Cape Wind and Collateral Damage in the Midwest

Today’s Chicago Tribune has an article describing how wind farms in the Midwest have been collaterally damaged by Congress’ attempt to kill the Cape Wind project …

The federal government has stopped work on more than a dozen wind farms planned across the Midwest, saying research is needed on whether the giant turbines could interfere with military radar....

Federal officials declined to reveal how many stop-work orders have been sent out. But developers said that at least 15 wind farm proposals in the Midwest have been shut down by the Federal Aviation Administration since the start of the year....

Most of the opposition focuses on the proposed location in a channel between Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, the bucolic Massachusetts vacation areas frequented by many high-profile celebrities, business executives and politicians....

The project continued to move forward until late last year, when [Senator John] Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slipped an amendment into a military spending bill. The one-sentence congressional order directs the Defense Department to study whether wind towers could mask the radar signals of small aircraft.

Since then, at the Defense Department's behest, the FAA has been blocking any new wind turbines within the scope of radar systems used by the military.

The Warner amendment took effect after the Federal Aviation Administration had already approved the Cape Wind project...

Warner's amendment also appears to have reversed the government's position on the Cape Wind proposal. Both the FAA and the Air Force had previously signed off on the project, which would be located within miles of a missile defense radar system.

Here’s an excerpt from the FAA memo dated April 2003 certifying that the proposed Cape Wind turbines present no threat to aircraft or to "air navigation facilties", e.g. radar stations....

The Federal Aviation Administration has completed an aeronautical study under the provisions of 49 U.S.C., Section 44718 and, if applicable, Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 77, concerning:

Structure Type: Wind Turbine (A8)
Location: Nantucket Sound, MA…

This aeronautical study revealed that the structure would have no substantial adverse effect on the safe and efficient utilization of the navigable airspace by aircraft or on the operation of air navigation facilities.

The Air Force was even more specific...

Our experts have reviewed the proposed locations for the Wind Power Plant near Cape Cod AFS and have determined it poses no threat to the operation of the PAVE PAWS radar at Cape Cod AFS. At the nearest proposed location, the main radar beam will clear the towers by more then 4500 feet.

However, the Defense Department has offered no date for lifting its moratorium on the construction of wind farms in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota...

"Until the potential effects can be quantified and possible mitigation techniques developed, it is prudent to temporarily postpone wind turbine construction in areas where the ability of these long-range radars that protect our country might be compromised," said Eileen Lainez, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Nothing is expected to change until the department's study is completed. It is unclear when that will happen, Lainez said.