Wind energy public meetings to continue in Coos Bay, Bandon - KATU

Wind energy public meetings to continue in Coos Bay, Bandon | KCBY

It's a public comment countdown for the Oregon Natural Resource Industries (ONRI), one of the groups opposing wind energy projects on the South Coast.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a series of public webinars and in-person meetings over the past several weeks addressing concerns over wind energy areas proposed off Coos Bay and Brookings.

BOEM, working to meet the Biden Administration's offshore wind energy goals, selected the areas, which cover just over 200,000 acres of ocean.

ONRI Board Member Diane Rich says her group and several others joined at those in-person meetings in Gold Beach, Coos Bay, and Brookings to say no to wind energy.

"They're planning on changing every single port that we have to accommodate the oil ships that will be taking lubricants back and forth to the 219 windmills that will stretch from Coos Bay down to Brookings. The one giga(watt) of power that will be produced from these in 10 years, is not worth the loss of our coastline," said Rich. "But the investors are running. The investors say, 'Nobody wants it. We're going to get protested.'"

Next week, ONRI returns to Coos Bay meeting at the boardwalk on October 12 and in Bandon on the 13th.

They're urging the community to make public comments at www.regulations.gov/search?filter=BOEM-2023-0033 before the comment period ends on October 16, 2023.