IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 239 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that offshore wind 

projects along the Atlantic coast require more comprehensive investigations examining the impact to the environment, relevant maritime industries, and national defense before being leased or constructed. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 21, 2023 

Mr. VAN DREW (for himself, Mr. HARRIS, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. 

PERRY, and Mr. D’ESPOSITO) submitted the following resolution; which 

was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 

offshore wind projects along the Atlantic coast require 

more comprehensive investigations examining the impact 

to the environment, relevant maritime industries, and 

national defense before being leased or constructed. 

Whereas the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), 

under the direction of the Department of the Interior, 

has as of March 2023 leased 1,753,818 acres of offshore 

land for wind development and is planning on leasing another 1,700,000 acres off the Central Atlantic coast and 

additional leases off the Northern Atlantic coast and the 

Gulf of Maine; 


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•HRES 239 IH 

Whereas offshore wind turbines are over 900 feet tall, 600 

feet higher than standard onshore wind turbines; 

Whereas the interarray and offshore export connection cables 

between wind farms and onshore energy grids will require 

the dredging of hundreds of miles of ocean floor; 

Whereas lease areas sit along known migration routes and 

foraging areas of North Atlantic right whales, humpback 

whales, and economically important commercial and recreational fish species; 

Whereas disturbances to right whale foraging areas could 

have population-level effects on the already endangered 

and stressed species; 

Whereas, between December 2022 and March 2023, 23 dead 

whales have washed ashore on the East Coast, including 

on the shores of Lido Beach on Long Island, New York, 

the North Brigantine Natural Area in Brigantine, New 

Jersey, and the shores of Virginia Beach, Virginia; 

Whereas the BOEM and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have an unclear process 

for determining all contributing causes of death of whales 

through necropsies; 

Whereas NOAA lacks a mechanism to oversee and enforce 

the parameters of its incidental harassment authorizations of marine mammals issued to offshore wind companies; 

Whereas areas leased as of March 2023 for offshore wind 

turbines sit along established fishing grounds that generate 40 percent of the United States fisheries 

$4,800,000,000 annual economic output, and provides 

food for millions of Americans; 


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Whereas commercial vessel traffic in the Atlantic region, particularly in Coast Guard Districts 1, 5, and 7, is vital to 

the United States economy in that it serves major East 

Coast ports by the safe, reliable, and energy-efficient 

transportation of dry and liquid cargos; 

Whereas the rerouting of such traffic to accommodate wind 

lease sites is inefficient and poses a potential risk to the 

safety of vessel traffic and marine species; 

Whereas BOEM, in a draft environmental impact statement 

(EIS) for the Ocean Wind 1 lease sale stated that the 

presence of offshore wind turbine structures and related 

radar interference could result in delays within or approaching ports, increase navigational complexity, and 

create detours to offshore travel or port approaches; 

Whereas requests from maritime stakeholders to increase the 

width of transit lanes to a minimum of 2 nautical miles 

to ensure safer transit through wind farms have been disregarded; 

Whereas a proposed alternative turbine layout with wider 

transit lanes was rejected in a record of decision (ROD) 

by the BOEM for the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind 

project in part due to potential delays to the project that 

would be inconsistent with timelines set in President 

Biden’s Executive Order 14008; 

Whereas such ROD stated that ‘‘the combination of the technical complexities and project delay would preclude [Vineyard Wind 1’s] ability to meet the current contractual obligations with Massachusetts distribution companies’’; 

Whereas the contractual obligation refers to a power purchase agreement between Vineyard Wind 1 and the State 


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of Massachusetts, which was signed 2 years prior to the 

ROD, and required 800 megawatts of energy output; 

Whereas the required energy output prevents serious consideration of alternative requests for wind farm layout and 

number of turbines installed; 

Whereas BOEM, in a draft EIS for the Ocean Wind 1 lease 

sale off the coast of New Jersey, determined that the 

proposed wind turbine structures would increase the risk 

of vessel collisions, allisions, and spills which could result 

in personal injury or loss of life; 

Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 

and Medicine determined that wind turbine generator interference on marine vessel radar will lead to unforeseen 

complications and degraded performance, causing loss of 

radar contact that is particularly consequential when conducting search and rescue operations in and adjacent to 

offshore wind farms; 

Whereas offshore wind farms will interfere with coastal high 

frequency radar systems used for United States Coast 

Guard (USCG) search and rescue operations; 

Whereas existing port access route studies (PARS) related to 

offshore wind do not properly examine potential radar interference and the impact on navigation within and 

around wind farms; 

Whereas the USCG in its Areas Offshore of Massachusetts 

and Rhode Island PARS determined that the potential 

for offshore wind turbine interference with marine radar 

is site specific and depends on factors including turbine 

size, array layouts, number of turbines, construction materials, and vessel types; 


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Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 

and Medicine determined that wind turbine generator interference decreases the effectiveness of marine vessel 

radar mounted on all vessel classes and that the sizes of 

anticipated offshore wind farms across the United States 

Outer Continental Shelf at the scale of anticipated deployment will exacerbate this situation; 

Whereas the potential safety and maritime supply chain impacts of navigational and radar interference related to 

proposed offshore wind leases has not been duly evaluated or mitigated; 

Whereas the Department of Defense’s Offshore Wind Mission 

Compatibility Assessment ruled much of the offshore east 

coast a ‘‘wind exclusion zone’’, for defense and defense 

training reasons; 

Whereas, according to the Department of Defense, ARSR–4 

primary long-range air surveillance radars would be ‘‘very 

susceptible’’ to interference from wind turbines, and that 

‘‘target tracking abilities decrease as turbine number, 

size, and density increases’’; 

Whereas the Department of Defense acknowledged in May 

2019 that noise generated by offshore wind turbines disturbs acoustically sensitive environments and may interfere with offensive- and defensive-based military sensors, 

and that currently there are no Department of Defensesupported unclassified studies that have been conducted 

regarding this topic; and 

Whereas the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Wallops Flight Facility stated in 2022 that offshore wind farms built within wind exclusion zones could 

potentially be flight obstructions, be impacted by falling 


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debris from launches, and would impact the facility’s 

ability to accept and expand new technologies: Now, 

therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep2 resentatives that— 

3 (1) the Atlantic coast offshore wind leases rep4 resent a transformative industrialization of vital en5 vironmental and maritime resources of the United 

6 States; 

7 (2) the potential impacts of this industrializa8 tion have not been duly evaluated or mitigated by 

9 the responsible Federal agencies; 

10 (3) Congress should— 

11 (A) conduct investigations to determine the 

12 true impacts of offshore wind development; and 

13 (B) use the findings of such investigations 

14 to develop legislation to mitigate potential nega15 tive environmental or economic impacts of off16 shore wind development; and 

17 (4) leasing and construction of offshore wind 

18 farms along the Atlantic coast should be put under 

19 immediate moratorium until these investigations and 

20 findings are presented to Congress and the public. 

Æ 


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