SLO County activists oppose offshore wind projects. So they’re taking fight to national level
There’s a new national group fighting offshore wind development — and you may recognize some of their members.
Two San Luis Obispo County anti-offshore wind activists have founded an organization called NOOA, the National Offshore-wind Opposition Alliance. So far, the group includes at least seven environmental and fishing organizations from the East and West coasts, according to President Mandy Davis.
“As a united alliance, we will have a more powerful voice with greater opportunity for public engagement, media visibility and potential for having a voice in our government’s direction on the efficacy of offshore wind,” Davis wrote in an email to The Tribune.
The group opposes any offshore wind development in the Great Lakes or the ocean, she said.
Davis also founded the local non-profit REACT Alliance, which formed to fight offshore turbines planned for the 376-square-mile Morro Bay Wind Energy Area about 20 miles away from Cambria and San Simeon.
Though Davis serves as the president of both organizations, the groups have separate purposes: one to fight offshore wind development locally and the other nationally.
NOOA will educate the public about the impact of offshore wind while fighting for restrictions on development.
“We need to share resources, we need to share information, we need to come together so we have a much larger and much more powerful voice with the media, with government, with the public,” Davis said Wednesday. “It’s simple — there is power in numbers.”
Local activists form national anti-offshore wind group
Davis intentionally gave the organization a similar name to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, she said.
“It was done as a bit of a poke at NOAA,” Davis said. “The majority of us that are working to fight offshore wind feel that NOAA isn’t protecting our oceans — especially as it relates to offshore wind.”
The National Offshore-wind Opposition Alliance has had two meetings so far, according to Davis.
Group membership includes REACT Alliance, Protect the Coast Pacific Northwest, the Morro Bay Commercial Fishermen’s Organization, Green Oceans, Protect Our Coast New Jersey, Protect Our Coast Long Island New York and the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, Davis said.
“We are growing on a daily basis,” she said.
The group is governed by nine board members, including Davis and local attorney and Cafe Roma owner Saro Rizzo.
The alliance will not accept donations from the fossil fuel industry or advocate for other energy sources, Davis said. The group will apply to form a non-profit, she said.
