California’s largest Native American tribe, the Yurok, has voted to formally oppose offshore wind off the state’s northern coast.
The Yurok’s tribal council said the expected generation of 900-foot-tall offshore wind turbines would “indelibly tarnish sacred cultural sites” from the coast to the high country and that there was also insufficient scientific research about the adverse environmental impacts of floating wind turbines and platforms.
The tribe said it was “gravely concerned” about potential risks to the ecosystem extending from the deep ocean to the headwaters of the Klamath River and noted that the federal government had not recognised its sovereign authority to determine how “unceded” ocean territory is developed.
In 2022, the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auctioned two sites off the Humboldt County - in bids won by Germany utility RWE and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to develop 2.6GW of wind capacity - as well as sites off the central coast.
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