Oregon tribes are suing the Biden administration to block the first offshore wind lease sale along the state’s southern coastline.
On Friday, the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s environmental analysis underpinning an Oct. 15 lease sale and plans to use floating wind turbines to produce energy.
The offshore development not only threatens the marine environment, but also the tribes’ cultural and spiritual practices in the region, the tribes told the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
Because of the depth of the waters off of the Oregon coastline, more traditional fixed-bottom wind turbines would not be practical, but the alternative floating turbine technology is still under development, and has never been built or operated on the Pacific coast of the United States, they said.
