A local environmental group formed to fight the proposed offshore floating wind farms project, is holding a fundraising forum on offshore wind, and interested citizens are invited to attend.
The REACT Alliance (which stands for “Responsible Energy Adaptation for California’s Transition”), is hosting the forum entitled, “Shining the Light on Offshore Wind: Illuminating Environmental, Economic, and Community Impacts,” and set for 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Swallow Creek Ranch in Cayucos.
“The forum is intended to inform and educate people of the Central Coast about proposed offshore wind energy development off our coast and in our communities,” reads a news release from the Alliance.
Four people will speak at the forum: Dr. C. Michael Hogan, a physicist and cetacean (whale) behavior expert; Dr. David Henderson, energy economist; Bonnie Brady, CEO Long Island Fishing Association; and Morro Bay City Councilwoman Zara Landrum.
The speakers will participate in a Q&A afterwards, followed by a wine and cheese reception with live music by local favorite Jill Knight.
Tickets for the event are $33 a person and available online at: My805tix.com.
Swallow Creek Ranch wedding and event center is located off Hwy 1 north of Cayucos (opposite Estero Bluffs State Park).
See: www.REACTalliance.org for more information on the group and its arguments against the OSW projects.
Three companies won lease auctions for a roughly 400-square mile patch of ocean 20-30 miles offshore from San Simeon. The three, 80,000-acre lease sites are each slated to install 1 gigawatt of wind turbines floating in very deep water — 800-1300 meters.
The electricity would be transmitted to shore via buried, undersea cables cutting a wide swath through the ocean to either Morro Bay or Diablo Canyon (or both) where they would connect with the state’s energy grid.
Already the projects have had a negative impact, as the federal government cut out the area from Cambria down to Diablo Canyon from its proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, moving the originally proposed northern boundary about 75-miles south to avoid conflicts with the proposed OSW projects and the wide swath of ocean needed for the transmission cable route.
Ironically, it was the local Chumash who along with environmental groups first proposed the sanctuary in large part to protect Morro Rock, which the Chumash (and Salinan) Tribes consider sacred ground.
In essence, REACT Alliance opposes the “industrialization of the ocean,” through these OSW projects, which are being proposed offshore on the Pacific and Atlantic Coasts, as well as the Gulf of Mexico.
The projects have led to a somewhat unusual alliance of environmentalists and commercial fishers, who also strongly oppose the offshore wind turbine projects.
REACT Alliance is part of a nationwide coalition of like groups opposed to OSW. Called “National Offshore-wind Opposition Alliance,” or NOOA, that group is an alliance of several OSW opposition groups and seeks to ally with more groups to form a nationwide opposition to the OSW projects and amplify their objections and concerns.
REACT Alliance holds monthly general meetings the first Wednesday of the month from 6-8 p.m. at The Benedict Center (the former Benedict-Rettey Mortuary), 1401 Quintana Rd. in Morro Bay. See: www.reactalliance.org for more information.
