The Pentagon is sounding the alarm over the Biden administration’s plans to advance offshore wind projects along the U.S. mid-Atlantic coast, warning that almost all of the new land faced development conflicts with military operations.
Maps shared with industry stakeholders and seen by Bloomberg News show large red zones that the Navy and Air Force have deemed “highly problematic,” covering prime real estate that the Interior Department earmarked for last year to rent on the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
The Defense Department’s concerns, which add to other conflicts identified by the US Coast Guard, have spooked renewable energy developers and US East Coast states that rely on mid-Atlantic wind farms to achieve clean energy and climate goals.
The breadth of Pentagon opposition could jeopardize President Joe Biden’s bid to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind power, the equivalent of 30 nuclear reactors, by the end of the decade, the state’s newly strengthened goals for development and planned manufacturing facilities in Maryland and Virginia tied. to the nascent American industry.
The standoff represents the latest threat to the fledgling industry already facing supply chain challenges, inflation-fueled prices and opposition from coastal communities.
The Office of Inland Ocean Energy Management emphasized in an emailed statement that the U.S. “is well positioned to meet state and federal offshore wind goals as we develop the clean energy economy.” .
A senior Defense Department official stressed that the maps represent an early stage of discussions with the office of ocean energy and that the Pentagon is committed to finding ways to accommodate leasing in the region.
The Pentagon has identified challenges operating around wind turbines that would be installed on the seabed in Atlantic waters near many of its operations and facilities, including the Dare County Bombing Range of North Carolina, used to train combat aircraft crews, and a weapons station in Yorktown, Virginia. . They are vividly documented in a Navy and Air Force concern map, dated Oct. 6, 2022, that was circulated with industry and state stakeholders this month.
Four of the six potential wind lease areas outlined by the ocean energy office last November are completely shaded in red, including two deep-water parcels that may require floating turbines. The two remaining areas, colored yellow, are identified as requiring further study. The areas considered the highest priority by the Pentagon encompass a large portion of the potential lease areas on the coasts of Maryland and North Carolina.
The Defense Department official said the renderings were designed to identify areas that present the most challenges, generally where the Pentagon would not be able to continue its mission as it currently unfolds in space. The goal going forward is to find ways to accommodate wind development, including adjusting operations to allow the activity, the official said. This could take the form of changing the location of military exercises and other steps, such as optimizing radar processing systems, to minimize interference from the turbines.
The two sections marked in yellow are the least problematic, with concerns the Pentagon considers solvable, the Defense Department official said.
Similar Department of Defense concerns helped derail plans to lease offshore oil in waters off the coast of Virginia about a decade ago. And after the Pentagon warned the Interior Department in 2019 against offshore wind leasing off the coast of California, it took roughly three years to resolve the matter. The Interior Department had been on track to sell new offshore wind rights in the mid-Atlantic early next year, and significant delays could make it harder for developers to claim newly extended tax credits for the multibillion-dollar companies that they can take years to afford and build.
The Office of Ocean Energy expressed confidence that it could resolve the dispute. The agency “has a long-standing working relationship” with the Department of Defense, “and together we have successfully resolved and identified areas that have resulted in 27 leases along the Atlantic coast, covering more than 2, 1 million hectares,” he said in his statement. “We will continue this collaboration as we seek to identify new lease areas in the Mid-Atlantic.”
When asked for comment, JC Sandberg, the head of advocacy for the American Clean Energy Association, said the industry is “fully committed to national security” and coexists with other users of the ocean.
“Leasing in the Mid-Atlantic is critical to growing the offshore wind industry to meet state and federal clean energy goals,” and to sustain supply chain investments in the region, Sandberg said. “The Department of Defense staff maps serve as a stark reminder that there is work to be done. We need a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to offshore wind to ensure the industry can grow while protecting security interests national”.
The maps have inspired a frenzy of calls and meetings as alarmed offshore wind advocates ask senior administration officials to arbitrate the dispute and negotiate a compromise. Last week, Maryland lawmakers passed legislation that set a state goal of 8.5 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2031, but under the Pentagon’s view, the state could struggle to find about half of that. ‘this.
Most of Maryland’s congressional delegation had already implored the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard and other government agencies to “maximize the acreage available for offshore wind development in the Mid-Atlantic” and work to expand the potential areas for for rent
Robust offshore wind leasing along the US Mid-Atlantic is seen as essential to filling a portfolio of projects that can support planned investments in manufacturing facilities in the region, including the planned steel mill of Sparrows Point near Baltimore.
Supporters argue that the job is also critical to meeting the nation’s climate goals. Because of its large scale and large generation capacity, offshore wind is considered a particularly important source of renewable energy.
And now, offshore wind advocates are tossing the warnings from the military themselves at the Pentagon. A shift toward renewable energy sources helps reduce America’s reliance on volatile commodities for energy, thereby strengthening national security, they say. The Department of Defense and US intelligence agencies have also repeatedly considered climate change a threat to US military assets and global security.
“Offshore wind can enhance national security,” Sandberg said, “by providing a clean, affordable energy source protected from the vagaries of global commodity prices.”
To contact the author of this story:
Jennifer A Dlouhy in Washington at jdlouhy1@bloomberg.net
