A recent National Academies report shows the growing push to build large-scale offshore wind and marine energy infrastructure in federal waters.
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The Pacific Northwest is defined by the ocean.
From the gray whales migrating along the Washington coast each spring, to the critically endangered Southern Resident Orcas; and to the salmon who connect rivers, forests and sea, the waters off the coast of our region sustain one of the most extraordinary marine communities on Earth. Cold, nutrient-rich upwelling off the Pacific Coast fuels immense blooms of plankton that feed fish, seabirds, whales and more.
Increasingly, this living ocean is being treated as something else: an industrial energy zone.
A recent National Academies report examining offshore energy development along the West Coast reflects the growing push to build large-scale offshore wind and marine energy infrastructure in federal waters. While the report acknowledges environmental risks and calls for improved planning and coordination, it ultimately accepts a central assumption that deserves far more scrutiny: that industrial energy development in the ocean is both necessary and inevitable.
That premise should concern everyone who cares about the future of the Pacific Northwest.
Offshore wind is often presented as a “clean” solution to climate change. But the physical reality of these projects is anything but small or clean. Offshore wind turbines are among the largest machines ever built. Individual towers can reach hundreds of feet above the ocean surface and sit on floating platforms anchored to the seafloor by massive chains and cables. Entire wind farms can span hundreds of square miles.
Constructing this infrastructure requires vast quantities of steel, copper, concrete and rare minerals — materials mined and processed around the world, with significant environmental costs.
Construction activities generate intense underwater noise, heavy ship traffic and disturbances to the seafloor. Scientists note that offshore wind development can affect fisheries, marine mammals, seabirds and marine habitats, and may displace fishing operations from traditional grounds.
The waters off Washington and Oregon support some of the most productive fisheries in North America. Salmon, groundfish, crab and other species support coastal economies and cultural traditions that stretch back thousands of years.
The floating wind turbines being discussed as a likely technology for the deep waters off the Washington coast would introduce a completely new industrial presence into these waters.
Anchoring systems for floating turbines involve extensive networks of mooring lines and subsea cables. These structures alter seafloor habitat and introduce potential entanglement hazards for marine animals. Turbine construction and operation produces underwater noise that can interfere with the sound-based navigation and communication used by whales and many fish species.
Scientists and federal agencies acknowledge that offshore wind development and its ecological consequences is poorly understood.
In other words, we are being asked to transform large areas of ocean into industrial infrastructure before we truly understand the consequences.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the federal agency responsible for leasing offshore areas for energy development, is actively identifying and evaluating potential wind energy areas along the West Coast. The process involves coordination with federal agencies, state governments, tribal nations, and ocean users, but the underlying trajectory remains clear: accelerating development.
These planning processes typically begin with the assumption that development will occur. Environmental review then focuses on how to mitigate impacts rather than asking the most fundamental question of all: whether industrializing the ocean is appropriate in the first place.
The Pacific coast is not an empty space waiting to be filled with infrastructure. It is a vast and dynamic living ocean that connects coastal ecosystems, tribal cultures, fishing economies, and marine wildlife.
The same currents that support salmon runs also sustain seabird colonies and whale migration routes. The same offshore waters targeted for energy development are home to marine food webs that stretch from microscopic plankton to orcas.
Industrial infrastructure like turbine arrays, mooring systems, cables and maintenance operations will reshape ocean marine life for decades or even centuries.
At a time when oceans worldwide are increasingly opened to industrial development, including offshore oil drilling, seabed mining, and massive energy projects, the Pacific Northwest faces a critical moment.
We can continue down a path that treats the Pacific Northwest coastal ocean as the next frontier for industrial expansion.
Or we can recognize we here in the Pacific Northwest have a great responsibility to defend the coast from energy development and the irreversible damage that development will cause, and to protect the extraordinary web of marine life who call the coast home.
Protecting the coast from energy development will require courage from policymakers, honesty about the damage from industry and technological interventions, and a willingness to say no when the risks to ecosystems are too great.
The Pacific Ocean is not an energy zone. It is a living ocean: one that sustains fisheries, cultures, wildlife, and coastal communities across the Pacific Northwest.
It deserves protection.
— By Elisabeth Robson