Politicians Feared Windmills Would Degrade Radar

They have giant three-bladed props, and move a lot of air, but these machines are firmly rooted in the muddy ground of politics.

As ANN reported last month, wind farms, which generate electricity without using a drop of oil, a speck of coal, or an atom of uranium seem to be the perfect clean-energy generator.

They do, however, take up a lot of acreage and some airspace, and they are very, very big.

Those may be some of the reasons why powerful politicians such as Sen. Edward Kennedy (D- MA), and Sen. John Warner (R-VA) got involved. As the Chicago Tribune reported, both senators vacation near Martha's Vineyard where one of the largest wind farms was being proposed to be built offshore.

The two senators, along with other politicians, were able to challenge the 417 foot high windmills as a threat to national security because of a possible degradation of line-of-sight radar coverage. The FAA and the military were required to conduct studies on how giant wind farms would affect military and civilian radar coverage.

The Associated Press reports that with the determination that radar degradation would be negligible, five wind farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota have just been approved.

"The (permits) are through. We are absolutely through with them, and they have got clearance to start building them," Bruce Beard, the FAA staffer in charge of investigating the wind farm project, said Friday.

Dozens of other wind farm projects throughout the nation, though, remain stalled while the FAA and the Department of Defense analyze them one by one.

FMI: www.faa.gov