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 investiga-
tions examining the impact to the environment, relevant maritime indus-
tries, 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 an-
other 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 rec-
reational 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 Atmos-
pheric 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 authoriza-
tions of marine mammals issued to offshore wind compa-
nies; 
Whereas areas leased as of March 2023 for offshore wind 
turbines sit along established fishing grounds that gen-
erate 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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•HRES 239 IH 
Whereas commercial vessel traffic in the Atlantic region, par-
ticularly 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 ap-
proaching 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 dis-
regarded; 
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 tech-
nical complexities and project delay would preclude [Vine-
yard Wind 1’s] ability to meet the current contractual ob-
ligations with Massachusetts distribution companies’’; 
Whereas the contractual obligation refers to a power pur-
chase agreement between Vineyard Wind 1 and the State 
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•HRES 239 IH 
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 consid-
eration 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 in-
terference on marine vessel radar will lead to unforeseen 
complications and degraded performance, causing loss of 
radar contact that is particularly consequential when con-
ducting 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 in-
terference 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 ma-
terials, and vessel types; 
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•HRES 239 IH 
Whereas the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 
and Medicine determined that wind turbine generator in-
terference 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 de-
ployment will exacerbate this situation; 
Whereas the potential safety and maritime supply chain im-
pacts of navigational and radar interference related to 
proposed offshore wind leases has not been duly evalu-
ated 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 dis-
turbs acoustically sensitive environments and may inter-
fere with offensive- and defensive-based military sensors, 
and that currently there are no Department of Defense- 
supported unclassified studies that have been conducted 
regarding this topic; and 
Whereas the National Aeronautics and Space Administra-
tion’s Wallops Flight Facility stated in 2022 that off-
shore wind farms built within wind exclusion zones could 
potentially be flight obstructions, be impacted by falling 
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•HRES 239 IH 
debris from launches, and would impact the facility’s 
ability to accept and expand new technologies: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) the Atlantic coast offshore wind leases rep-
resent a transformative industrialization of vital en-
vironmental and maritime resources of the United 
States; 
(2) the potential impacts of this industrializa-
tion have not been duly evaluated or mitigated by 
the responsible Federal agencies; 
(3) Congress should— 
(A) conduct investigations to determine the 
true impacts of offshore wind development; and 
(B) use the findings of such investigations 
to develop legislation to mitigate potential nega-
tive environmental or economic impacts of off-
shore wind development; and 
(4) leasing and construction of offshore wind 
farms along the Atlantic coast should be put under 
immediate moratorium until these investigations and 
findings are presented to Congress and the public. 
Æ 
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