The Trump administration cites national security as stopping offshore wind. Some experts aren’t sure
The Trump administration on Monday expanded battle against the onshore wind by ordering a temporary moratorium on all leasing of major wind projects under construction in the United States, this time citing national security threats.
The Interior Department said it was suspending the maritime air lease immediately “due to national security risks identified by the Department of Defense in recently completed classified reports.”
“This suspension will give the Department, along with the Department of Defense and other relevant government agencies, time to work with employers and federal partners to assess whether it is possible to mitigate the national security risks posed by these projects,” the agency said in a news release.
Some security experts have described this justification as false and absurd and say that offshore wind is key to ensuring the reliability of the grid and meeting broader US energy goals.
The order applies to five projects on the East Coast: Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts, Revolution Wind off the coast of Rhode Island, the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Commercial Project, and Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind 1 off the coast of New York.
It is the latest in a series of federal actions against offshore wind, which has become one of Trump’s major efforts to block new renewable energy. The president has supported a national energy strategy based primarily on fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal.
Trump in January issued the executive order calling for the temporary withdrawal of all federal land and water leases for new or renewed wind energy, which he said “could cause serious harm” including negative effects on national security, transportation and commercial interests. Last week, a federal judge threw out that order, calling it “slavery and unreasonable.”
In August, the administration cut $679 million in offshore wind projects, which it described as “doomed,” including $427 million planned for California. The state has an ambitious goal of 25 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2045, which experts and officials say will be an important part of the state’s clean energy base to address climate change.
The Interior Department now says offshore wind turbines and towers create radar interference called “clutter,” which “obscures legitimate moving targets and produces false targets in the vicinity of wind projects,” which poses a threat to national security.
“The primary duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement Monday. “Today’s action addresses emerging national security threats, including the rapid development of adversary technologies, and the vulnerability created by large offshore wind projects near our East Coast settlements. The Trump administration will always put the safety of the American people first.”
But Kirk Lippold, a national security expert and former Navy commander of the USS Cole, said that invoking national security on the issue is like “blowing smoke for the American people.” The issue of clutter has been known for years and can be solved through software and firmware changes to weapons systems and radars, as well as proper training for the operators of those systems, he said.
“The national security citation in this case is a false and dangerous argument that once again shows that the administration has no real interest in developing the energy management portfolio that President Trump has promoted since his first day in office,” Lippold told The Times. “Having renewable energy means you have a variety of energy sources and depth, from fossil fuels to nuclear to wind to solar, everything.”
Lippold noted that Bergum also raised national security threats in August when the administration issued an order to halt work on the Revolution wind project, which was 80 percent complete. The Secretary of the Interior told CNN at the time that bad actors could take advantage of the radar distortion to “launch a drone attack on a wind farm,” which Lippold said was laughable. He added that a “drone mass” approaching the US coast would mark a major intelligence failure. A judge blocked the stop-work order in September.
Concerns about clutter are also something that could have been addressed much earlier in the planning process for individual projects, said John Conger, the emeritus director of the Center for Climate Change and Security who oversaw the Defense Department’s clean energy facility under the Obama administration.
For example, officials may require that certain turbines be removed or require additional radars to fill covered gaps before signing off on an offshore wind project, Conger said. He said the projects suspended on Monday would have been reviewed and cleared earlier by the Ministry of Defence, so he found it strange that the current administration found a problem with all five at the same time.
“It’s interesting that they decided to change so many at once, which makes it sound like they haven’t checked individually,” Conger said. “If there was new knowledge to emerge, it would be individual knowledge.”
Dave Belote, another former director of the Defense Department’s agency, also questioned the administration’s claims in a statement Monday.
“I find Secretary Burgum’s claims of safety-related risks and vulnerabilities to be bogus,” said Belote, now CEO of solar consulting firm DARE Strategies. The North American Aerospace Defense Command “has the technical fixes available today to plan for interference without reflecting the radar, and the developers of the air project have been paying for these fixes since 2013.”
Experts say this administration’s move has an impact on access to electricity, grid reliability and the economy.
“Electricity prices are rising and our grid is facing increasing demand from data centers, industries and homes,” said Ted Kelly, director and lead adviser for US clean energy with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. “Wind – if allowed to go forward – provides the most cost-effective, reliable energy.”
Energy affordability has become a major issue nationwide this year, with residential electricity bills rising nearly 13% nationwide since January, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Wind and solar are still the least expensive form of generating electricity for a new building, according to financial advisory firm Lazard.
The projects on hold are fully approved, near completion and represent tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure investment that have employed thousands of workers so far, said Hillary Bright, executive director of the wind advocacy group Turn Forward. In addition, they are ready to bring “much-needed power to regions that are already struggling to meet the growing demand for electricity.”
“Holding official permits approved after years of painstaking consultation with expert government agencies — including the Department of Defense — does nothing to advance our nation’s economic or energy security,” Bright said in a statement.
Even though Vineyard Wind has been partially depleted, it has saved New England residents nearly $2 million a day during this month’s cold weather, according to a Boston Globe report.
