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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, JuNE 30, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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OUR VIEW
We must have a say in offshore wind plans
F
ew dispute the need to
develop alternative ways
to generate electricity that
don’t produce greenhouse gases, but
our response to a proposed floating
offshore wind farm in Washington
state isn’t a straightforward “yes.”
Similar complications arise
regarding floating wind turbines off
the southern Oregon Coast. These
prompted the Astoria City Coun-
cil and the Port of Astoria Com-
mission to recently ask the federal
Bureau of Ocean Energy Manage-
ment and the Oregon Department
of Energy to take their time before
granting permission. Local offi-
cials want a demonstration project
before grander plans are authorized,
along with a full-scale environmen-
tal impact analysis.
In Washington state, the devel-
opment being pursued by Seat-
tle-based Trident Winds is generat-
ing misgivings among some users
of offshore waters, who fear the
wind farm located about 45 miles
west of the mouths of Willapa Bay
and Grays Harbor — and the cables
linking it to the shore — could be
one more blow to fisheries and the
environment.
To put these concerns in a his-
torical context, hydropower devel-
opment in the 20th century in the
Columbia River watershed came
with many promises about preserv-
ing salmon runs and small-town
economies. We all know how that
turned out.
Far from being a vast, little-used
zone, the current context of offshore
development is that many industries
Associated Press
Offshore wind turbines off the coast of Virginia in 2020.
and species live in or travel through
the proposed wind farm sites. As
reported in The Astorian regarding
the two locations west of Coos Bay
and Brookings, commercial fisher-
men and processors have legitimate
worries.
“Most fishermen, when they head
out to go fishing, love to take a left
turn and head south. Some of those
fishing grounds that are in those
two call areas are our prime fishing
grounds for a number of fisheries,”
Lori Steele, the executive director of
the West Coast Seafood Processors
Association, said.
The wind farm north of the
Columbia would further impinge on
fishing activities already seriously
constrained by the Olympic Coast
Marine Sanctuary, tribal fisheries
and other factors. For the coast’s
diminishing number of commer-
cial fishing folk, talk of yet another
competitor for ocean space is cause
for justifiable anxiety.
Astoria City Councilor Tom Hil-
ton spoke to this concern. “I don’t
think we should have one of those
off our coast at all,” he said. “The
privatization of the ocean is what
we’re looking at. It will definitely
devastate commercial fishing.”
Aside from economic consider-
ations, it’s worth noting that key-
stone species including blue and fin
whales spend time in these Pacific
Northwest waters, along with more
common but no less charismatic
humpback and gray whales. In the
absence of an intense environmen-
tal impact study, we simply won’t
know what giant turbines would do
to marine species large and small.
Such a study will be difficult,
considering the fact that our outer
waters are periodically wracked
by violent cyclonic storms for
months during the late fall and win-
ter. These storms and the powerful
atmospheric rivers that smash into
us several times a year will require
spectacular feats of engineering for
at-sea structures to survive.
Weighed against all this, the
Seattle Times reports the proposed
Olympic Wind project would pro-
vide 2,000 megawatts of clean
energy to 800,000 homes, accord-
ing to Trident Winds. Construction
could begin in 2028, with power
generation starting in 2030. Rel-
atively clean electricity on such
a scale is a huge enticement to
national politicians — including
President Joe Biden — and to some
in the environmental community.
Coastal communities must
become fully engaged in under-
standing these plans. The Seattle
Times reports the the Olympic Wind
project in Washington and the same
company’s Castle Wind project in
California “would dwarf anything
seen elsewhere in the country.”
Too often in the past, coastal con-
cerns have been bulldozed to serve
the interests of Seattle and Washing-
ton, D.C.
So yes, we understand the need
for clean power. But if a big chunk
of it is going to be built just out of
sight on our western horizon, we
deserve to have seats at the table
where these decisions are being
made, and a strong voice in whether
they happen at all.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Show me
B
etsy Johnson’s campaign ads for gov-
ernor are built on the refrain that “…
while other politicians talked, I got things
done.” Catchy line, but where are these
things she got done?
