A roadmap for how Oregon would handle offshore wind energy development is still in the works even as the Trump administration looks to stop future projects.
In January, one of President Donald Trump’s early executive orders halted permits for onshore wind projects and withdrew all of the outer continental shelf in federal waters from future leasing for offshore wind.
This followed the Biden administration’s decision to cancel an auction of two offshore wind energy sites off the Oregon Coast last year amid mounting opposition from tribes, commercial fishermen and other groups — and as developers backed out and Gov. Tina Kotek called for a pause to the process. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, oversaw the leasing process, from identifying sites to selecting potential bidders, but the state also had a key role to play — and still does.
While the future of offshore wind energy is uncertain, Jeff Burright, the offshore wind energy roadmap coordinator with the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, says it might be the best time to start planning for it.
“It’s the best time to be taking stock of ourselves and our policies and our interests and making sure that we have identified the path that we would want to travel if and when this comes back again,” he said.
Last week, Burright and other representatives with the state traveled to Seaside to answer questions and gather information about what Oregonians want to see for offshore wind energy development, even though it is unlikely that another leasing process will be in front of the state anytime soon. Oregon’s offshore wind energy roadmap is being developed as part of House Bill 4080, passed by the Legislature last year.
“We do recognize that we’re in a spot where offshore wind is less imminent than it was a year ago when the Legislature passed this bill to develop the offshore wind roadmap,” Burright said.
But, he added, “the other fact of it is that Oregon does have a world-class resource of wind offshore that is an opportunity if we can find a way to grasp it … that meets our policies and the interests of our communities.”
Scott McMullen, a lifelong commercial fisherman who sits on a state roundtable tasked with helping to develop the roadmap, said that Oregon will be able to see how policies, changing technologies and the offshore infrastructure play out in other areas where wind energy projects are farther along.
“We’ll have the benefit of having more time,” he said.
He commended Kotek for pushing back at the federal government last year, saying Oregon needed to figure out its side of the process and better understand its priorities and concerns when it comes to these types of projects.
And the Department of Land Conservation and Development will be advocating for even more time on the roadmap itself.
Given the change in direction at the federal level and general uncertainty around resources and funding, Burright says they are looking to the Legislature to extend the time available to use funds that have already been allocated for the roadmap work.
Last year, the focus was on two sites off Oregon’s Southern Coast near Coos Bay and Brookings. But the North Coast attracted interest from at least one company looking at state waters offshore of Camp Rilea near Warrenton. Burright said they haven’t heard any more from the company since last summer.
Even if future offshore wind energy projects concentrate elsewhere, Burright said communities on the North Coast could still feel the impacts and should be involved in developing the roadmap. McMullen, who is also chairman for the Oregon Fishermen’s Cable Committee based in Astoria, agreed.
“I think the whole coast should be involved and participate [in the roadmap],” he told KMUN. “Even if the development only occurred on the South Coast, it’s still going to impact fishing on the North Coast. Displaced fishermen have to go somewhere.”
Around 15 people attended the community meeting in Seaside last week, including county and city leaders as well as interested members of the public.
State employees fielded general questions about what potential offshore wind infrastructure would look like off the Oregon Coast and questions about what chain of effects there might be on local ecosystems.
Burright said many of the things he’s heard at community meetings echo the comments and concerns raised at monthly meetings by the roundtable group, which includes representatives from conservation groups, the tourism industry, commercial fishing and seafood processing industries, ports, tribes and others.
“It was nice to see some redundancy in that… the conversations we’re having among the roundtable seem to be getting it generally right,” Burright said. “That the things we’re talking about are the things that we’re also hearing from communities. So that gives me some confidence in moving forward with drafts of the roadmap, that it’s not going to be so far apart from what people might expect.”