Tag Archives: Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden

Feds ask for public comment on two Oregon Coast sites slated for floating offshore wind farms

Two sites off the southern Oregon coast could soon be home to the state’s first floating offshore wind farms. But first, the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will meet with residents and stakeholders in coastal towns, some of whom are concerned about impact to the fishing industry and marine ecosystems.  Officials from the ocean energy bureau announced Tuesday that they had identified two ideal “wind energy areas” near Coos Bay and Brookings. The two areas are 20 or more miles from land, collectively encompass about 344 square miles of ocean and could host enough floating wind turbines to generate 2.6 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 195,000 homes. >click to read< 10:29

Should Oregon Kill Sea Lions to Save the Salmon?

Used to be, they’d show up at Willamette Falls around late November—beefy males here to bulk up and loll on the docks. Call it sea lion winter break; time off from California’s Channel Islands rookeries, beaucoup steelhead to eat, zero problems. (No pups, no ladies, no predators.) When it was time to head back south, a 400-pound sea lion might have doubled in size, having chowed down on, at minimum, three 15-pound Pacific Northwest salmonids a day. >click to read<19:47