OREGON COAST, Ore – The Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians have filed a lawsuit regarding next month’s floating offshore wind auction.
The authorized sale of leases for wind energy development would span 195,000 acres off the Coos and Curry counties’ coastlines. All of which is located within ancestral tribal territory.
The Tribes say they want to stop the October lease sale.
The Tribes then want the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, to conduct a thorough and honest investigation into the impact on the surrounding environment that the wind farm would cause.
The Tribes say they are concerned that critical fish and marine life, which is important for both tribal and commercial fishing, will take a massive blow.
In a press release, Tribal Council Chair Brad Kneaper said, “coastal Tribes have repeatedly met with BOEM urging BOEM to take its time to develop wind energy in a way that does not adversely impact Tribes and the resources which they depend upon. BOEM has repeatedly disregarded these requests telling the Tribes that wind energy development is being driven by the White House.”
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