The Department of Defense (DoD) recently warned that the Biden administration’s lofty offshore wind development goals could significantly impede naval military operations, Fox News Digital has confirmed.
The conflict, which pits President Biden’s aggressive climate agenda against national security interests, was highlighted in an Oct. 6, 2022 report assembled by the U.S. Navy and Air Force, Bloomberg first reported on Monday. The documents were reportedly circulated with energy industry and state officials earlier this month and include maps highlighting sensitive military zones off the mid-Atlantic coast.
“The initial assessment performed by DoD found complicated compatibility challenges with wind turbines near Navy and Air Force training,” Pentagon spokesperson Kelly Flynn told Fox News Digital. “The DoD continues to work with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, industry, and other stakeholders to identify the best locations for development.”
“This discussion includes impacts to the environment, shipping, fishing, viewshed and military readiness and includes mitigation strategies to overcome the impacts,” Flynn continued. “The DoD is committed to facilitate development while protecting national security, as we have done in every call area in the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.”
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The maps reportedly show massive acreage blocked off in federal waters near North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. Overall, four offshore wind lease areas proposed by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) are characterized as “highly problematic” while another two are identified as “requiring further study,” per Bloomberg.
The Pentagon, though, said assembling the report and the maps were an initial step in a process.
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“This assessment is the first step in the process and DoD will continue to refine the analysis and collaborate with the other stakeholders in order to promote compatible development in this location,” Flynn added.
The Pentagon’s warning late last year, meanwhile, came years after it similarly warned in 2019 that much of the North Atlantic wind lease planning area was an “exclusion zone.” And a DoD map obtained by Fox News Digital that was published in 2018 identified nearly the entire East Coast as “highly problematic” for leasing.
The issue was highlighted by experts in congressional field hearing hosted by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., in March.
“The Navy has said there is not an area in that whole east block that does not interfere with DoD missions. But BOEM is continuing ahead,” said Meghan Lapp, the fisheries liaison for Rhode Island-based fishing company Seafreeze. “And when I’ve asked them on webinars, ‘The Navy said that this is a problem. How can you still be leasing it?’ They’re like, ‘Oh, well, we’re just going to continue the discussions.'”
“There are a lot of discussions, there are a lot of meetings,” Lapp continued. “But there is never anything actionable where something is denied. That is a huge, huge problem that hopefully Congress can help with.”
The White House and the American Clean Power Association, a leading industry group representing wind developers, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
“The Pentagon’s warning about national security implications stemming from offshore wind development on the Atlantic Coast, including proximity to critical Virginia military installations, shouldn’t be dismissed,” Gabriella Hoffman, a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum’s Center for Energy and Conservation, told Fox News Digital.
“Many groups opposed to offshore wind have warned about this potential concern for years, but were ignored,” Hoffman added. “Now this report confirms their warnings. Wind proponents have some explaining to do.”
Meanwhile, offshore wind developed has also faced increasing scrutiny in light of a recent spate of whales beaching along the East Coast.
Since the beginning of the year, more than 20 humpback whales and endangered North Atlantic right whales have been discovered dead along the East Coast with most beaching in New Jersey, New York and Virginia, according to federal data. The uptick in deaths has led to calls from lawmakers, local officials and conservation organizations for a federal moratorium on wind development in the Atlantic Ocean.
While administration officials and some environmental groups have said there is no evidence suggesting wind turbine construction is killing whales and that the deaths are part of an “unusual mortality event” for both whale species dating back years, the region is on pace to far surpass death figures set since the mortality events were declared.
“The Biden administration’s hasty push for unreliable offshore wind, in concert with its net-zero agenda, will bear horrible consequences for the environment and the economy,” Hoffman continued. “They must immediately reconsider their push for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030.”