The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is a federal agency fast-tracking offshore wind energy development without doing the proper environmental and economic impact studies before issuing leases to private companies.  The decades-long leases allow a single company to privative and industrialize the ocean under the guise of "renewable green energy".  The negative impacts from floating offshore wind turbines to endangered whales, birds, sustainable fisheries and the marine ecosystem must be identified and understood prior to leases being issued.  

Turbines are twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty and would cover hundreds of square miles of ocean, making those grounds unavailable to commercial fishing.  The large turbine farms and the associated transmission lines to carry the energy to shore will impact commercial and recreational fishing fleets and the coastal communities that rely on fishing as a major component of their economies.  BOEM has identified call areas off of Oregon situated in prime fishing grounds that have been utilized by a variety of fleets for decades.

The process for siting offshore wind farms must be slowed down and the impacts must be identified upfront before issuing leases.  In the meantime, immediate steps to combat the climate crisis can be taken by expanding solar and increasing onshore wind generation - mature technologies where any risks are readily known.