Out West in California, the U.S. military is raising a stink about the many wind farms cropping up in the desert, claiming the towering turbines could interfere with radar systems. Although the military acknowledges that no serious incidents have yet occurred, turbine opponents claim that the wind projects also can cause blackout zones on radars used by the commercial airline industry, bringing the Federal Aviation Administration in on the side of the Pentagon.

 

Defense and FAA officials have managed to stop the development of new wind farms in substantial numbers—about 9,000 megawatts of proposed projects were lost or delayed in 2009.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Wind Turbine Projects Run Into Resistance (by Leora Broydo Vestel, New York Times)