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FAA takes the wind out of wind farms
Critics blame politics after agency suspends projects in Midwest

By Michael Hawthorne
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 31, 2006


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.

But backers of wind power say the action has little to do with national security. The real issue, they say, is a group of wealthy vacationers who think a proposed wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts would spoil the view at their summer homes.

Opponents of the Cape Wind project include several influential members of Congress. Critics say their latest attempt to thwart the planting of 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound has led to a moratorium on new wind farms hundreds of miles away in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

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.

The list of stalled projects includes one outside Bloomington, Ill., that would be the nation's largest source of wind energy, generating enough juice to power 120,000 homes in the Chicago area. The developer had planned to begin installing turbines this summer and start up the farm next year.

"This is a big, ugly political maneuver by a handful of people who are undermining America's energy security," said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a non-profit group that promotes renewable power.

Vickerman and others said that despite the government's recent concern about proposed wind projects, it is allowing dozens of current wind farms to continue to operate within sight of radar systems.

The bureaucratic entanglements come as President Bush is encouraging the use of more wind power as a solution to the skyrocketing prices of oil and natural gas, and for environmental problems such as global warming. During a speech in Milwaukee three months ago, Bush said wind turbines eventually could provide 20 percent of the nation's energy needs.

Harnessing the wind is a clean and relatively inexpensive way to generate electricity without the troublesome byproducts of coal or nuclear power. But the vast collections of turbines--some of which are 40 stories tall--are derided by opponents as unreliable and unsightly.

Of the scores of projects proposed around the country, perhaps the most controversial has been Cape Wind. If approved, it will be the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

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.

Critics of Cape Wind include members of the Kennedy family, whose summer compound is on Cape Cod. Both U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and his nephew, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have said the turbines would spoil the ocean views, threaten the local tourist economy and endanger migratory birds.

The younger Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist who has supported wind power in other parts of the country, said putting a wind farm in Nantucket Sound would be akin to placing one in the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone National Park.

"This isn't the right location, for a number of reasons," Kennedy said.

Another opponent is U.S. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), who has tried several times to block the Cape Wind project. In a 2002 letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, Warner included a handwritten note saying he often visits Cape Cod, which he called a "national treasure."

But the project continued to move forward until late last year, when 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.

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.

"This has nothing to do with wind," said Michael Polsky, president and chief executive officer of Invenergy, a Chicago company with projects in Illinois and Wisconsin that have been blocked by the government. "It has everything to do with politics."

Warner's office did not return telephone calls seeking comment. A spokesman previously released a statement saying the Defense Department study "ensures that Congress will possess as much information as possible on wind farms' impact on military operations."
Opponents of the Cape Wind project say there are legitimate concerns about wind farms interfering with radar. They point to a study by the British Ministry of Defense that found the rotation of turbines could cause the signal of a small aircraft to disappear temporarily from radar.

Developers solved the problem by installing new software at the radar installation and realigning some towers, said Laurie Jodziewicz, a policy specialist for the American Wind Energy Association, an industry trade group. The British government later dropped its blanket opposition to proposed wind farms.

Still, U.S. officials said they need more information before allowing projects here to move forward.

"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.

For companies trying to develop more alternative energy sources, the sudden change in government policy is another frustrating hurdle.

Horizon Wind Energy, the company building the proposed wind farm outside Bloomington, already has hired experts to ensure the 243 towers spread over 50 square miles wouldn't affect historic sites, endangered species or migratory bird flyways.

The company also has promised to arrange for subsidized cable service or other options if the towers interfere with local television reception. And it has vowed to repave roads after construction crews finish putting up the towers.

Based on the experience of other wind energy companies working in the Midwest, Horizon thought getting a federal permit would be the least of its worries.

"We're hoping an amicable solution can be figured out in the near future," said Michael Skelley, Horizon's chief development officer. "The solutions are there and they're available, but right now there's nothing we can do about it."