Chumash Tribe Opposes Offshore Wind in Proposed Marine Sanctuary

"A plan by private corporations to float up to eight wind power generators less than three miles offshore has run headlong into efforts to designate a vast area of ocean off the Central Coast as a Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary," reports Louis Sahagún. The proposed sanctuary "would extend offshore more than 70 miles in some areas, and include shipwrecks, kelp forests, underwater canyons and a seamount that rises more than a mile above the ocean floor."

"However, applications have been submitted by Cierco Corp. and Ideol USA to the State Lands Commission for leases to install up to eight floating wind turbines in state waters about 2 ½ miles offshore, and within the boundaries of the Chumash marine sanctuary." An additional federal plan would add 380 turbines northwest of Morro Bay. "The plan would also create 44,000 jobs and help speed up our conversion from fossil fuels to renewables."

But the Northern Chumash and conservationists oppose the plan, citing potential damage to the delicate, "uniquely Californian" local ecosystem. "Building a network of floating turbines that are tethered to the seafloor and connected to one another and the mainland with electric cables is an affront to preservation, [members of the Northern Chumash Tribe] say." 

The Chumash aren't alone in their opposition to the project. "Critics of the wind turbine proposal include tribal leaders, the California Coastal Commission, NOAA, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns., the Alliance of Communities for Sustainable Fisheries and a coalition of environmental groups led by Defenders of Wildlife, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club California, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Environmental Defense Center."