CAMARILLO, CA – As we speak, the Division of the Inside’s Bureau of Ocean Vitality Administration (BOEM) is holding a lease sale for offshore wind power growth off the northern and central coasts of California. 5 lease areas are being provided in Morro and Humboldt Bays, protecting roughly 373,268 acres with the potential to supply over 4.5 GW of offshore wind power and energy greater than 1.5 million houses. The public sale marks the primary offshore wind lease sale on North America’s West Coast, and the primary time the California coast has opened to commercial-scale clear power growth.
“Local weather change is the largest risk to California seabirds, and environmentally accountable offshore wind may help scale back our carbon emissions whereas defending birds and the locations they want,” mentioned Garry George, director of the Nationwide Audubon Society’s Clear Vitality Initiative. “We are going to work intently with BOEM, California companies, and builders to make sure that these offshore wind tasks successfully keep away from, reduce, and mitigate impacts on birds within the distinctive and biodiverse California Present System.”
The Nationwide Audubon Society strongly helps the event of offshore wind energy as a part of a pathway to 100-percent clear power whereas defending birds. Since 2016, Audubon has been a part of a coalition of conservation organizations advocating for environmentally accountable offshore wind in California.
Steps to scale back the hazard posed by wind generators and different buildings to seabirds embody:
- Siting wind generators in ‘low influence’ areas, away from locations seabirds congregate to feed and migrate;
- Working intently with conservation scientists and native officers;
- Implementing present legal guidelines defending birds just like the Migratory Fowl Treaty Act and Endangered Species Act;
- Growing new applied sciences that assist reduce hurt to seabirds and different wildlife;
- Making certain scientific monitoring of put in wind generators and requiring adaptive administration to scale back their impacts over time utilizing finest out there know-how and practices.
Extra about Audubon’s coverage on renewable power might be discovered right here: https://www.audubon.org/conservation/climate-renewables.
About Audubon
The Nationwide Audubon Society protects birds and the locations they want, at present and tomorrow. Audubon works all through the Americas utilizing science, advocacy, schooling, and on-the-ground conservation. State packages, nature facilities, chapters, and companions give Audubon an unparalleled wingspan that reaches thousands and thousands of individuals every year to tell, encourage, and unite numerous communities in conservation motion. A nonprofit conservation group since 1905, Audubon believes in a world by which individuals and wildlife thrive. Be taught extra at www.audubon.org and on Fb, Twitter and Instagram @audubonsociety.
Media Contact:
Megan Moriarty, megan.moriarty@audubon.org