The House passed an amendment Thursday that would force President Joe Biden to certify that offshore wind development will not interfere with commercial and military aviation.
Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey authored the amendment, which would require Biden or a designee to verify that offshore wind development “will not weaken, degrade, interfere with, or nullify the capability of radar relied upon by the Federal Aviation Administration or the Armed Forces.” The amendment was part of a package of amendments that passed the House by a 348-57 vote Thursday, with 34 representatives not casting a vote.
Republican Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Andy Harris of Maryland co-sponsored the amendment.
The amendment would also require the inspector general of the Department of Transportation (DOT) to examine and report to Congress the “effects of offshore wind industrialization related to radar, impacts to commercial air and military traffic, and the sufficiency of the review and approval process for offshore wind projects in the North Atlantic and Mid-Atlantic planning areas.” (RELATED: The Biden Admin’s Latest Offshore Wind Lease Sales Mostly Went To Foreign Energy Companies)
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A conservation group quietly alerted Senate Democrats that the development of offshore wind farms might need to “cease” to protect an endangered species of whales
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— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 22, 2023
The DOT report would also be required to audit the permitting and approval process for offshore wind developments, in addition to assessing their impacts on radar. The report must also examine whether any concerns of the Federal Aviation Administration and armed forces were adequately considered before receiving the federal government’s go-ahead.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s 2020 radar interference analysis found that proposed wind development projects “are within the line of sight of 36 radar systems, indicating that they will generate interference to these radars under normal atmospheric conditions,” adding that “future offshore wind energy installations on the Atlantic coast may impact land-based radar systems.”
Smith successfully requested a Government Accountability Office (GAO) probe into the impacts of offshore wind, including those relating to commercial and military aviation, in June. The GAO investigation is ongoing, and will also assess offshore wind’s other commercial and ecological impacts.
The amendment will now make its way to the Senate for a vote.
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