazmat sites and marine life will ingest those slivers of fiberglass.”
BOEM said in its environment assessment that it had received comments from tribes and had allowed public comment at the end of its task force meetings and that it had received input from federal and state agencies.
Klein also said that BOEM has listened to coastal communities.
“Working with Tribes, government partners, ocean users, and the public, we gathered a wealth of data, diverse perspectives, and valuable insights that shaped our environmental analysis,” she wrote.
That statement drew the ire of affected communities.
“I’m frankly outraged that BOEM continues to push a narrative that they are collaborating closely with tribes and fishermen,” Heather Mann, executive director of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, told The Epoch Times.
She said that BOEM’s conclusion that there are no significant effects from issuing the leases was “entirely predictable, because BOEM says the same thing for every offshore wind lease.”
Mann said that she and other fishermen were initially open to considering offshore wind, but their engagement with BOEM has changed their position.
“We’re no longer just a ‘no’ at this point,” she said. “Now we’re an all-out ‘hell no!’”
Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), whose Fourth Congressional District would be home to one of the wind farms, did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.
Her Republican challenger, Monique DeSpain, told The Epoch Times that BOEM is riding roughshod over objections from “the people of Coos, Curry, Douglas, and Lincoln counties with this atrocious decision to move ahead over the vocal and well-founded opposition of our vital fishing and tourism industries, tribes, local elected officials, and desperately concerned coastal citizens.”
DeSpain said the district’s coastal communities have no voice at the policy and federal funding tables in Washington.
Taylor criticized the process.
“If they do have more public engagement sessions, I expect they will take all the comments that are tendered, place them in a file drawer, and never look at them again,” he said.
Since 2021, the Department of the Interior has approved nine commercial-scale offshore wind energy projects and is exploring more.
BOEM said it has sold leases for offshore wind farms in New York, New Jersey, and the Carolinas, as well as off the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coasts.
“The Department also continues to take steps to evolve its approach to offshore wind to drive towards union-built projects and a domestic-based supply chain,” BOEM stated.
