Editorial

Abstract

In Oregon, public hearings, participatory workshops, tribal consultations and environmental assessments are shaping debates over the possible emergence of a floating offshore wind industry. At stake is whether such an industry will emerge there and, if so, at what scale (see Kathleen Sullivan, this issue). The question might appear technical, as a matter of turbines, transmission lines and seabed leases. But while it is certainly often framed as political, it is also deeply legal. It concerns how law anticipates, authorises and gives form to a future in which wind and ocean are rendered as resources and in which an emergent form of oceanic industrialisation is made thinkable and governable.