Show me some. And show me a Repub-
lican idea she scrunched together with a
Democratic idea to make a better one.
I see a whole lot of things she voted
against — things that helped poor people,
working people, little people — and that
she voted for, things that served the short-
term economic interests of the corporations
and billionaires on her list of campaign
donors: Polluters of the ocean and atmo-
sphere, big logging empires, big employers
and landlords and developers.
That’s who she served. Now she thinks
that qualifies her to be governor?
Also, if it’s illegal to text while driv-
ing, how is it OK to be recording and recit-
ing and posing for a TV ad while driving
the streets through the homeless camps in
Portland?
JOSEPH WEBB
Astoria
Dystopian
B
illie O’Neel’s dystopian letter (“The
hordes are coming,” June 21) claims
the current city leadership is letting Asto-
ria slip into the hands of the hordes who
“cannot help you, but in fact, will kill you.”
That is strong language, with nothing to
back it up.
O’Neel does not mention the tussle
she’s had with the city for building a deck
and fence without a building permit. Part
of the deck, and most of the fence, were
built on city property. When the city quite
rightly told her to remove the items and
follow property guidelines, she appealed
and lost.
All of this was reported in The Asto-
rian last December. O’Neel vilified city
employees, and claimed they harassed her.
Our city employees do a good job of keep-
ing our city orderly and attractive. The city
employees don’t harass anyone; they sim-
ply expect O’Neel, and others, to follow
city codes as written.
To her credit, she has removed the
fence, and the deck is now cut back to fit
her lot and property lines.
O’Neel mentions “hordes” descend-
ing on Astoria, but which horde does she
mean? The homeless, or the horde of folks
buying homes in Astoria and only living
LETTERS WELCOME
Letters should be exclusive to The
Astorian. Letters should be fewer
than 250 words and must include the
writer’s name, address and phone
number. You will be contacted to
confirm authorship. All letters are
subject to editing for space, gram-
mar and factual accuracy. Only two
letters per writer are allowed each
month. Letters written in response
here part time, yet expecting Astoria to
accommodate their desires instead of inte-
grating into the community?
LLOYD BOWLER
Astoria
Sheer desperation
A
s the district attorney of Clatsop
County for 25 years, I was called
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
ters, in person at 949 Exchange St.
in Astoria or mail to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR.,
97103.
many things, but never lenient on crimi-
nals who used guns. The fact is that 99%
of those crimes are not homicides or even
assaults, but involve people who shouldn’t
possess guns, like convicted felons.
The one legislator I could count on,
for straight talk, was Betsy Johnson. Tina
Kotek is a creature of big unions and the
Democratic Party apparatus gone as far
left as possible; Christine Drazan is willing
to pledge herself to the far-right GOP that
opposes abortion and is willing to overlook
former President Donald Trump’s “leader-
ship” of their party. And then there is Betsy.
Kotek was the leader in repealing juve-
nile Measure 11 through 2019’s Senate Bill
1008, the only law that has kept Kip Kinkel
locked up these 24 years since he shot and
killed 4 people and wounded 25 more.
Johnson was the only Democratic state
senator to vote against SB 1008, which
means that some new juvenile mass killer
(like Kinkel) will never face a life sen-
tence, and will walk out of a youth facility
no later than age 26, and with no criminal
record whatsoever.
What did the Democratic political lead-
ership do after the mass shootings in
Springfield, Umpqua and Clackamas? Lit-
tle more than “thoughts and prayers.”
By any rational measure, it has been
Johnson who has stood up for victims, for
real enforcement of gun crimes. The sheer
desperation of Oregon’s governing elites
bashing Betsy’s truly independent cam-
paign speaks volumes.
JOSHUA MARQUIS
Astoria