Program date: Oct. 27, 2022
Air date: Oct. 31, 2022
From The City Club of Eugene:
Residents and visitors alike cherish Oregon’s 360+ miles of coastline, from Astoria to Brookings. This beautiful and bountiful coast is also home to some of the most promising sites for renewable energy development in the United States.
Just this year, the federal governmentidentified two areas (the Coos Bay “call area” and the Brookings “call area” – see map, courtesy of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management) off the Southern Oregon Coast for future wind energy development.
In addition,recent findings about wave energy have led the federal government to award a$25 million grant to Oregon State University to build a first-of-its-kind wave energy testing facility off the coast of Newport.
While these projects could produce clean electricity to power thousands of homes, there aresignificant concerns about potential impacts to the environment and economy. Experts from the Coast who work in the non-profit, private, and public sectors and who hold a diverse array of viewpoints about the future of energy on the Coast will discuss the costs and benefits of the proposed wave energy project.
Speakers:
Bob Eder is a career commercial fisherman who has worked in numerous West Coast fisheries, mainly trapping Dungeness crab and sablefish. He began fishing in Port Orford in the 1970’s and moved to Newport in 1986. He has partnered in oceanographic and fisheries research with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon State University, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. He represented fisheries on the board of the Oregon Wave Energy Trust for five years. He currently serves on the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and is vice-chair of FINE, Fishermen Involved in Natural Energy, of Lincoln County, Oregon.
Julie Siestreem is the Vice Chair of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw. She serves on the Oregon Legislative Commission on Indian Services (LCIS).
Shannon Souza owns Sol Coast Companies, which provides sustainability consulting and contracting to support strategic growth, responsible development, and sustainable living. She is Policy Director for Pacific Ocean Energy Trust (POET) and co-founder of Oregon Coast Energy Alliance Network (OCEAN). She served for four years as Oregon Solar + Storage Industry Association’s (OSSIA) Policy Chair, and represents the Professional Engineers of Oregon on Gov. Brown’s Resilience Mitigation Advisory Council. She is a professional engineer and water rights examiner with the state of Oregon, and her practice has included low impact development, habitat restoration, public water supply planning and expansion, industrial waste minimization, and net zero building design. She earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Santa Clara University and in 2019 was named Oregon’s Engineer of the Year.
Jenn Miller is the Renewable Energy Section Chief in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Pacific Regional Office. She is a renewable energy expert and has served as the Coordinator of BOEM’s California Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Task Force.
About the City Club of Eugene:
The mission of the City Club of Eugene is to build community vision through open inquiry. The Club explores a wide range of significant local, state, and national issues and helps to formulate new approaches and solutions to problems. Membership is open to all, and Club members have a direct influence on public policy by discussing issues of concern with elected officials and other policy makers. The City Club’s mailing address is PO Box 12084, Eugene, OR 97440, and its website iscityclubofeugene.org.
Video and Broadcast
This program will be live streamed, and the videotape will be made available on the City Club of Eugene’s Facebook page and You Tube Channel, in addition to our website. It will be broadcast on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022 at 7:00 pm, on KLCC 89.7 FM.
Contact: For more information, contact Silver A. Mogart, City Club of Eugene, Executive Director, (541) 485-7433, administrator@cityclubofeugene.org
