The Department of Defense must resume reviews of wind energy projects, a federal judge in Oregon ordered Thursday.
At least 125 utility-scale wind projects across 25 states have been stuck in limbo because of a freeze on wind project reviews at the Pentagon, according to a group of trade associations, wind energy companies and environmental organizations that sued over the delays under the Administrative Procedure Act.
The review freeze has caused a “total halt of all wind project development in the United States,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, said the Defense Department had violated its regulatory deadlines by withholding reviews. She issued a preliminary injunction, ordering Defense officials to provide status reports every 30 days that address whether reviews of wind projects have resumed.
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Since 2011, the Pentagon has been required to conduct security reviews for new energy construction projects. The agency looks at whether those developments would have an “adverse impact to military operations and readiness.”
The review process is multifaceted. First, the Defense Department conducts a preliminary review. Then, for structures over 200 feet tall — including wind turbines — the Federal Aviation Administration gets involved, conducting an aeronautical study. For projects that could pose a risk to military operations, the Defense Department, the FAA administrator and the secretary of homeland security act as a team to identify mitigation measures — a process meant to take 90 days.
But wind projects across the country have been frozen in that process for months, as the Department of Defense gradually stopped executing those reviews last August. At first, the department stopped signing completed agreements with developers and stopped providing developers with draft agreements. In April, Defense officials cancelled negotiations with wind energy applicants who were in mitigation discussions.
In May, officials issued guidance geared toward reassessing the review process for energy projects that could cause “impactful Doppler interference,” a category that only applies to wind turbines.
Defense officials said that a freeze was necessary because of the “advancement of adversarial capabilities and the evolving global threat-picture,” citing recent drone warfare in Ukraine and Iran.
According to Dale Marks, an assistant secretary of defense, the concerns are over the potential obstruction of radar signals from a Doppler effect created by spinning turbine blades.
Lawyers for the Department of Defense asked for the case to be dismissed, arguing that concerns over national security should take precedence over the interests of energy developers. The delay in wind energy reviews has been a “practical result” of a larger reassessment of the department’s efforts to reassess its risk-assessment processes, they said in a motion to dismiss.
President Donald Trump has long publicly voiced his opposition to wind energy. His administration has attempted to stifle wind energy development at every turn, including paying out billions to companies to sever offshore wind contracts.
At a hearing Tuesday, government lawyers said that reviews for wind projects had resumed, but could not provide an example of a wind project currently moving through that process.
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