On December 26, Digital Journal reported that the $400 million Amazon wind farm project located on 22,000 acres of farmland near Elizabeth City, North Carolina was ready to flip the switch and start generating electricity.
State legislative leaders are now asking the Trump administration to either kill the project or force Amazon to make some major changes because they say the wind farm will interfere with the operation of a military radar installation that scans for aircraft and ships hundreds of miles out over the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean, according to the Associated Press.
House Armed Services Committee member Representative Walter Jones also wrote to Trump’s nominee to head up the Homeland Security Department last month, outlining his concerns over the wind farm. The sprawling facility has 104 300-foot tall wind turbines that can generate 208 megawatts (MW) of electricity at full capacity, and the utility-scale facility is in the congressman’s district.
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The Navy, on the other hand, told the AP that it had already done an extensive analysis of the wind farm and the potential for interference with its Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar (ROHTR) system just across the state line in Chesapeake, Virginia.
“The Navy is committed to working with developers to ensure that renewable energy projects are compatible with our mission and operations,” said Lt. Chika Onyekanne, a Navy spokesman. “While initial studies indicated a potential conflict between the Amazon wind project and the ROTHR, additional data collected since that time determined that the project is not likely to affect the mission.”
Not only that, but in a 2014 agreement between Avangrid, the company that built the wind farm, and the Navy, the problem with interference was taken care of with an agreement to curtail operations “for a national security or defense purpose.”
With the President-elect threatening to get down to business immediately on his first day in the White House, all of America knows he is going to start his work week with a slew of Executive Orders, and some of them will affect renewable energy projects. He has also battled the construction of an offshore wind farm in Scotland because they will mar the view from his golf club.
On the campaign trail, he has expressed his dislike of wind turbines and clean energy. He has tweeted many times over the last few years that wind and solar energy pose a “lethal threat” to wildlife. “The wind kills all your birds. All your birds, killed. You know, the environmentalists never talk about that,” said Trump, according to the Star Tribune.
Of course, Trump might be just vindictive enough that he will order the wind farm dismantled. After, all, he has a beef with Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post. Trump has been highly critical of the news organization for their coverage of his campaign, and they were the one’s that revealed the 2005 videotape of Trump making those very lewd remarks about women.
