File photo via Principle Power.

###

PREVIOUSLY: At a Two-Day Conference in Eureka This Week, North Coast Tribes Advocate for ‘Meaningful Engagement’ With Offshore Wind Developers, Federal Regulators

###

The Yurok Tribe posted the following announcement to its Facebook page Wednesday evening, just hours after news broke that Crowley Wind Energy plans to let its partnership agreement with the Harbor District expire without signing a lease to develop a heavy-lift marine terminal on the Samoa Peninsula:

[On Wednesday], the Yurok Tribal Council voted to formally oppose the development of floating offshore wind energy projects off the Yurok Coastline.

The Tribal Council opposes offshore wind for the following reasons:

  • The 900-foot-tall offshore wind turbines will indelibly tarnish sacred cultural sites from the coast to the high country.
  • There is insufficient scientific research on the adverse environmental impacts associated with the massive floating wind turbines and platforms. The Tribe is gravely concerned about potential risks to the interlinked ecosystem extending from the deep ocean to the headwaters of the Klamath River.
  • The federal government has not recognized the Yurok Tribe’s unceded ocean territory or its sovereign authority to determine whether and how this territory should be developed.

In January, the Yurok Tribe hosted a two-day Offshore Wind Summit in Eureka. The summit featured presentations from West and East Coast tribal leaders, local, state and federal officials and industry representatives. In part, the Tribal Council organized the meeting to hear from tribes on the East Coast, where the offshore wind industry is further along in the development process. The East Coast tribes voiced grave concerns about developers’ attempts to subvert laws that protect tribal lands and spiritual sites.

Last month, the National Congress of American Indians, the largest national organization of tribal governments, issued a resolution asking the Biden administration to suspend all scoping and permitting of offshore wind projects until the “completion of a comprehensive and transparent procedure adequately protecting tribal environmental and sovereign interests is developed and implemented.”

The Yurok Tribal Council will soon issue a resolution on the tribal governing body’s opposition to proposed offshore wind projects in Yurok ancestral territory.