It only takes the slightest radar interference to cause air traffic to spiral into an emergency diversion or a loss of situational awareness during critical flight phases. But over the last few decades, numerous reports have corroborated what many in the energy and national security fields have long said: Offshore wind turbines cause interference for radar systems.
Due to their large towers and moving blades reflecting electromagnetic radiation in the surrounding area, offshore wind turbines interfere with the radar systems used by the Coast Guard, Navy and Air Force to stay apprised of foreign military movement off of our coasts and just outside of U.S. airspace.
But what’s often left out of the discourse regarding the ill-advised push for a “net-zero” carbon footprint is that sweeping renewable mandates and green energy subsidies have led to safety concerns being swept under the rug and ignored as companies fill campaign coffers in order to get their turbine projects approved.
The ubiquitous development of offshore wind turbines in recent years is a multifaceted problem, with turbines disrupting our radar systems and putting air traffic in jeopardy, while the “all in” approach to renewable energy has left us increasingly economically beholden to the whims of China.
The lack of any semblance of progress in finding a solution to these problems is troubling. The Wind Turbine-Radar Interference Mitigation Working Group has already reached its 2025 deadline and is no closer to addressing the radar interference created by wind turbines than when the memorandum of agreement was signed between multiple government agencies in 2014. Despite this, the previous administration continued to push forward with approving offshore wind project permits in critical U.S. coastal waters, leaving future policymakers to deal with the repercussions.
Regulatory authority has also changed. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has surpassed and now outweighs the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Authority in the FAA’s own domain. This means that not only are U.S. air traffic controllers struggling to find a reliable and stable workforce, but they are also being forced to concede to the discretion of a smaller agency that does not have authority and, frankly, the proper understanding of the minutiae of the situation at hand.
In truth, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management should be more focused on the mission they were established for — stabilizing our critical mineral supply chain. Nowhere in the FAA’s mission does it allow the agency to abandon its authority over U.S. commercial airspace to an agency within the Department of the Interior whose mission is managing the development of energy and mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf.
On the national security front, China currently holds the advantage when it comes to manufacturing wind turbines and other energy-related components, forcing the U.S. and our allies to become dependent on a market that for the past decade has been cornered by firms that answer only to the Chinese Communist Party.
Our dependency on China for critical minerals threatens our national security and supply chains, as China has shown it has no qualms with weaponizing trade deals and manipulating the market to undermine the West economically. To make matters worse, the Biden administration’s overly complex regulatory apparatus contributed to a running theme where the U.S. couldn’t seem to get out of its own way when it came to meeting consequential energy or national security objectives.
With the carried threats to the homeland posed by U.S. adversaries like China, U.S. economic and national security must be prioritized. Thankfully, things are headed in the right direction under President Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s leadership, with the Department of Energy openly admitting and treating wind turbine interference as the national security threat it is.
For these reasons, it’s clear we should strengthen Trump’s executive order for temporary withdrawal of all areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from offshore wind leasing to extend it to include shared waterways with our neighbors, Canada and Mexico. This would effectively prevent further leases for offshore wind turbines from being issued in these areas that are of strategic importance. For this reason, I have introduced legislation to support codifying Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order into law.
We should extend this leasing and permitting pause until there is a permanent and successful solution for the radar interference posed by offshore wind turbines, and the U.S. is able to establish a secure and reliable critical mineral supply chain that doesn’t lead through Beijing.
Pat Fallon represents Texas’s 4th Congressional District. He is a member of the House Armed Services, Intelligence, and Oversight and Accountability Committees.
