Offshore wind developers were set to hold informal port hours at Port San Luis and the North T-Pier in Morro Bay this week. It was supposed to be an opportunity for people in the community to discuss, ask questions and provide feedback on offshore wind development, but those port hours were postponed, leaving some people upset.
“This is the most disrespectful, disingenuous, cowardly thing I have ever seen a company do,” said Mandy Davis, REACT Alliance president and founder.
Although the port hours for both areas were postponed, some community members, including local fishermen, still showed up in protest Wednesday at the North T-Pier in Morro Bay.
Jeremiah O’Brien, a local fisherman, says he’s not against wind power at all. He says the ocean is just not the place to do it and the wind turbines planned for a 400 square-mile area 20 miles off the coast of Morro Bay will affect their fishing.
“We aren’t allowed to do anything out on the ocean. We have rules and regulations. These guys are coming in with carte blanche, blanketing the ocean with all of this giant machinery,” O’Brien said.
In a statement to KSBY News, Kristen Hislop, Senior Manager of Environmental Compliance and Strategy for Invenergy, one of the current leaseholders for the wind project, said, "Leaseholders’ Fisheries Liaison Officers were recently informed of planned protests during port hours, which would have created significant potential for disruption. As such, leaseholders made the decision to postpone the engagement.”
Davis was hoping the wind developers would show up Wednesday so she could let them know that many local people oppose this project. And she and others say they were going to do so peacefully.
“Yesterday, they did the same thing at Avila. They found out that there were going to be people very peacefully, non-engaging demonstrating and we were invited. The public was invited,” Davis said.
“Well, I think it was a smart decision on their part because this was going to be publicity. I didn’t come here so that they could say we talked to the fisherman. I came here to protest what’s going on,” said Alan Alward, Morro Bay fisherman.
According to Golden State Wind, another one of the leaseholders for the offshore wind project, they are working to reschedule port hours so they can meet with people in the community.
The project is currently in its early stages. The next phase is marine surveying for the leaseholders to better understand the marine environment where the wind turbines would be placed. This is expected to begin this spring.
