Posted on 06/28/2006 5:07:05 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO
The Sierra Club sued the Department of Defense in federal court Wednesday for allegedly halting construction of new wind farms across the United States by failing to complete a study on whether they interfere with military radar.
The suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco claimed that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon missed a deadline for completing a study that is holding up more than a dozen wind farm projects in the Midwest.
"The end result is the wind industry is being crippled," said attorney Kristin Henry of the Sierra Club.
The study was ordered earlier this year by Congress. The Federal Aviation Administration has halted projects in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Dakota, and South Dakota until the agency can determine their impact on military radar.
The departments of Defense and Homeland Security announced in March they would contest any proposed wind turbines that fell within the "radar field-of-view" of long-range air defense systems.
A Pentagon spokeswoman said the department has updated Congress and that delays are needed to ensure that arrays of huge wind turbines do not interfere with long-range radar.
"Our goal is not to put up roadblocks to these wind farms but to preserve the safety of our airspace," spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said.
She said it would be premature to respond to allegations of foot-dragging.
Delayed construction on wind farms could make developers ineligible for federal tax credits available until the end of 2007, dealing a severe blow to efforts to develop clean, renewable energy sources in the United States, Henry said.
The amendment ordering the study, authored by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., came as a last-minute addition to a national defense bill passed in January. The bill gave the Defense Department until May to complete the study.
Wind industry backers have accused Warner of trying to scuttle an offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts.
The Cape Wind energy project has drawn intense opposition from some Cape Cod residents, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who say the windmills will spoil their views, kill migrating birds, and threaten the safety of nearby shipping lanes.
The FAA saw applications for wind turbine development double between 2004 and 2005 and expects the number to double again this year, according to agency spokeswoman Laura Brown. As a result, the time needed to review each application has tripled.
"We are taking a close look at the impact on long-range radar," Brown said. "But we're not delaying projects until the study is done."
So far 2,200 of the 5,000 wind turbines proposed for construction across the United States this year have been approved, she said.
Concern over the outcome of the Defense Department study has created an "uncertain situation" for developers considering new wind farm projects, said Christine Real de Azua, a spokeswoman for the American Wind Energy Association.
Wind became the second-greatest source of new power generated in the United States last year after natural gas, according to a survey by the group.
The Sierra Club is obviously not aware that windfarms kill birds and they must not have checked in with Teddy regarding the visual blight these things produce before going public in support of this destructive technology. Talk about out of touch!
LOL!
They should sue Ted Kennedy.
You beat me to it. They should be suing the illustrious whale from Boston.
They want the construction on the wind farms to commence, so they can sue to have the construction stopped because wind farms kill raptors...
The Pentagon is a little busy now. Try back in about 60 years, you liberal turds.
Oh, silly me! That'll never happen!
We have WAY too many raptors in the Midwest and could use to cut the population by about half.
[The Pentagon is a little busy now. Try back in about 60 years, you liberal turds.]
This is so right it needed to be posted twice.
Windfarms impede the circulation of air on the planet which causes global warming.
Wake me when these green weenies sue Kennedy for delaying the offshore windfarm near his playground.
LOL! There is actually a study that came to the conclusion that windfarms do alter the climate in not so good ways.
Really? I live right next to the Caprock Wind Farm and it doesnt bother my television....
Analog or digital television? (Also, stupid question: Do you use cable or a satellite dish?)
If you receive off air analog television, you will notice that the picture will "flutter" when the blades are spinning. This is caused by the television signal reaching your antenna directly, and also by reflecting off of the blades intermittently and reaching your television just a bit later in time. This is called "ghosting" or echo.
In ATSC digital television, this "flutter" completely destroys the receiver's ability to lock and recover a picture.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.